February 2006 Archives
Walk On
Hey there fellow fat fighters, I need to tend to some family stuff for the rest off this week so there won’t be any new posts till Sunday. Continue to check in for week 6.
As we near the end of Round I, I’ve been thinking of ways to make Round II better, meaning trying to get and keep participation levels high. I thought of having a financial reward for the “winner” at the end of the challenge.
If you’ve been lurking or fell off track and haven’t bothered to check in, say there were a prize to be had, $100 bucks or so, in return for you checking in for the entire 10 week challenge, regardless the amount of weight lost, since none of us can ever really know, would you stick with it?
February 28th Birthday
Suzanne over @ My Corner of the Web. She shares her special day with Felicity's homegirl Elena Tyler AKA Tangi Miller.
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W6 Check In
Use this post to log your progress throughout Week 6 or you can wait till the end of the week and do it all in one swoop. It will be stay pinned at the top of the site until next Monday. Current entries appear below. If you'd like to join the challenge, please read the FAQs first.
Now that the challengers and check-ins are hovering in the single digits, starting next week I'll do a combo post, combining the current weeks check-in with the goals for the week.
February 27th Birthday
Gina over @ The MegaChallenge 200 - It all started as a flippant comment - really - that it would take 200 workouts to get me into my summer clothes. From there it became a bet - that we would actually do those 200 workouts in a year. So here goes.... She shares her special day with the 'C' in TLC, Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas.
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FFYFC Week 6
February flew by didn't it? We've crossed the 1/2 way point. Nice job folks. 
Week 6’s goals:
Team Beginner:
This week you'll walk a total of 1.5 miles or 25 minutes, two - four days.
Increase from last week: +.25 miles
Team Intermediate:
This week you'll walk a total of 2.25 miles or 38 minutes, four - five days.
Increase from last week: +.25 miles or +2 minutes
Team Advanced:
This week you'll walk a total of 3 miles or 51 minutes, four - five days.
Increase from last week: +.25 miles or +4 minutes
*5 minute warm up & cool down not included in total walk time. Track yourself by either miles walked or minutes done.
Weight loss goal: 1lb
Tell us these five things:
1. What team you are on
2. State your walking commitment
3. Declare that you will lose 1lb this week
4. Total walks you did last week
5. lbs, if any, lost last week
Week 6’s check in post will be up by Monday night.
Go for balance
Low calorie foods don't always work, try to eat healthy, balanced meals instead.
Start your day with a whole grain cereal or oatmeal topped with low-fat milk and fresh fruit. The fiber in the cereal will help keep you full longer. Then for lunch have a sandwich made of turkey or lean meat on whole-grain bread. Add mashed avocados as a spread instead of mayo. Avocados are a healthy monounsaturated fat and packs some powerful phytochemicals. Top it off with a few slices of tomato and some fresh romaine lettuce. Finally, for dinner, start with a hearty vegetable soup and have some protein and green vegetables or a salad.
During the day munch on fruit and yogurt. It keeps you from getting too hungry and helps boost energy. If you are pressed for a full exercise session, try to do a brief 10-minute walk that day.
Fight Faulty Thinking
When it comes to dieting, what you put in your mouth is sometimes only half the battle. An article in Psychology Today pointed out that false beliefs and negative self-talk can be more detrimental to your diet plan than what appears on your dinner plate. “The pressure we put on ourselves to succeed can have dire emotional and dietary repercussions,” the magazine reported. The lesson? Be realistic in your goals, and accept and work past the occasional lapses. [source]
Chocolate junkies unite
I know my buddy Mel will loooooooove this story:
Candy makers are working on new heart-healthy sweets that might take the guilt out of the world's favorite guilty pleasure once and for all.
Mars Inc. is planning dark-chocolate versions of its M&M's, Snickers and Milky Way candies made with flavanols, which supposedly help reduce blood pressure and lower cholesterol."Chocolate ... is the No.1 flavor ingredient in the world. Heart health is the No.1 concern," said Mars official Jimmy Cass. "Putting those two together is automatically a big idea."
So does this mean you can gorge on candy bars and dump the tofu, yogurt and granola?
Not exactly.
Nutritionists say the new chocolates may be a bit better for you than the heart attack in a wrapper that came before it. But health food, it ain't.
"If you enjoy the taste of dark chocolate, enjoy it," said Rachael Brandeis of the American Dietetic Association. "But you always have to be conscious of how much you're eating."
