week 2: my valentine’s gift to you!

ok i just figured that subject might get you to read this…but WAIT…it’s important so read on!  first of all – happy valentine’s day to all you love birds out there…and if you’re solo this valentine’s day, well join the club and spoil yourself anyway!  start by doing something good for yourself – which is where your gift from me comes in.  as hokey as it might sound – i’m gonna give you the gift of a healthy heart by giving you access to the betteru heart checkup which is a free online assessment of your risk of heart disease.  think you’re too young?  think again.  over 16,000 women under the age of 50 die each year from a heart attack.  i was just talking to my girlfriend this weekend and a friend of hers had a heart attack and died…at 42.  so it’s important to know what your risk is and what you can do to prevent it.  some risk factors you have no control of like age, race, and family history.  BUT others you CAN control by changing your lifestyle: high blood pressure, smoking (stop already!), high cholesterol, physical inactivity (get moving!), obesity or being overweight, and diabetes.  so take the online betteru heart checkup and know your risk.

i took the checkup – but i used my results from my physical last year…however i’m going in again actually this week for lab work to do my annual physical so in a few weeks. (note: great article from betteru on the 10 questions every woman should ask her doctor that i’m taking to the doctor with me!)   i had all my cholesterol numbers but i had to guess at my blood pressure – but the great news was that i came out as “very low risk”!  actually my cholesterol was so low that they made me input at least 130+…and mine is 119!  i asked my doctor if this was a bad thing and he said a professor in his doctoral program always said: you can never have too low of cholesterol or too much money!  ha – well, one out of two isn’t bad!  my results weren’t a huge surprise given that i live a very healthy lifestyle and while no one in my immediate family (parent/sibling) has had heart disease, i am aware of it because of grandparents in my family dying from strokes so it definitely runs in the family.  my goal: hound my mom and dad to take the test so that they know their risk as well. (note to self: send them an email with the link to my blog as soon as i post this!)  you may “think” you’re healthy – especially if you’re normal body weight, but that isn’t necessarily true.  my favorite recent study in the health world is about “skinny fat” people.  check out this recent article from the wall street journal.

ok so onto my goals for week #2, but first a recap of last week.  i successfully ate fish for dinner twice last week – and even once for lunch but i confirmed that no matter how hard i try i just don’t like grilled salmon.  i wish i did but i don’t.  lucky for me i do LOVE salmon sashimi (this is huge for me as i’ve never been big on sushi!).  so – check on the fish goal.  yoga. um. oops. it was a busy day and i got caught up in meetings and uh…ok now i’m just making excuses!  i worked out every day that i planned to and had amazing workouts – but come time for yoga i skipped out and instead opted for a walk with my girlfriend for an hour.  i think my brain is just anti going to the gym more than 4 days in a row…so given that my amazing yoga class is at my gym, come friday i just wasn’t wanting to hit the gym (again).  i could’ve done a yoga video at home but catching up on girl talk just seemed more enticing…but it was better than going to grab coffee or grab a bite to eat…at least we walked and talked!  so last week was pretty good – my reward was my yummy chocolate mint tea!  now onto this week….

the betteru program focused on how walking even 10 minutes a day can be good for your heart – for me, i work out 6 days a week so this goal is an easy one…but i am adding my yoga goal back in for the week as my fitness goal.  then for my nutrition goal i am going to make one of the heart-healthy recipes from this list of yummy recipes that they provided this week – bonus is that i’ll have leftovers for the week!  my reward for the week: i found this place offering massages for $35 for a february special…so yay me…a massage if i reach my goals!

lastly – i just want to give a shout out to the fitlosophy blogging team and say thanks for making the first ever BLOG YOUR HEART OUT day a success, along with all the other bloggers that joined us!  we have another 10 weeks to really raise awareness and your time is greatly appreciated – bless your HEARTS!

happy valentine’s day – now off to have a heart-healthy glass of wine (and maybe a bit of dark chocolate too!)!
with LOVE,
angela