In Control Of Your Health #11

The things you can control, that no doctor can do for you:  healthy diet, weight loss, weight control, exercise, avoiding stress, blood pressure control is in your hands.  Your doctors can provide proper health care and medication, but being a heart attack survivor, you are in control of regaining and improving your health. Having strong support, as I did, helps in many ways.  Knowing that my wife and family not only cared, but encouraged my efforts to change, made it easier for me.  I was fortunate to have a wife who made the sacrifices necessary on her part to support me.  Preparing different foods, and meals other than those we had been accustomed to.  My dropping a lot of foods from my diet was a challenge for her also.  Foods she had enjoyed, she no longer cooked or ate because I no longer did. We did not go out to eat to the same places as before, or go out as often.

These are the  things you control and they should become a routine of maintenance.  Probably a healthy diet is first, and that leads to weight loss.  Exercise aids weight loss and blood pressure.  After a strenuous work out,  my blood pressure will normally be 10-15 points lower than before.   Exercise has enabled me to feel and see the benefits I've gained in my health.  You can not only feel it but see it.  Just as we previously talked about, feeling your strength and stamina improving, you can see when you look in a mirror the reduced waistline, your arm and leg muscles look tighter, hips beginning to slim down from all of the walking and exercise. You feel getting stronger when you begin to increase the number of reps or increase the weight you're using on certain exercises.  When maybe you're doing 70 pounds for 10 reps on leg extensions and it really pushed you 2 months ago. Now it has become not such a challenge, and you need to move up.  More weight, reps, or number of sets.  Working out will become an important part of your total recovery and health maintenance. 

You know, I think in my case exercise and healthy diet were the two most important things for me to do. They made weight loss a lot easier, and have contributed greatly to controlling my weight.  The exercise, weight loss, and healthy diet have helped lower and improve my cholesterol levels.  It makes you feel good when you see yourself as a person you didn't know was there a couple of years ago.  I think joining a fitness center was, and is, the biggest reason of me continuing to improve my health.  All the other things I have mentioned, have benefited from my exercising.  The increased strength and stamina have improved  my quality of life. Being active lets me to do the things I enjoy and spend time with my family.

Today I am meeting with a trainer to learn some new exercises to add to my routine.  I will let you know what they are and how I feel about them next time.