The new chocolate is dubbed CocoaVia and is made from a type of dark chocolate high in flavanols, an antioxidant found in cocoa beans that is thought to have a blood-thinning effect similar to aspirin.
The snacks, which will cost a bit more than regular chocolate, also are enriched with vitamins and injected with cholesterol-lowering plant sterols from soy, the main ingredient in healthy tofu.
There's no hard evidence any of this will make your average chocolate bar-chomping American any healthier, said John Swartzberg, a University of California professor of health and medical science.
"But it did taste good," he said.
Fry-suit
You knew this was coming didn't you. You saw it coming a mile away right? McDonald's sued over french fry ingredients.
McDonald's Corp. is facing at least three lawsuits related to its disclosure last week that its french fries contain wheat and dairy products.
What makes this story even more intriguing is only a few weeks earlier they admitted the fries contained a third, ONE THIRD!, more trans fat then previously reported. I'm a skeptic, but what’s with all the confessions? It makes me think back to the days pre-Super Size Me the movie.
Prior to the movie being released, (May 7th 2004), all of a sudden the market was going to get these well intentioned yet poorly thought out, "adult" happy meals, Go Active meals was the name, on May 6th 2004. Coincidence? I think not.
Suddenly, there was no more super sizing to be had. Matter of fact, I remember asking to be super sized and the girl said they don’t do that anymore, super size was the new large. WTF? The concept stayed but the name went away. Oh. The movie.
I'm guessing Ronald McDonald didn't want people to associate the Super Size movie with McDonald’s in any way shape or form. He also hoped by the time the movie came out and someone went to McDonald’s to order and the cashier replied with an angelic face, “Why we don't super size here,” said consumer would think the movie a farce and go on their merry way getting large, aka the super size, instead.
I thought the Go Active meal was a good start but a very cynical one. Rather than sit down and really think it through I have the feeling they rushed it while also heavily promoting their salad lines all to show the public they weren't a fast food restaurant at all. And look, it’s almost 2 years later and have you even seen a commercial for the Go Active meal? Any signage in their stores? No.
Back to the recent announcements, both within 2 months of each other, admitting the fries have more trans fat and by the way, we put wheat and dairy in them. What could've prompted them to be so forthcoming?
The disclosure came as McDonald’s Corp. started rolling out packaging for its menu items that contain facts about their nutritional content — a move made voluntarily but with the fast-food industry under pressure from consumer groups and the government to provide more information.McDonald’s said it updated the nutrition info on its Web site last month as soon as it discovered the new level of trans fat. It explained the increase by saying an improvement in the testing process has made results more accurate.
“As part of our ongoing voluntary efforts to provide our customers with the best science-based information, we continually enhance our testing,” said Cathy Kapica, global nutrition director for McDonald’s. [source]
Right Ronald, sounds like just business as usual to me.
W5 Check In
Use this post to log your progress throughout Week 5 or you can wait till the end of the week and do it all in one swoop. It will be stay pinned at the top of the site until next Monday. Current entries appear below. If you'd like to join the challenge, please read the FAQs first.
FFYFC Week 5
Huzzah Huzzah! We've been at this for a month. Way to go! 
Week 5’s goals:
Team Beginner:
This week you'll walk a total of 1.5 miles or 25 minutes, three - four days.
Increase from last week: none
Team Intermediate:
This week you'll walk a total of 2 miles or 36 minutes, four - five days.
Increase from last week: +.25 miles or +4 minutes
Team Advanced:
This week you'll walk a total of 2.75 miles or 47 minutes, four - five days.
Increase from last week: +.25 miles or +4 minutes
*5 minute warm up & cool down not included in total walk time. Track yourself by either miles walked or minutes done.
Tell us these five things:
1. What team you are on
2. State your walking commitment
3. Declare that you will lose 1lb this week
4. Total walks you did last week
5. lbs, if any, lost last week
Week 5’s check in post will be up by Monday night.
Whole Grains Must Be Better Labeled
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced this week that anything labeled as containing whole grains must contain a comparable amount of the fibrous, protein-dense and nutrient-rich portions of grains in the same proportion normally present in the intact grain.
I like the sound of this.
