-- By Karen Gardner, Health & Parenting Writer
Heart disease is not a disease that only affects men. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), heart disease kills more than 500,000 women annually. In 2001, well over half of the people who died from heart disease were women.
Yet, "Women still think they cannot have coronary disease," says Dr. Massimo Guisti of Cardiovascular Associates of Virginia, PC. "They are more afraid of ovarian or breast cancer, but coronary disease is the actually the leading cause of death in women."
Heart disease often presents itself differently in women than it does in men. That includes the warning signs of a heart attack as well. In addition to the classic heart attack warning signs, such as chest discomfort, shortness of breath and pain in one or both arms, women may experience these less common signs:
The National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute reports that one in 10 American women, ages 45-64, has some form of heart disease. In women over the age of 65, these numbers double. For women, like men, the major risk factors for heart disease include increasing age, heredity, tobacco use, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, physical inactivity and obesity.
While some of these factors, such as age and family history, cannot be modified, there are plenty others that can. The first step a woman can do towards reducing her risk of coronary disease is to take more responsibility for her health. Women must insist on a thorough risk assessment from their healthcare provider, and not be afraid to ask questions.
The American Heart Association suggests that every woman ask her healthcare provider these 10 questions about cardiovascular disease:
For mature women, the question of menopause and heart health is particularly important. Long gone is the misconception that estrogen protects post-menopausal women from heart disease. Therefore, mature women need to maintain an open dialog with their primary care physician and gynecologist on the subject, and again do not be afraid to ask questions.
"Women are underrepresented in terms of the workup we do in the cardiac world," says Henrico Doctor’s Hospital cardiologist Dr. Gary Zeevi. "After menopause all women should have a fairly extensive evaluation of their coronary risk."
For more information on women and heart disease, visit the American Heart Association's Website.
So my body is really pissed at me right now. Went out to dinner, ate two onion rings, some fries, and a teriyaki chicken sandwich (but left most of the bread.) ICK. I feel like CRAP! I went straight to the gym and worked out for about 45 minutes in the hopes that my body will forgive me. I used to eat like that all the time. I used to order something like that and clean my plate and barely be able to walk out of the restaurant because I was so full. I just don't eat like that any more! Bleh! And now my body is telling never to do that shit again. Ok! I won't!
Progress update: I'm no long counting the Challenge beginning as my beginning and the Challenge end as my end because (1) I started working out and eating right three weeks before I weighed in officially and (2) I'm not done yet. So here's the non-Challenge stats:
Starting weight (right after Christmas) 237
Last weight (April 21) 200
Yep! 37 pounds of pure, unadulterated blob are no longer part of my physique and I have guns. Here's the picture proof. This is me last August and me yesterday:
It's REALLY hard to look at that 'before picture. Bleh. I avoid cameras in general so I didn't realize how awful I looked. When you've been fat as long as I have, you get used to seeing yourself a certain way. So much so that it looks almost...normal. You don't realize just how fat you really are, even when the scale is screaming for mercy and the buttons on your clothes become projectiles with every added ounce. We fatties don't even think we look THAT BAD. We compare ourselves to other fatties and think "whoa, at least I don't look like that!" Well, ya, we do. We totally do. Our body types may be different and we carry our weight in different places but let's not kid ourselves, k? The photo on the left is what 237 pounds looks like on a 5"2" chick....period. The photo on the right is still 200 pounds but it looks way better.
I always kinda freak out when I'd see what athletes weigh as listed on the team rosters. Cuz all the ones that weigh the same as me are over 6 feet tall. (Still, I didn't think I looked THAT bad.) So, allow me to present to you my small reality-check list:
Here's a list of people I used to weigh more than:
Mike Tyson (at his championship fighting weight - 218)
Dez Bryant (Dallas Cowboys WR - 217)
Ken Hamlin (Ind. Colts DB - 208)
All but 6 players on the Yankees current 40-man roster
And only three players on the 2010-2011 Wenatchee Wild team would wrestle in my weight class.
All that said, even at 5'2" I'll never weigh 105 lbs. I have huge hands and huge feet and I wasn't built to be tiny. Plus, I like being curvy! I think 130 would look great on me. So that's my goal. A nice, curvy, TONED 130. I haven't weighed 130 since jr. high. 70 more pounds in 8 months is totally doable.
Fer sure!
Why do you train? If someone had asked me 5 years ago I would have answered getting my bench to 300 lbs. Go back further and it would be a desire to not be skinny and weak. Ask me 3 years ago and I would have said so that Others May Live (Pararescue motto.) Ask me today and I will reply with one word. Zombies... Yes I am serious. One of the main reasons I train is for the impending zombie horde. Do I think zombies will ever happen? No! However I force myself to prepare for such an event and it creates a fun scenario for which to train. One of the best motivational tools I have found for training is the use of “urgent” scenarios. “Zombieland” training is one great way to accomplish this! But, it could be any type of scenario. For Zombieland you have to be fast, agile, strong, and have lots of endurance.
Scenario training can be relative to any time period. You could create a scenario for a single workout, a weeks worth of workouts, or for months on end. A single workout scenario might be I have to lift this trailer off of my son. If I were creating one to last over a period of 12 workouts then the options increase like crazy.
There is the classic Road Warrior scenario. You must dispense justice on your bicycle and each day is a new challenge just to survive (dramatic much.) The workouts for Road Warrior would be something similar to:
Day 1: Bike 5 miles, 5 deadlift, 1 fireman’s carry (mimic pulling and carrying someone from a car), and repeat 5 times as fast as you can. Basically see how fast you can pull those people from a wrecked car.
Day 2: Bike 7 miles, 50 meter run (chasing suspect), 10 cable pulls (grabbing suspect), 10 cable punches (fighting suspect with some ROAD WARRIOR JUSTICE) and repeat 4 times. Making the Road safer, one bad driver at a time.
Another one could be, you are a firefighter and you have a small house fire one day: Small House Fire: weighted sled pull for 50ft (dragging hose), Ball slams against a wall (breaking down a door with an axe), Run 1 flight of stairs (running a flight of stairs), 1 Sumo Deadlift (picking someone up), and fireman’s carry down the stairs, out the door, and to the fire truck. Repeat
The point is you gotta have fun with your training. It does say “you gotta have fun” on our front door after all.
Have fun. Get in the gym daily. Go out and play.
Monday - Friday
5:00am-10:00pm
Saturday - Sunday
7:00am-7:00pm