Heart Patient, Exercise, #49

Cindy and I have been in Florida, so I have gotten behind in my postings.  My daughter and her family went down for fall break and to compete in a triathlon.  Michelle did very well in her division finishing 2nd.  There were over 350  participants.  Her husband did not place which is unusual for him.  I am pretty sure Michelle and he enjoy competing with each other as much as with others in their  divisions.  I think bragging rights means a lot to them both, and it motivates Michelle to train as hard as he does.   He is a natural athlete and thrives on competition.

Cindy and I spent a lot of time with our grandchildren, and really enjoyed doing that. I got to go along on a fishing trip with my grandson and watched him take over 30 minutes to land a 40 pound redfish.  It was great and really made his dad  proud to be there and watch him fight and land a fish almost as big as he.

I could not stay in my workout routine while I was gone, and I really missed that.  I was able to do some walking and weightlifting each day.  There is a small fitness center I was using that had a very limited amount of strength training equipment.  The equipment was old,  I was not sure how to use it, and didn't fell comfortable with it. As a result I opted to do more weightlifting exercises that usual.  We are back home and I am going in early tomorrow to get in a good workout session, I look forward to it.

Next Day.

My first morning back workout was great.  Being gone for a week did not goof up my routine as much as I thought it would.  I am sure my doing a lot of fast paced walking while I was gone helped.  Eating healthy was a bigger problem than exercise while gone.  It is difficult when you are going out each night in a resort area to not eat what we consider to be unhealthy.  The approach I took was try to stay close to eating vegetables and fruits, avoiding meat.  The first night was terrible.  I had a oriental salad which tasted like hot grease and sugar had been poured over it for the dressing.  Second night a pasta dish with a meatless tomato sauce and a basic salad.  Not too bad.  I won't bore you any further but these two meals pretty much represented the best of the week.   I ate a lot of oatmeal for breakfast and lunch..  Anyway my first morning back I took an extra 15 to 20 minutes to do my complete routine.  I was somewhat surprised that I didn't have any soreness or stiffness.

I continue to monitor and record by blood pressure daily.  You should be doing the same. It gives you insight in how you're doing and takes all the guess work out of it for your cardiologist.  He can accurately see how your medication is working, or not, without having to depend on the one reading his nurse just took of your blood pressure.