Whole grains include barley, buckwheat, bulgur, corn, millet, rice, rye, oats, sorghum, wheat and wild rice. Foods containing those grains can be promoted as whole grain as long as they are kept from being over-processed and stripped of their health benefits, which is the case for white flour.[snip]
Currently, food products can be labeled as an "excellent source" or "good source" of whole grains. However, the new FDA draft guidance said that these statements should be replaced with factual, measurable information such as "10 grams of whole grains" or "half ounce of whole grains." [source]
While I mainly eat boring cereal, ie Fiber One, now I'm even suspect of it's grainy goodness. I just went to the General Mills Big G Cereals site and you can click each product to check the nutritional value & ingredients.
I see why the FDA is trying to curtail the confusing advertising. If you click on something like Cocoa Puffs, across the front in a big blue box it states "ALL General Mill Cereals are made with WHOLE GRAIN". What's the first ingredient for Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs? Sugar 
It's only in the last year or so I've become a more educated consumer about what's in the food I buy, but even trying to do my part and stay on top of things, is hard. I think the companies should just state the info and stop hiding behind slickly worded marketing slogans based on the current diet fad.
Last year, as white carbs got banned from people's lips and whole grains made a comeback, all of a sudden cereal boxes got an extreme makeover to say, "Hey guys we are whole grainy too".
They really need to stop.
What's your breakfast cereal of choice?
One Bite Does Not a Failure Make
There’s this weird, unhealthy thing that we dieters sometimes to do to ourselves—we “cheat” on our proscribed diet plan, then we beat ourselves up. Some of us even go hog wild and eat everything “not allowed” in sight, since we already “messed up.” Repeat now: “One indulgence is not the end of the world. Tomorrow, I start fresh.” Take a deep breath and go back to your diet plan. [source]
Stress & Smoking
Today, for the final post in the 5 part series on Heart Month, we look at Stress & Smoking.
What Is Stress?
Stress is your body's physical and psychological response to anything you perceive as overwhelming. This may be viewed as a result of life's demands, pleasant or unpleasant, and your lack of resources to meet them.
When stressed, your body creates extra energy to protect itself. This additional energy cannot be destroyed. If not used, it creates an imbalance within your system. Somehow the energy must be channeled into responses to regain a balance.
Stress is a natural part of your life. Without some stress you would lose your energy for living. You will thrive on certain amounts; but too much or too little stress will limit your effectiveness. Ideally, you find your optimal level of stress-the balance at which you are most motivated. This home study program is designed to help you do that.
Why Be Concerned About Stress?
Medical research estimates as much as 90 percent of illness and disease is stress-related. Stress can interfere with your physical functioning and bodily processes. High blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and heart disease have been linked to stress factors. Other stress-related ailments include ulcers, allergies, asthma, and migraine headaches. Most health professionals agree stress can be a contributing factor in making existing medical problems worse. [source]
Stress Management Strategies
The following are tips on how to maintain a healthier lifestyle and to prepare you to cope with the stress of everyday living.
- Structure each day to include a minimum of 20 minutes of aerobic exercise.
- Eat well balanced meals, more whole grains, nuts, fruits and vegetables. Substitute fruits for desserts.
- Avoid caffeine. The substance may aggravate anxiety, insomnia, nervousness and trembling.
- Reduce refined sugars. Excess sugars cause frequent fluctuation in blood glucose levels, adding stress to the body's physiological functioning.
- Reduce alcohol and drugs. These substances may add to headaches and swelling, decrease coping mechanisms and add to depression.
- Get a least 7 hours of sleep nightly.
- Spend time each day with at least one relaxation technique - imagery, daydreaming, prayer, yoga or meditation.
- Take a warm bath or shower.
- Go for a walk.
- Get in touch! Hug someone, hold hands, or stroke a pet. Physical contact is a great way to relieve stress.
[source]
How does smoking affect coronary heart disease risk?
Cigarette and tobacco smoke, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, obesity and diabetes are the six major independent risk factors for coronary heart disease that you can modify or control. Cigarette smoking is so widespread and significant as a risk factor that the Surgeon General has called it "the leading preventable cause of disease and deaths in the United States."
Cigarette smoking increases the risk of coronary heart disease by itself. When it acts with other factors, it greatly increases risk. Smoking increases blood pressure, decreases exercise tolerance and increases the tendency for blood to clot. Smoking also increases the risk of recurrent coronary heart disease after bypass surgery.
Cigarette smoking is the most important risk factor for young men and women. It produces a greater relative risk in persons under age 50 than in those over 50.
Women who smoke and use oral contraceptives greatly increase their risk of coronary heart disease and stroke compared with nonsmoking women who use oral contraceptives.
