| Deborah Hutton
I was shocked to learn that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of Australian women. These days, our primary focus around women’s health tends to be directed more towards cancer in its many manifestations and trying desperately to find a cure. This is of course vitally important, but when you read about heart disease and its impact you realise this is something we can personally prevent by making small changes to our everyday life. I’ve always believed that balance is the key to a healthy existence... a little of everything and not too much of anything. That relates to diet, exercise and general lifestyle. To effectively live a healthy life, we need to have true balance and herein lies the challenge. I’m supporting the Heart Foundation Healthy Heart Challenge by showing women that making small yet realistic lifestyle changes can easily improve their health. Women working together towards one goal can achieve a lot so I’m going to encourage my friends and hopefully many other women to join me in this initiative and help spread the word. Hopefully we can help save some lives.
Challenge Update After accepting to do the Healthy Heart Challenge I then had to decide which challenge I was going to take on. I move around a lot going to the Gym/Pilates about ¾ times a week and walk Billie everyday… so tick the ‘be active’ box.
I’m a pretty good eater, sure I have my weaknesses …like too much salt and I love my red wine but generally I don’t eat too much fat, don’t have a sweet tooth and really enjoy clean food. So don’t need to work too much with ‘improving everyday nutrition’.
Blood pressure? Well that has never been a problem … if anything it’s on the low side. So that left me with one goal … ‘lower high cholesterol levels’. But what is mine?
So I book in to have a Healthy Heart check with my local Doc to find out what my cholesterol level would be. It’d be two years since I’ve had a check-up ... bad girl! So fasted overnight, went in for the check and a few days later was thrilled to find out my cholesterol was spot on in the right range.
So where does that leave me and my six week Healthy Heart Challenge? Well …less stressed that’s for sure! But honestly I put my luck down to genes. I’m far from perfect and can always do with a little correction in regards to my lifestyle … so I am focusing on drinking wine a little less often, trying to cut down on the salt (Murray River I’m sorry) and trying to include more veges in the my diet. The biggest move for me is being conscious of it.
Just the fact that I’m thinking about it makes a huge difference to what I do. So a few weeks in and its going OK. Not brilliant …but it’s not called a Challenge for nothing!
After the Challenge While I was starting from a pretty good base (I’ve always eaten well and exercised), offering to take part in the Healthy Heart Challenge did help me to stop and think more about the choices I was making in regard to my overall health, particularly making the initiative to find out what my cholesterol level was. Thankfully for me I passed with flying colours but I now need to maintain it! Although, like everyone, I do indulge from time to time with a nice glass of red, I live with my motto of ‘everything in moderation’. It’s alright to have your treats just so long as overall you’re conscious of being good to your body … and that’s being active on a continual basis and eating right on more days than not. For me it is a balancing act. I’m often travelling and attending events so I need to be vigilant about what I am putting into my body and finding whatever time I can for exercise. The best thing I ever did was get Billie my dog … as I have to walk her a couple of times a day and there’s no excuse not to.
I know now after taking the Healthy Heart Challenge that I need to keep my health at the top of my priority list in order to be the best person I can for me, and those who are in my life. After all, I’m no good to anyone if I collapse in a heap from not looking after myself!
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