I don’t make new year’s resolutions. I don’t like to make promises that I can’t or won’t keep. Yet this year in particular, I find myself inclined to make promises about my health. You see, there’s nothing quite like sitting through two days of product training for a cardiovascular surgery client to make me acutely aware of how I treat myself.
As I sit in this training, seeing the effects of blocked coronary arteries, I find myself worrying about my long-term health. As cool as these products may be, and no matter what technique is better than another, there’s just no situation in which I want a coronary artery bypass graft.
Sure, most of my risk factors are low. My BMI is healthy. My blood pressure and blood glucose levels are good. My cholesterol is almost ridiculously low. I exercise. And yet, there’s one large, looming risk factor staring me in the face: the fact that my mother died of cardiovascular disease at 55.
Now that I have a child, I’m particularly concerned with the way that I live my life. I want him to have two happy, healthy parents for decades to come. This is why it’s important to me that both my husband and I make a serious commitment to our health, diet and exercise.
This doesn’t mean that we’ll be subsisting exclusively on broccoli and lentils. I don’t believe in diets; I believe in healthy lifestyles. I think that we can implement healthier lifestyle elements, more exercise and better portion control on those days when we just can’t live without pizza.
I will also make plans to have a 5-year follow-up with a cardiologist to ensure that any hereditary problems that might exist are caught early and treated properly.
With any luck, this will be the first of many healthy new years to come.