Smoking decreases HDL (good) cholesterol. Cigarette smoking combined with a family history of heart disease also seems to greatly increase the risk.
For further reading:
- Stress and Heart Disease
- Exercise, Stress Management Curb Heart Disease
- Effects of Stress
- Smoking and Heart Disease
- How Can I Avoid Weight Gain When I Stop Smoking?
High Blood Pressure
What Is High Blood Pressure?
High blood pressure is a blood pressure reading of 140/90 mmHg or higher. Both numbers are important.
Nearly one in three American adults has high blood pressure. Once high blood pressure develops, it usually lasts a lifetime. The good news is that it can be treated and controlled.
High blood pressure is called "the silent killer" because it usually has no symptoms. Some people may not find out they have it until they have trouble with their heart, brain, or kidneys. When high blood pressure is not found and treated, it can cause:
- The heart to get larger, which may lead to heart failure.
- Small bulges (aneurysms) to form in blood vessels. Common locations are the main artery from the heart (aorta), arteries in the brain, legs, and intestines, and the artery leading to the spleen.
- Blood vessels in the kidney to narrow, which may cause kidney failure.
- Arteries throughout the body to "harden" faster, especially those in the heart, brain, kidneys, and legs. This can cause a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, or amputation of part of the leg.
- Blood vessels in the eyes to burst or bleed, which may cause vision changes and can result in blindness.
Who Gets High Blood Pressure?
About 65 million American adults--nearly 1 in 3--have high blood pressure.
In the U.S., high blood pressure occurs more often in African Americans. Compared to other groups, blacks:
- Tend to get high blood pressure earlier in life
- Usually have more severe high blood pressures
- Have a higher death rate from stroke, heart disease, and kidney failure.
Your chances of getting high blood pressure are also higher if you:
- Are overweight
- Are a man over the age of 45
- Are a woman over the age of 55
- Have a family history of high blood pressure
- Have a "prehypertension (120-139/80-89)"
Other things that can raise blood pressure include:
- Eating too much salt
- Drinking too much alcohol
- Not eating enough potassium
- Not exercising
- Taking certain medicines
- Stress that is long-lasting
How is High Blood Pressure Treated?
Some people can prevent or control high blood pressure by changing to healthier habits, such as:
- Eating healthy foods that include fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products
- Cutting down on salt and sodium in the diet
- Losing excess weight and staying at a healthy weight
- Staying physically active (for example, walking 30 minutes a day)
- Limiting alcohol intake.
Sometimes blood pressure stays too high even when a person makes these kinds of healthy changes. In that case, it is necessary to add medicine to help lower blood pressure. [source]
For your reading pleasure, some links on high blood pressure:
Your Guide to Lowering High Blood Pressure
Test Your High Blood Pressure IQ
High blood pressure - Self-care
W4 Check In
Use this post to log your progress throughout Week 4 or you can wait till the end of the week and do it all in one swoop. It will be stay pinned at the top of the site until next Monday. Current entries appear below. If you'd like to join the challenge, please read the FAQs first.
Cholesterol
Cholesterol can be both good and bad, so it's important to learn what cholesterol is, how it affects your health and how to manage your blood cholesterol levels.
The body needs cholesterol for digesting dietary fats, making hormones, building cell walls, and other important processes. The bloodstream carries cholesterol in particles called lipoproteins that are like blood-borne cargo trucks delivering cholesterol to various body tissues to be used, stored or excreted. But too much of this circulating cholesterol can injure arteries, especially the coronary ones that supply the heart. This leads to accumulation of cholesterol-laden "plaque" in vessel linings, a condition called atherosclerosis.
When blood flow to the heart is impeded, the heart muscle becomes starved for oxygen, causing chest pain (angina). If a blood clot completely obstructs a coronary artery affected by atherosclerosis, a heart attack or death can occur.
Several other factors also affect blood cholesterol levels:
- Heredity - High cholesterol often runs in families. Even though specific genetic causes have been identified in only a minority of cases, genes still play a role in influencing blood cholesterol levels.
- Weight - Excess weight tends to increase blood cholesterol levels. Losing weight may help lower levels.
- Exercise - Regular physical activity may not only lower LDL cholesterol, but it may increase levels of desirable HDL.
- Age and gender - Before menopause, women tend to have total cholesterol levels lower than men at the same age. Cholesterol levels naturally rise as men and women age. Menopause is often associated with increases in LDL cholesterol in women.
