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closeHarbor author works to get his message across
Piscatella hits the road to teach heart-healthy lessons
Susan Schell
of the Gateway
Joe Piscatella is a man who practices what he preaches.
You won’t find the author of 11 books, including the million-copy bestseller, “Don’t Eat Your Heart Out Cookbook,” in a high-rise surrounded by the stressors of congestion and overpopulation.
Piscatella’s office on Harborview Drive in Gig Harbor sits behind a working net shed that overlooks the serenity of the harbor.
“It used to belong to the Coast Guard,” he said. “We gutted it and made it into an office.”
Piscatella currently is promoting his latest work, “Positive Mind, Healthy Heart! Take Charge of Your Cardiac Health, One Day at a Time.” The book is a calendar-style collection of 365 inspirational stories of optimism and hope — one for every day of the year.
Piscatella said heart disease is a major killer in the United States for one simple reason.
“We are completely stressed out,” he said. “Americans are stressed over lack of time. We’re mentally fatigued from sitting in front of computers all day, and that’s not a good tired.
“We’re adrenalin junkies, pulled in different directions. The trick is to manage the stress you have, and a number of points I make in the book go right to that.”
Another problem behind the lifestyle is a complete lack of simple activities, he said.
“I don’t know when was the last time I rolled up a car window,” Piscatella said. “Elevators take us up, so we don’t have to walk up stairs. People will drive all around looking for a parking spot so they don’t have to walk.”
Piscatella has been writing professionally for 25 years. He said his wakeup call came when he had heart bypass surgery when he was 32.
“I had 95 percent blockage,” he said. “They call it the widowmaker. I was in complete, absolute shock. I thought I was bulletproof.”
Piscatella said he knew he had high cholesterol, but, in 1997, doctors didn’t know that much about its links to heart disease. At the time, his children were 4 and 6 years old.
“My doctor said, ‘If you think you’re going to see those children in the waiting room graduate from high school, it isn’t going to happen,’ ” Piscatella said.
Buried under a high stress position in the hotel operation business, Piscatella sunk into depression.
“My wife took that for about two weeks,” he said. “Then she said, ‘You can’t change the cards you were dealt, but you can change the way you play them.’ ”
Piscatella slowly began to make changes in his life, a little bit each day. He learned that knowledge was not enough — the attitude he applied was just as important.
Now, three decades later, he is one of the longest-living survivors of cardiac bypass. He is a prominent speaker at public health forums and lectures on lifestyle-management skills.
“We’re not looking for information today, because everyone has it,” Piscatella said. “The question is, why is nobody doing it? If everyone applied their knowledge, we’d be a nation of non-smokers.”
Piscatella suggests not making big New Year’s resolution-style commitments, like joining a gym in January and quitting in April. Instead, he suggests making small, everyday changes in life until they become the way of life.
“It’s changing from a ‘can do’ attitude to a ‘will do’ attitude,” he said. “This book is for anyone looking for encouragement and optimism.”
Piscatella is currently touring the country to promote his book. For more information, visit www.joepiscatella.com.