Spinal Cord Injury and Paralysis Community

Wherever you go, go with all your heart. - Confucius

Did you know that February is “heart” month? Yes, I know about Valentines Day, but the American Heart Association has made the whole month about our hearts. Well this makes me mighty happy, a whole month to explore my heart and if you’ve been following me you would know this makes me very happy for I am heart based, focused and driven. Gosh, even my blog has the word heart in it.

I believe my feelings come from my heart and after I wrote a recent blog on Diabetes it enlightened me so I got a intuitive feeling that I need to know more about my heart health. Seeking guidance I went for a jog around the internet (does that count as exercise?) and found that heart disease (HD) is the number one killer of women! Oh my!!! Well this had me donning my super sleuth hat to investigate

further my heart do’s and don’ts. It also had me high tailing it to my doc for a complete, in and out, physical.

Maybe it’s my age, I turn 58 this year that has me feeling some mortality or maybe it’s just that I want to know what’s going on the highways and byways that lead to and from my heart. What I do know for sure is I like to have a look see at what’s going on inside of me. At age 50 I had a colonoscopy. I asked to stay awake so I could watch the camera (imagine Proteus from the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage) travel throughout my tummy tunnels. It was way cool. My SCI was a blessing that day as I only felt a little pressure, but no pain.

So my curiosity has been peaked by the HD statics, warning signs and better choices. I thought maybe you would like to know what I know about our precious heart and that means starting with my waist size. Really? What does my waist size have to do with my heart? Well the bigger my waist the more belly fat I have which means I have a higher possibility of HD. Yes, Buddha belly is not cool even though the is Buddha cool. There’s a syndrome, metabolic syndrome, that’s a combination of factors that increase my risk of HD and my waist size is little like the canary in the coalmine with this syndrome, first alert.

So sitting up in my wheelchair my waist size is 31 inches and laying down its 29 inches, I’m squished and going with the sitting number. For women the max is 34 inches and for men it’s 39 inches. In my blog about Diabetes I stated that I’m getting rid of 2 inches from my waist, I begun my tuck and tone exercises. Now if you can’t exercise you could loose weight to lower your HD risk. If losing weight rather then exercise is the path to better heart health then it’s all about making better choices when I tie on the feedbag.

Increasing the fiber count to 25 grams a day is the way to slim’n down that waistline. And bonus, the more fiber in my meals the fuller I feel, lowers my cholesterol and a better colon cleanse. Nice. Survey says that if I eat my 25 fiber grams a day I can take 1 inch of my belly and decrease my HD risk by 10 percent. So how do I increase my fiber? First and foremost eat food in its most natural state. Less processing equals more fiber, if you don’t believe me read the labels on packages.

For example instant mash potatoes have 4 grams of fiber a serving and a baked potato (a baked potato doesn’t have a label silly) with the skin on has 7 grams of fiber. But the real master blasters are whole grains and beans,

these are where I really can rack up the fiber points with 3 servings a day.

Then there’s my blood pressure to take note of to reduce the risk of HD which for me is sometimes too low, for as long as I can remember. I’m told that my addiction to exercise has helped it stay low but that to keep it that way since I don’t exercise as much as I did when it was my job, I have to lower my salt intake. And I like salt, a lot. Too much salt in my blood elevates the blood volume which can stiffen my highways and byways by triggering more blood pressure from my heart to the blood moving, it’s a nasty cycle. My sister told me I’d use less salt if I use Himalayan pink salt crystals instead of refined salt, so far it’s working for me.

So I buy the low sodium rice bowls, which has 2 servings of whole grains thank you very much, I’m adding more veges to my bowls, I use my pink crystals, sparingly, and 4 days a week I’m wasting away my waist with exercise. Next up my cholesterol.

Blessings and Wellness to All!!! In Joy, Candace

The way is not in the sky, the way is in the heart. Buddha

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