- Stress - Studies have not shown stress to be directly linked to cholesterol levels. But experts say that because people sometimes eat fatty foods to console themselves when under stress, this can cause higher blood cholesterol.
In many cases, cholesterol levels can be lowered by revising dietary habits and limiting the kinds of foods known to boost cholesterol, such as those high in saturated fat. This doesn't mean totally eliminating all your favorite foods, such as desserts, it just means taking a more prudent approach to the kinds and amounts of foods you eat.
Here are steps you can take to lower your blood cholesterol or keep it low:
- Follow a low saturated fat, low-cholesterol diet.
- Be more physically active.
- Lose weight if you are overweight.
For your reading pleasure, some cholesterol related links:
Heart Healthy Lifestyle Changes
Checklists for Lowering Your Cholesterol
High Cholesterol: Heart-Healthy Diet
FFYFC Week 4
Now that we are in the habit zone, let's make this week count. 
Week 4’s goals:
Team Beginner:
This week you'll walk a total of 1.25 miles or 25 minutes, three - four days.
Increase from last week: +.25 miles or +5 minutes, optionally add 1 more walk time
Team Intermediate:
This week you'll walk a total of 1.75 miles or 32 minutes, four - five days.
Increase from last week: +.25 miles or +2 minutes, optionally add 1 more day
Team Advanced:
This week you'll walk a total of 2.5 miles or 43 minutes, four - five days.
Increase from last week: +.25 miles or +4 minutes, optionally add 1 more day
*5 minute warm up & cool down not included in total walk time. Track yourself by either miles walked or minutes done.
Weight loss goal: 1lb
Tell us these five things:
1. What team you are on
2. State your walking commitment
3. Declare that you will lose 1lb this week
4. Total walks you did last week
5. lbs, if any, lost last week
Week 4's check in post will be up by Monday night. For the sake of a fairly large group, all 5 questions are posted for the duration of the challenge.
Please use this post to primarily reply to the 5 Questions, use n/a for anything that doesn't apply. New to the site? Want to join? Check out the FAQs first and if you are still interested, check in here.
February 12th Birthday
Frannie over @ The Strong One. She shares her special day with Arsenioooooooooooooooooooooooo Hall.
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W3 Check In
I'm posting this entry early today because I'm going to be offline the rest of this week. Week 4's kick off post will be up on Sunday at it’s regular time, around 8am and I'll continue the special series of posts for Heart Month on Monday. You can still check in for week #2.
So many people had a great week 2, but I have to give a shout out to Kirsten for her personal best: running 21 minutes without needing a break and to Shevvi who said, “Winter came back to MN, but if I hadn't been part of this challenge I bet I would have got in 0 walks.” despite the fact that she clocked in 3 walks!
Both you ladies ROCK!
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Use this post to log your progress throughout Week 3 or you can wait till the end of the week and do it all in one swoop. It will be stay pinned at the top of the site until next Monday. Current entries appear below. If you'd like to join the challenge, please read the FAQs first.
FFYFC Week 3
Finish this week and you'll be entering the 21 days to make a habit zone. 
Week 3’s goals:
Team Beginner:
This week you'll walk a total of 1 mile or 20 minutes, three days.
Increase from last week: none
Team Intermediate:
This week you'll walk a total of 1.5 miles or 30 minutes, four days.
Increase from last week: +.25 miles or +5 minutes
Team Advanced:
This week you'll walk a total of 2.25 miles or 39 minutes, four days.
Increase from last week: +.25 miles or +4 minutes
*5 minute warm up & cool down not included in total walk time. Track yourself by either miles walked or minutes done.
Weight loss goal: 1lb
Tell us these five things:
1. What team you are on
2. State your walking commitment
3. Declare that you will lose 1lb this week
4. Total walks you did last week
5. lbs, if any, lost last week
Week 3's check in post will be up by Monday night. For the sake of a fairly large group, all 5 questions are posted for the duration of the challenge.
Please use this post to primarily reply to the 5 Questions, use n/a for anything that doesn't apply. New to the site? Want to join? Check out the FAQs first and if you are still interested, check in here.
Nutrition
I tend to like the word Nutrition better than eating or food or diet or treat or cheat. Maybe because it symbolizes nourishing the body so it can function at its highest levels and it’s not emotionally tied to anything.
