Preventing Heart Disease

Like most people, I have parents and grandparents who have problems with high blood pressure, have had strokes and diabetes. I am 29, and will be 30 this year. I have helped my grandparents recover from strokes, and other problems that they have had, and can see what a devastating thing a stroke can be. So it makes me wonder, could they have done more and prevented or greatly slowed these problems down? I do not know exactly how they have lived their lives, but I have decided to do an experiment with my own life. I am going to listen to all that the doctors say about taking care of myself, and preventing those diseases from happening. This experiment will take my whole life to see the results of, but seeing that I have a family history riddled with these problems, I figure that it can only help.

So what exactly am I doing that is going to help prevent these problems?

1.       I exercise 5-6 days a week, or as often as I can.

2.       I cook healthy meals for my family with veggies, fruit and whole grains.

3.       I limit the amount of salt I put on the foods, and instead use herbs and other seasonings to help enhance the food taste.

4.       I take vitamins regularly.

5.       I drink mostly just water, and no alcohol, coffee or pop.

6.       I do my best to limit my sugar intake, with an occasional treat or desert.

7.       I try to stay active aside from my daily exercise, by going hiking, walking, gardening and yard care, and cleaning my home quickly so I raise my heart rate.

I live a regular life, and just do the best I can, but always have in the back of my mind my goal of living a happy healthy life. Not eating hamburger and fries every week or pizza and other greasy and salty foods, is not making my quality of life go down, but I believe it is enhancing my life. I am living in the moment and for the future.

I will let you know how I am doing in 70 years when I turn 100. You better be around and be happy and healthy with me. Let’s make that goal together. Here’s to a healthy life.

Push by Chalene Johnson

I want to tell you about a book I am reading right now. It is called PUSH by Chalene Johnson.  In the book she talks about how to set goals that are true to your lives values. Then she goes on to teach you how to achieve the goals. As part of the book she includes how to achieve fitness goals too. I like how she says in the book, “Fully 80 percent of results will come from your nutrition. Exercise accounts for only about 20 percent.”

One of the big things she teaches is to keep a daily to do list and always have 2 things relating to your big goal for the year on that list. The other things you should always include in your daily to do list are 3 health and fitness related items: one physical activity, one nutritional habit, and once knowledge/skill/ tools-related task.

If you are serious about finally achieving your goals in life and losing the weight or toning up; then this is the book that I would recommend for you. She makes it simple and tells you exactly what you need to be doing to work towards those goals daily.

http://www.chalenejohnson.com/pushjumpstart/