Salt is Not the Spice of Life’s Blog

One of the things I love most about the 4th of July weekend is you have the Wimbledon finals, Daytona under the lights and the Tour de France. I remember my brother used to tape every stage, I always thought he was crazy!! Until he passed the cycling bug onto me, now I’m glued to the tv watching every stage. And especially this year with Lance’s comeback. If Lance can come back, so can I!!

I could feel my fingers & feet tingling to get on my bike! So that’s why it was a goal of mine for week 2. Before HF, I would commit to 100 miles a week (when I was training for the MS Bike Tour that’s what we would ride). But starting over, I just need to get back on the bike and take it from there.

So, how did I do on my goals for week 2?
These were 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.

I hit all of my goals. I was sooooooooooo excited to get my bike back. Terry did a great job getting her all cleaned up and prepped for me to start riding again. For the Go Red Heart Check-up, I took the test and I am at high risk for having a heart attack. Well… I knew that one. What’s important is that you go take the test to see what your risk is.

My physical activity training is completely opposite of how I have ever trained for anything in my life. Which leads my to Week 3.  Knowing your heart could and can save your life. It’s important that you know all of your heart numbers – your blood pressure, resting heart rate, cholesterol, etc. Next time you go in for a physical, write down these numbers. In addition to knowing your numbers, tracking what you eat and your physical activity  is important. I know I get on my low sodium soap box, but if we don’t start lowering the amount of sodium we intake the consequences will be detrimental. Your heart’s life depends on it. And studies show that the more you choose to track your progess the higher your chances are for success.

So my goal for Week 3:
1. To get a log of my physical activity and how it effects my heart rate.
I already track my food pretty closely, but this week I am continuing to focus on eating more servings of fruits and vegetables.

I hope you will join me and make your heart Betta For You!!

Tags: Go Red For Women, Health, Heart Failure

This entry was posted on July 14, 2009 at 7:26 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.