{"id":28180,"date":"2015-02-18T06:30:46","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T17:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=28180"},"modified":"2015-02-17T21:18:14","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T08:18:14","slug":"american-heart-month-a-few-tips-for-heart-conscious-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/02\/18\/american-heart-month-a-few-tips-for-heart-conscious-living\/","title":{"rendered":"American Heart Month: A Few Tips For Heart-Conscious Living"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Heart<\/a>

Heart Health Month<\/p><\/div>\n

As an author published in the US, I was pleased to be able to say “yes” when the American Recall Center<\/a> asked me to blog on heart health as part of American Heart Month.<\/p>\n

I am very aware of heart health because my father died of a heart attack when he was only 54: far too young, I know you will all agree—and I and all my family would have liked to have had him around a whole lot longer.<\/p>\n

When you look at the Recall Center’s feature post on How Bloggers’ Celebrate Their Hearts<\/a>, you will see some great tips for improving both heart health and your overall health.<\/p>\n

As an author, I am very aware that I am pursuing an occupation that involves long hours sitting at a desk and staring at a computer screen. I have my share of big projects and deadlines, too, which often make it feel easier to grab takeaways rather than making a home-cooked meal. I find writing very intellectually and emotionally demanding as well, so frequently want to lie down on the couch in the sun in my down time (the Garfield effect!), rather than head out and do exercise.<\/p>\n

\"Walks<\/a>

Walks in wild places can be good for the heart…<\/p><\/div>\n

One of my strategies to counteract a\u00a0 fundamentally sedentary writing day is to “build in activity” to my daily routine, starting with working at the opposite end of the house from the kitchen—so making a coffee, or lunch, or grabbing a glass of water, all require me to move. I leave the cellphone in the kitchen, too, so again I have to move (run, most often!) to answer it. I try to build other, regular activity into my daily routine as well: walking at least once around the garden with that coffee before taking it back to my desk; renting a post office box that’s an easy walk from where I live rather than opting for a bigger center with more services; taking stairs whenever I can, rather than elevators—and in this age when people like to meet in cafes, suggesting a cafe that I can walk to rather than taking the bus or having to drive.<\/p>\n

I try and do regular “big” exercise, too, but it’s all the little activities that break up the long, sedentary hours at the writing desk.<\/p>\n

\"Broccoli<\/a>

Broccoli soup: simple, home-cooked, healthy<\/p><\/div>\n

The more regular forms of exercise are important, though, no question of that, and one of the best ways I’ve found to persuade myself to do some is to find ways of making the time spent doing it enjoyable–like doing just about anything (walking, running, cycling, the gym) with a friend or two.<\/p>\n

Another big deal for me, both with regards heart and overall health, is that I love to cook. Not only that, but most of all I love to bake: cakes, cookies, and desserts of every description. There are two main ways I balance the great enjoyment and relaxation I get from cooking with heart and general health awareness. The first is to focus the regular meal making on creating delicious, simple (i.e. easy and quick to make), but also really healthy meals.<\/p>\n

\"Making<\/a>

Making & sharing homebaking can also enhance wellbeing<\/p><\/div>\n

The baking I keep for occasions when I can share what I make, so I get to have the pleasure of making something delicious, but also the delight of sharing what I’ve made with others—and numbers ensure that everyone, including me(!), only eats a small quantity (on an occasional basis.) Again, I also set myself the challenge of finding and mastering recipes that taste great and yet are not super rich.<\/p>\n

Now some might argue that I should give up the baking altogether. But my belief is that if you have no specific health conditions to manage\u00a0 and are doing the other stuff—living actively and eating moderately and healthily most of the time—then the pleasure of making something you really enjoy and sharing it with friends and family, in moderation, is also good for your overall wellbeing.<\/p>\n

And here’s the American Recall Center’s Heart Health infographic, featuring tips and risks:<\/p>\n

\"ARC-Heart-Month-Infographic-02.09.152\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As an author published in the US, I was pleased to be able to say “yes” when the American Recall Center asked me to blog on heart health as part of American Heart Month. I am very aware of heart health because my father died of a heart attack when he was only 54: far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28180"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28205,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28180\/revisions\/28205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}