Hello again! Well, In this post I continue to chronicle the first 3 weeks of the My Heart Challenge!
If you noticed, we have added a new element here at 6 Matthews. Over there to the left <—– each of us will be posting a thought about the heart challenge or some things we are doing to be more heart healthy. These may not be updated every day, but a couple of times each week. Each of the kids is writing their own thoughts about the challenge and what they are doing to be healthy. Check back often! I will also be posting a “digest” of these posts each week.
And now the news… We had our first Physical activity class on the 26th of April. We went over some basic exercises and the need to do both cardio training for our hearts, as is the focus of the challenge, but also strength training to make our bodies work more efficiently and keep us healthy overall. We also got some of the stretch bands to use in resistance training. Brenda has taken hers to work and uses them to do some resistance exercises while she sits at her desk and works.
We have been working on finding ways to integrate exercise into our regular routines so that we don’t have to do it all at the end of the day. I have been riding the exercise bike while Tristan is playing as well as doing pushups and some weight lifting with the kettlebells whenever I can. Most of the time it is walk by while putting something away and doing 10 curls or something similar. It all adds up. Brenda has been using her lunch break to either go to the gym at IMC, or walking the stairs from the ground floor back to her office…..on the 14th floor. She is getting better and better at doing this!
After the exercise class, we met with the physiologist and she was showing us some different ways to incorporate resistance training at home. We spent a good hour and a half just learning how to start slow and build up exercises, as well as correct form to either lift with or to use the resistance bands. It was very informative, and led to Brenda taking her “gym” of resistance bands to work.
In the next post I will get into the nutrition classes.
Overall, this challenge has been good for us to just get motivated towards doing exercise. Because of Amelia and her transplant, we have been working on changing our eating and nutrition habits for the past few years. We have nearly cut out all fast food and restaurants. The kids have us make their favorite foods at home. We have nights where we make better alternatives with less salt and no preservatives and still have most of the same flavors of foods. The kids prefer to do that most of the time now. But exercise, and finding the time for exercise has been our downfall. Now, we are incorporating as much as we can stand, and are all the better for it!