February is the month of my birthday and is forever etched in my memory with images of hearts and signs of love everywhere. These days when I see these signs I think of more than just the Valentines gifts which come along with them. I’m a sucker for reminders of my love for my family; when I see these cardboard hearts my mind just naturally goes to them.
This year I’ve changed my focus, I’ve been exercising more and eating well. Frankly changing my lifestyle hasn’t been easy but it is slowly becoming more natural. I’m determined to improve my health in order to enjoy a long life with my husband and children. This includes my heart health and when given the opportunity to try out the Heart Age Calculator on the Shoppers Drug Mart website, I honestly expected to see numbers much higher than my actual age.
Why Heart Health is Important
“What we don’t know won’t hurt us” just ain’t cutting it these days. We are a culture of folks who want to be in the know when it comes to our health because let’s face it, knowledge is power. Personally, I realized that eating poorly was affecting my health and I’m sure we can all agree that we’d like to be aware of our risk factors in order to eliminate as many as possible.
Heart Disease is at the top of the list when it comes to causes of death in Canada, we can mitigate some of the influences by managing our health. Risks which may age our hearts faster include smoking, our weight and lifestyle. There are many other factors such as blood pressure levels and cholesterol levels which again can be improved upon if we’re aware of them. The Canadian Cardiovascular Society recommends that we calculate our cardiovascular age to help us understand our current health status and make efforts to improve.
What is the Heart Age Calculator
The Heart Age Calculator is a tool which helps determine your cardiovascular age and assess your risk of heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular disease within the next 10 years.
I headed over to the Heart Age Calculator and can honestly say I felt a bit nervous. I’ve been feeling really good about working out and the last thing I wanted was to feel badly if my heart health ended up being super high.
I pushed those fears aside and entered in my information when prompted (age, height, weight, blood pressure etc).It took just a few minutes and I ended up with personalized suggestions which can help me improve my heart health. In the end my Cardiovascular Age is 42.5 which was much better than I’d thought, I’m turning 41 in a few weeks so it’s not far off.
Seeing my results, of course I plugged in my husband’s information. Call me competitive or really loving….both apply in this case! Frankly we are truly partners (although a wee bit competitive) and the healthy changes I apply in my life…he applies to his.
My lovely husband’s heart age is less than my own, but wait….he’s 2 years younger so in actuality we’re just about the same. Each of us has improvements we can make and we’re feeling more informed.
Top Tips to be Heart Healthy
- Stop Smoking
- Monitor your blood pressure
- Apply an active lifestyle
- Regulate your Cholesterol Levels
- Take Control
How about it, will you join me and take the Heart Age Calculator test, let’s get over 10,000 Canadians to take it with us!
Disclosure – Although this post has been sponsored by Shoppers Drug Mart Inc., the opinions and language are all my own, and in no way do they reflect the views, opinions or positions of Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. or its affiliates or licensees. Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. makes no representation as to accuracy, completeness, suitability or validity of any information within this blog post and will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information or for any losses, injuries or damages arising from its display or use.
I took the test and was surprised to see my heart age less than my age. But I am not a smoker. I do however need to lose a few pounds :( Such an amazing tool and great resource for people to check out
Good for you! Your heart is the most important part of your body! Being coming alcohol free was a major step in taking care of yourself, and you did that for 4 years now! So every step you do you are taking care of you more and more! Keep up the good work.
You are setting such an amazing example for your children and are being really true to yourself this year! I am so proud of you. Using this tool gives us one more piece of knowledge and knowledge IS power!
It’s so important to set a good example for our kids isn’t it? We have always been fairly health conscience people but are even more so now that we have little eyes watching us and wanting to be like us. Being an “older” mom it’s especially important for me to care about my heart heath and my health overall!
You’ve been doing so great with your health Julie and I’ve enjoyed watching your progress online! This is such a great tool for everyone to use and to motivate towards a better, and healthier, lifestyle :)
You go girl! In no time your heart will be younger than you :) Keep up the great work, it’s soooo worth it.
I have LOVED watching your journey to health online Julie. Keep it up- and know you have the support behind you! Having a healthy body (mind and soul) is the best thing we can do for ourselves
So fitting that we talk about our heart and getting it healthy in the month where all we see around us is hearts and love! Never really thought about it like that till now!
Great test Julie! I’m sure that now that you are working out and eating better your heart will get younger! Keep at it mama! I was happy to see that my test came out great. My heart is a few years younger than my heart. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing!
My heart health is 29, one year younger. But, I think there’s room for improvement. :)
Heart Health is so important and I am trying to make some changes too! Eating more fruits and veggies and now I need to get more exercise for my heart! Thank you for the inspiration!