Archive for the ‘Cholesterol Diet’ Category

Ask any woman what the leading cause of death is amongst women
and you’re bound to hear everything but heart disease. Women the
world over just don’t realize they may be more at risk for having
a heart attack and dying from heart disease than the men in their
lives. The thing is most women don’t seem to believe the reports
about the risk women face when it comes to heart disease. So
here are some facts that every woman should be aware of and take
to heart, no pun intended.

1. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the
United States. In 2006, 315,930 women died from it.

2. Heart disease killed 26% of the women who died in 2006—more
than one in every four.

3. Thirty-six percent of women did not perceive themselves to be
at risk for heart disease in a 2005 survey because heart disease
is often thought to be a “man’s disease”.

4. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women of most
racial/ethnic groups in the United States, including African
Americans, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Hispanics, and
whites. For Asian American women, heart disease is second only to
cancer.

5. Almost two-thirds of the women who die suddenly of coronary
heart disease have no previous symptoms. I know you’re busy you
have the kids to care for, work, school, etc. but, you need to
step back for a minute and get serious about your improving your
heart health.

I know breast cancer is a major concern for women all over the
world and many women feel they have a higher risk of dying from
breast cancer then heart disease. But the facts tell
a different story – you have a greater risk of dying from heart
disease than breast cancer.

Heart disease covers a wide range of medical conditions ranging
from high cholesterol, congestive heart failure, to heart
fluttering, etc. One of the biggest mistakes you can make
regarding your health is to deny that you may be at risk for a
heart attack. Be proactive and take preemptive steps today to
start improving your health.

Don’t take just the month of February (National Wear Red Day,
and American Heart Month) to improve your heart health and skip
the other eleven months of the year. Take action to improve your
heart health year round in fact the easiest first step you can
take is to improve your diet.

Learn as much as you can about how your diet affects your heart
and cardiovascular health then implement what you have learned
and slowly you will begin to decrease your heart attack risk.

Today is Wed Dec. 9th, 2009 and I felt compelled to write this post today.  Don’t know why other than I feel excited about the future.

You see I have this blog about cholesterol lowering, I work several days a week with people who have had heart attacks, strokes, TIA’s, etc., etc. and yet as they say at those  AA meetings “I FELL OFF THE WAGON”.  I have let myself gain weight, get physically out of shape, become de-conditioned and worst of all I have not maintained the healthy diet I was following consistently for some time now.  But here’s the thing I didn’t do all those things intentionally in fact I fell off the wagon because I have spend a massive amount of time online researching, testing and building my collection of web sites.

I know it isn’t a good excuse but it’s the truth, what prompted me to write this post is that over the past weekend I wrote out my goals for 2010 and made some new commitments to myself to improve my health again.  As a kid I jogged often, exercised, played all kinds of sports basically I was active just about everyday doing something.  Then I got married and started raising a family and slowly I stopped doing the things I enjoyed physically.

No I haven’t stopped completely but I’m definitely not any where close to what I use to do in times past.  But here is what has me feeling pretty good,I have achieved several goals over the years once I put pen to paper as I did this past weekend.  Doing so actually has me excited and looking forward not only to 2010 but beyond.  Why?  Because I have decided I want to live a healthier live again, you know the life many of us lived as a kid.

I’m not talking about just losing weight, exercising etc.  no I want to go back to consistently eating all of the fruits and vegetables and other foods I use to eat all of the time.  Like pickles out of the barrel, fresh peanuts, tomatoes straight off the vine, cucumbers and everything else we grew with on my Grandfathers farm or picked up from the outdoor markets.  Seems like I let living my sometimes fast pace life take me away from the foods I like and the things I liked to do that were actually healthy for me.

I’ve  been making this change for several months now but I didn’t commit to it as a life changing GOAL until I put it on paper and then surprisingly I found myself without warning excited about my new goal.  Why I don’t know, I know I miss the way I felt after eating a healthy meal or snack.  I miss how I feel after exercising you know the increased energy, etc., I was slimmer, I didn’t have craving for certain fruits or veggies as I have been prone to do this year more than any time in the past.

I know my excitement may seem silly to some but to me it almost feels like my decision to really do what I have laid out in front of me is like a second chance at extending my life.  I knew before about the dangers of unhealthy eating, low exercise levels etc. but, I let my busy schedule interfere with common sense.  But not any longer, creating my cholesterol recipe cookbook, my other web sites this year and even my own commitment to going back to eating how I grew up with as a kid is my way of not only helping to improve my health.  But the health of any one else who cares to follow along with this blog.

I make no promises of any kind to any one but to myself, I enjoy sharing with and helping other people but if I am not an example myself I am a fraud.  I don’t like telling people things that I have not done.  I like to eat, I like to try new foods and I am interested in regaining my muscular teenage body so why not do it the right way as I did before when I was broke with only the wisdom and advise of the older folks around me.

As many people say life is short, I can tell you because of the line of work I do it is really too short for some people and that’s unfortunate.  But for the rest of us we can do something today and make life last longer and that’s my goal, extend my life through proper diet, exercise and to have fun again.  Thanks for taking time to read this and I hope  some of you who read this decide to improve your health as well and share your successes because I always like meeting sincere, fun and interesting people.

Later,

PM