Salt is Not the Spice of Life’s Blog

We are now on Week 2 of the BetterU program. This is a 12-week program to makeover your health and makeover your heart. To read more about this program –>
http://www.goredforwomen.org/BetterU/program_overview.aspx

There are certain risks factors for heart disease that you have absolutely no control over – age, race, family history. But there are several risk factors you do have control over – your weight, the foods you eat, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, chloestrol and physical activity. The time has come that we change our everyday habits to keep our hearts healthy, and keep them alive! I turn 32 in a couple of weeks and I’m trying to survive heart failure. My heart disease didn’t come from one of the above risk factors – my damage was done from chemotherapy. But making changes in the risk factors I can control will help my heart get stronger. And I need every inch I can get. The scary part is while I thought I was relatively healthy before, my habits would have put me at risk for heart disease later on in life.

Do you know the warning signs of a sroke or heart attack????
From the AHA Website:
Some heart attacks are sudden and intense, but most start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort. Here are some of the signs that can mean a heart attack is happening.

• Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.
• Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
• Shortness of breath. May occur with or without chest discomfort.
• Other signs. These may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.

If you or someone you’re with has chest discomfort, especially with one or more of the other signs, don’t wait longer than five minutes before calling for help. Call 9-1-1.  Get to a hospital right away.  (Calling 9-1-1 is almost always the fastest way to get lifesaving treatment.)

The warning signs of stroke are:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body.
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
• Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.

Not all the warning signs occur in every stroke. Don’t ignore signs of stroke, even if they go away! If you or someone with you has one or more stroke symptoms that last more than a few minutes, don’t delay! Immediately call 9-1-1 or the emergency medical services (EMS) number so an ambulance (ideally with advanced life support) can quickly be sent for you.

For Week 1 these were my goals:
1. Eat heart healthy fruit, veggie, whole greain or lean meat with every meal.
2. Exercise at least 10 minutes three times this week.

So, how did I do….. The exercise part I blew out of the water, I even surprised myself. I was able to stay on the treadmill for 60 minutes by the end of the week, keeping my heart rate under the max the doc gave me. It was really motivational for me. I haven’t really been able to work out at all since my heart went out in December. Just when I got to a point the doc would release me to start slowly exercising, my heart went south again and put a hault to everything. It feels good to sweat!! I will admit the little bit I can do on the treadmill is rather pathetic compared to the exercise regiment I had before December, but it’s a start. I have to start somewhere, right?? And like I said before it’s not about how fast I get there, it’s the act of getting “there”. I’m looking forward to moving up on speed (eventually) on the treadmill. As for the heart healthy foods – I’ll give myself a B-. I will admit, I took the 4th of July off, but I did get lots of yummy fruit in the sangria (does that count???). Outside of the 4th, there were only two meals I missed having a heart healthy food at, but did try to make it up with snacks.

For week 2 here are my goals:
1. Keep up with the three times a week walks.
2. Take one of my favorite recipes and re-do it to make it heart healthy.
3. Take the Go Red Heart Check-up (on the Go Red for Women site) to learn my risk for heart disease and stroke.
4. Get my bike ready to ride.

What you don’t know CAN hurt you! Join the program and become a Better U for your heart!

Join me today!!
http://www.goredforwomen.org/BetterU/program_overview.aspx
You can follow all of the BetterU blogs by clicking on the category BetterU.

Tags: Go Red For Women, Health, Heart Failure

This entry was posted on July 6, 2009 at 12:44 pm and is filed under BetterU. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.