Staying healthy and avoiding heart disease is often in the news these days. With heart disease so prevalent in today’s society is there anything you can do about it? Yes, there is. Avoid a sedentary lifestyle. Get up, get moving and watch that diet.
We didn’t hear so much about heart disease when our ancestors were young. The reason was they were more likely to be farmers or laborers and worked harder than we did. With the dawn of the Internet and other electronic gadgets we are moving our bodies less and less and depending on other sources for labor and manufacturing.
Picking up our lives and forcing ourselves to move will go far in reducing heart disease. Yes, I know, some of it is hereditary. My uncle has had a heart transplant and my own father has had a triple bypass. My husband had cardiomyopathy and I am sadly all too familiar with the fact that heart disease runs in my family. I definitely want to fight it every step of the way.
I’ll be the first to admit that when I hear the word exercise, I want to hide. I had to figure out how to incorporate it into my day without letting myself know that I was sneaking it in. I mean seriously, who has the time these days to add in an hour or so of exercise? Naturally, we all do. Its really quite simple, sneaking in the exercise in lieu of our sedentary lifestyle is easier than you think.
Invite a friend for a walk. Enjoy time visiting with your friend while taking a walk and accomplishing two things at once. Keeping friendships helps to keep us healthy as well as walking. Start out slow and work up to a steady pace. Wind down slowly and enjoy that visit. I spent about a half hour driving my neighborhood in several different directions to get distance figured out and then figured on a mile a day. Knowing my goal of a mile and knowing how far was half a mile made it easy and helped my friend and I to maintain our goal. You could also try wearing a pedometer to keep track of how far you walk any given day.
When my phone rings and I know I will be on the phone for awhile, I try to do a few simple exercises such as stretching or reaching (I add a dust rag to my hand when I do the reaching). Thus I accomplish 2 or even 3 tasks at once.
Park farther away from the entrance to the store when you shop, again, every step is a step for your health.
Try gardening in the late spring and summer months. Just a half an hour in the garden each day will give you some great exercise and you will have some great fresh vegetables to add to your table which are also very healthy.
Perhaps you enjoy sports, join a church volley ball club or other such club or group and get some exercise that way.
Whatever you choose to do make it fun and exciting for you. Change it periodically to keep it fresh and fun and to avoid boredom. Incorporating exercise into your daily life will go far to improve your health and keep your heart healthy.
