Healthy Heart Habits

Sara is guest posting today about a very serious issue. Be sure to read and go to her blog and show her some love! I am running the Wine and Dine half tonight at 10:00, be sure to check out yesterday’s post for info on Runner tracking, and follow me on twitter or instagram @runningwithsass

As the embodiment of domestic failure, there are very few things that I do well. Washing dishes, cleaning the bathroom, not burning dinner, pretty much all things I’ve done poorly at one time or another. Trying to find time to work out isn’t exactly a priority when one is wading through a ceiling high stack of laundry and making sure the guinea pig isn’t wallowing in his own filth.

An effort was made at one point by taking part in my company’s Biggest Loser challenge. I started running using the Couch to 5k training program and even won for our hotel, dropping nearly fifteen pounds and seeing the 130s for the first time since 2002. Then, as these stories always seem to go, life, with its work promotions and sixteen hour work days and trying to connect with a spouse who is usually only home to sleep, took over and the thought of running fell by the wayside, something that could be cut because my life would continue even if I didn’t do it. Or would it?

Then my Maternal Unit had a heart scare which ended with her having to have a triple bypass. Maternal Unit had been active for years as a jogger until her early forties, when she started to put on weight. In her fifties, she decided she’d had enough; between developing asthma and having high blood pressure, she was tired of feeling run down. She started walking and bike riding and dropped forty pounds and was quite frankly my hero.

Diamonds aren’t this girl’s best friend, her Maternal Unit is.

It’s no secret that heart disease is the number one killer of women. To be honest, though, until I heard how weak and sad Maternal Unit sounded over the phone when she was in the hospital, that statistic seemed trivial to me. I mean, I don’t smoke, rarely drink and love vegetables (peas and lima beans to be specific). Then again, the same can be said about Maternal Unit, which is the thought that ultimately made me pause. If a routine stress test could land in her in the hospital with her chest cracked open, it could happen to anyone. When she said that the doctor told her that even those few years she spent overweight could’ve caused the blockages in heart, I began to see running as a way to perform preventative maintenance rather than a time sucking obligation.

I’m creating the habits I need now to ensure a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes it means running after dealing with six rooms in the Hotel who decided to walk off with everything that wasn’t nailed down or busting out a work out video in the wee hours of the morning and hoping I don’t wake the neighbors below us. It definitely means making sure that my physician is aware of my family history and being proactive about my wellness care. Someday it will mean passing on the same habits I’m learning to any future Little Undomestics and doing so in a way that they become ingrained in their everyday lives.

It’s such an honor to guest post for a blog that has definitely given me tools to develop these habits and my hope is that anyone who reads this will join me in my never ending quest to be able to say at the end of everything “I did everything I could to be the healthiest I could.”