Tag Archives: physical health

Your Physical And Mental Health Count

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“Never discredit your gut instinct. You are not paranoid. Your body can pick up on bad vibrations. If something deep inside of you says something is not right about a person or situation, trust it.”-Anonymous

I’ve had a great deal of time since 12/26/19 to think about my new situation and how it has changed my life. An overhaul of my diet, including the total elimination of sugar and fried foods, has changed my physical outlook on life.

Your mental well being, however, is something that they don’t really talk about. When I was in the hospital I got tons of information about the physical side of my recovery. In a small side note on one of the pages, it did mention something about seeking help if you needed it, but that was about it. I did have a colleague who asked me about my mental state commenting that her husband had been depressed after he had his heart attack.

I, however, never felt depressed. Instead, I almost felt reborn as if I had been given a second chance at life. If you think about it, since my odds of surviving open-heart surgery were slim, I really have been given a second chance. I honestly could not think of a reason to wallow in self-pity, instead, I chose to tackle my new life head-on.

Is it sometimes difficult to stay motivated? Of course it is. I would be lying to you if I said it wasn’t. But at the end of the day, I’m only 55 and I am hoping that I still have some good years left in me before I venture to the great beyond.

They say that up to 20% of heart attack survivors suffer from depression. What do I wish I had been told prior to leaving the hospital? Here is a shortlist that I got from the Cleveland Clinic.

  • Your negative feelings, such as low mood or lack of experiencing pleasure, persist daily for 2 weeks or more.
  • You find it increasingly difficult to participate in your recovery from heart disease. It is not uncommon for patients participating in cardiac rehabilitation to experience emotional difficulties during their physical recovery. A lack of mental drive or motivation, as well as a lack of confidence may indicate that depression has settled in.
  • You have significant difficulty with your daily routine, social activities and/or work.
  • You don’t have anyone in whom you can confide. If you don’t have anyone to share your thoughts with, it’s hard to know if what you’re thinking makes sense. Depression also has a tendency to make people more withdrawn and isolated, making it harder to receive social support during difficult times.
  • You have suicidal thoughts or feelings. Suicide is an irreversible solution to problems and causes permanent harm not only to yourself, but also to family members and friends. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call your physician or local 24-hour suicide hotline right away, or go to the nearest emergency room for help.

The most important thing is to remember that if you have survived a heart attack you have been given a second chance. Fight every day to improve both your physical and mental health so you can enjoy every day.

HAPPY HIKING!!!

 

“No Drama Thank you, I Believe I’ve Had Enough”

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0724

“The older I get, the more I realize I don’t want to be around drama, conflict or stress. I want a cozy home, good food and to be surrounded by happy people.”

I have no idea who wrote this but it speaks volumes. I don’t think it is too much to ask to be able to just live your life minus all of the nonsense that others seem to be driven to thrust upon you. Conflict and stress are killers. Killers of the soul as well as the physical body. This is truth.

At times, although it is incredibly difficult to do so, you have to let stupidity slide off of your back. We all work with people who thrive on the negative and enjoy spreading discontent and making other folks lives miserable.

Ignore them. Don’t allow that kind of misery to consume you so that you are so stressed that it negatively has an effect on your physical and mental health. I will admit that I have been guilty of it myself. But honestly, I just can’t handle the BS anymore. Nor do I want to.

For what it is worth, I’ll say it again. The drama, conflict, and stress? It just isn’t worth it. It’s a shame that some folks may never realize this. I am not happy that it took me 54 years to figure out the value of avoiding stressors that have negatively impacted my life.

From this point on, don’t engage me if all you have to spread is discontent. All I am asking for is to be left alone. To do my job with the minimum amount of interference and hassle. Is that too much to ask for?

I am searching for a much better work/life balance that hasn’t been tainted by the idiocy that seems to be the norm nowadays. I am expelling from my life the folks who are constantly spewing negativity and hate for my remaining workdays.

What do you folks think? Is it worth cutting off the people who do not contribute to your well being? When does it become more important to look after yourself and not become awash in the stupidity that sometimes surrounds us and wraps us like a cloak on a cold day?

As with everything else in life we make choices. Some are good and serve us well, some aren’t and prove to be destructive to us and those around us. You can choose to ignore the nonsense if you want to. Make that choice.

HAPPY HIKING!!!

Don’t Let Them Fool You, PT Is No Joke!

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'Shall we start with some stretching exercises?'

My first PT session.

Yesterday I started PT. My daughter, who is 17 and has had the “pleasure” of participating in some quality PT told me that I would be in some pain after the first session. She was right. She was also quick to remind me of the time when she complained about the pain after a PT session and was told to, “suck it up.” So when she asked how my ankle felt when I got home, I told her. Her response??? You guessed it-“Suck it up dad.”

Since it was an initial visit, I spent about twenty minutes being questioned, then another thirty having my ankle twisted, turned, bent and pulled. This, I am told, will bring me closer to getting me back to where I want, no, need to be.

The need to be back in the woods hiking is a strong one. It has been two months to the day since I slid, fell and fractured my ankle on that fateful backpacking trip. Two months of sitting around recuperating isn’t as much fun as it sounds! Obviously it is sitting around time that is necessary, and that is what makes it somewhat bearable.

But as uncomfortable as it has been and will continue to be for a while longer, it also means that I am healing, and that is a good thing. The bottom line is this-You have to be positive. Life is way too short to set sucked into the negative. It will most certainly kill you.

My goal? I want to be back on the trails no later than October 1st!!

Put One Foot In Front Of The Other

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“Act as the master of your life by putting your health, well being and happiness first.”

-Mariana Olszewski

“If you learn to create the right kind of climate in your body, mind, and emotion, your health and wellbeing and joy-everything will be taken care of.”

-Sadhguru

Being a teacher, I am blessed every year with having summers off. Although won’t see any kids until after Labor Day, I do have to go in tomorrow and Thursday for meetings. Every year in June I make a pledge to myself that I am going to get out and hike as much as possible. To get out and really put in the miles, see the views and do hikes I have never done before. Unfortunately, this usually ends up not being the case. Many times life takes over and prevents me from getting the hikes in that I have always wanted to do. And believe it or not, my own laziness has stopped me as well! Now I’m not saying that I haven’t hiked during past summers, it just has never been at the volume I would have liked.

As the school year drew to a close this year I made the same pledge. This will be the year that I get out as much as I can to do as much hiking as I could fit into the summer! I’m not going to lie, this school year was a really stressful one and the summer has been even more so. I really needed to commit to this!!! 

One of the other things that not many people know is that in November of 2014 I was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. Although I have always hiked and rode a stationary bike, this was not only a surprise, but a life changing diagnosis.

When I left the office that day, I thought that not only my hiking days were over, but my life as I knew it. I was really disheartened (no pun intended) at first when I was doing the stress test and did not even last 30 seconds on the treadmill. I knew that if I had continued I would have dropped. When I met with my cardiologist a couple of days later, we talked about the diagnosis and what it meant for me. I asked him when I could resume exercising and much to my surprise he said that I could do so immediately.

So here I am almost three years later. I have gone from not lasting 30 seconds on a treadmill to doing an 11 mile hike last week and completing 27 hikes to this point this summer.

Please don’t think that I am fishing for compliments or sympathy. I am simply pointing out that even in the darkest moments (thinking I was quite literally given a death sentence) that you can come back from that and resume an active lifestyle.

The most important thing to take from this is: All you have to do is put one foot in front of the other. At first it hurts and it sucks. We all have days where you don’t want to do anything, walk, ride, get out of bed. But you have to do it! I know for me the alternative was….well you can figure it out…