Today was my exercise day, I do a half hour workout every other day developed by my talented son, so I stay strong, flexible & hopefully keep my girlish figure. On the alternate days I take my black lab, Prince to the park for a good fast walk, with some hills thrown in to get my ticker going, or go for a hike with my lovely partner Ron. Here’s a photo of Prince by the ocean at Dodd’s Narrows yesterday during our hike, what a beautiful world we live in….

In ’59 & counting’ I alluded to some challenges I have faced in my life in the recent past, well one of them was having a heart attack! Now I want all the women out there to know how easily it can happen. I am not overweight, don’t smoke or have high cholesterol & thought of myself as in reasonably good shape. I had gone through a very stressful break up at the time, was emotionally drained & had missed some sleep. My only symptom  was mild heartburn, just enough to keep me from falling asleep, & thankfully I didn’t pop a sleeping pill, but called the BC health line. A nurse on the helpline persuaded me to call an ambulance & I am so thankful to her. There were no outward signs of the attack other than the heartburn; my pulse, blood pressure & EKG were all okay, it’s not until they admitted me to the hospital & did a blood test that they found elevated troponin levels. These are enzymes that are released by the heart muscle during the attack.

Thankfully my attack was mild & they didn’t discover any damage, but what a shock. How could I a reasonably healthy woman have done this to my body? Apparently because of the stress,  I had spasmed my arteries so that my heart wasn’t getting enough oxygen. Well I was determined never to be in this situation again, what a wake up call. I joined the gym, hired a personal trainer & started really exercising.  Not just keeping active, gardening, walking & skiing like I had been doing, but really working out & getting my heart rate up. I don’t look like one of those fitness pin up photos for people my age, well not yet, but I have more definition in my chest, arms & legs and love the high it gives me after I finish my routine or my walk.

I know we sometimes feel too tired to exercise but doing it gives us way more energy. You have to try & break the cycle, start small with a short walk but keep at it, you will be amazed how good it can make you feel. We’ve only got one body surely we should treat it well, no one else is going to do it for us?  While I was climbing up out of this hole in my life & vowing to never let this happen again, a book happened to jump off the shelf at me in Chapters. Don’t know if you have ever had that happen but I wasn’t even looking at fitness/lifestyle books. This book is a must read for anyone at any age, want to ‘Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy  – Until You’re 80 and Beyond’? That’s what the book’s cover announced & I was hooked. So if you want to improve your health & fitness level at any age, turn back your biological clock, understand more about how our bodies age & how to slow them down, please read this book. It’s really an eye opener.

‘Younger Next Year’ by Chris Crowley & Henry S. Lodge, M.D.
Workman Publishing, New York

The women’s version is pink & the men’s version is yellow.
They also have a website at www.youngernextyear.com

Just don’t want anyone to have to go through what I went through, better to improve your health before you have a major problem,  or it could be too late. Please take care….

-Helen