The fda.gov states that heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in this country, but you can lower your chances of getting heart disease. As we continue to examine how to prevent the top 5 risk factors of heart disease, today we’ll look at nutrition and how these 4 things, eating less fat, eating less sodium, eating fewer calories and eating more fiber, contribute to a healthier heart.
Eat less fat - Some fats are more likely to cause heart disease. These fats are usually found in foods from animals, such as meat, milk, cheese, and butter. They also are found in foods with palm and coconut oils.Eat less sodium - Eating less sodium can help lower some people's blood pressure. This can help reduce the risk of heart disease.
Eat fewer calories - When we eat more calories than we need, we gain weight. Being overweight can cause heart disease.
Eat more fiber - Eating fiber from fruits, vegetables and grains may help lower your chances of getting heart disease. [source]
It's not sexy to desire eating a raw carrot over a deep dark chocolate bar. But like physical activity, how about just for this month, you view the food you eat as providing nutrients for your body?
That way, as you gnaw away on that celery stalk and bowl of lettuce, rather than see it as bland rabbit food, imagine it cleaning out your arteries. Opt for a heart healthy bean soup for lunch vs. the easy greasy bag of fries. Or swap the gruesomely named but all too common heart attack breakfast for a big bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit.
None of this means you need to be saint like 24/7. Just try to limit your “treats” to a once a week occurrence. My bet is you'll savor them more and as you get visual reinforcement, see the scale going down, you'll be more tempted to stick with the good nutrition more times than not. Besides, your heart will thank you.
For your reading pleasure, some non-fad healthy eating links:
Delicious Decisions
Healthy Eating
Getting started with DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension )
Eating for a Healthy Heart
Physical Activity
Today we’ll look at it physical activity, not in the context of “How much do I need to do to lose xxlbs?”, because that point of view gets old fast. Rather, let's look at it from the viewpoint of how being active helps fight heart disease.
According to americaheart.org, Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for developing coronary artery disease. So now you may be wondering, “If I exercise, will I prevent heart disease?”
Their answer:
Physical inactivity, along with cigarette smoking, high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol, is one of the major modifiable risk factors for heart attack. There is no guarantee that you won't get heart disease, but you'll reduce your chance of heart disease if you avoid the risk factors. [emphasis my own]
It doesn’t even need to be vigorous exercise. Last night fans of The Biggest Loser saw how in about 6 months Daniela went from 163lbs to 121lbs. She also worked out 2 hours a day. That’s all good and well, if it’s what you want to do. Most people don’t. As far as the heart is concerned, doing moderate-level activities often will help lower your health risks.
Moderate-level simply means gradually working your way up to exercising on most days of the week for 30-60 minutes at 50-80 percent of your maximum capacity. If you are participating in the Fat Fighters Yearlong Fitness Challenge, you are well on your way to the 60 minute max. The Beginner Team will work themselves up from 15 mins per walk in week #1 to 32 mins per walk in week #10, also by week #10 the Advanced Team will have improved from 35 min walks to 60 min walks.
Keep in mind how target heart rate works. 50-80% of your maximum heart rate doesn’t mean you need be sweating buckets or gasping for air. Don't push yourself harder than a pace where you can talk, at least in short sentences. Breathing deeply, but not gasping, is what you're aiming for.
As we trudge on into weeks 3-6 this month and you grumble about hitting the gym or want to kick the scale for staying the same or only giving up 1lb, remember, the improvements to your heart aren’t easily be measured. You can’t whip it out of your chest and see if weighs less nor can you wrap a tape measure around it as if it's your waist, but every walk you complete, improves it.
If you can be satisfied with that one thought just for this month, fellow fat fighter you have done well.
Heart Month
Coincidently the day after the walking series has ended; we have walked ourselves into February, also known as Heart Month.
According to the Director of the CDC, Julie Gerberding, heart disease is the leading killer of women. One in three women die from heart disease, yet only 13 percent of American women recognize that heart disease is the greatest threat to their health.
For the next week I’ll devote one post to the following heart disease risk factors you can control:
Physical Activity - Thursday
Nutrition - Friday
Cholesterol - Monday
High Blood Pressure - Tuesday
Stress and Smoking - Wednesday
You don’t have to work on them all at once. Pick one topic a month and just focus on that. The bottom line is, only you can love your heart.
This month, to keep the focus on heart health, all posts related to Exercise or Nutrition will end with this picture which links back to this post.
