Private Cardiology - Improving your heart health

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High intensity exercise programs
getting healthy
Weight loss Keep it simple
The pyschological impact of heart disease
weight loss after christmas


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High intensity exercise programs

There has been increasing evidence for high intensity training in terms of changing and improving your metabolism in terms of insulin resistance. This may have benefits in terms of improving you metabolic profile over the long term.
How does it work?
20 secs of maximal effort in between normal steady paced exercise for three interval that's it.... three times a week.
This may be of benefit but has to be taken in context. Weight reduction is aided by exercise. The mental and physical benefits of exercise are well documented.

getting healthy

The effect of emotion on our ability to do things is so important. Get the emotion right get the thought right get the action right. Applying this to healthy living to get the thought right we need to rationalise to attain the correct emotion first. Visualisation is a well established technique. Image the feeling of good health and a trimmer figure. Hold the emotion. Then think of the action plan. Then act on it.
The type of exercise or diet plan is not crucial to be honest, sticking to the plan is.

Weight loss Keep it simple

I recently spoke with a patient and having discussed their lifestyle modifications we came up with simple strategy for weight loss. 
1. weigh yourself everyday to act as a motivational tool
2. your carbohydrate intake and increase your protein content... educate yourself about what you eat
3. try to exercise more often
The patient came to see me; he had lost 8 kg since his last appointment.

keep it simple 

weight loss after christmas

four rules to lose weight
1. Weigh yourselfeveryday. Although people don't always agree with the regularity of weighing yourself it does give you a motivational tool to watch your weight so do it everyday at the same time.

2. Reduce the carbohydrate and increase the protein. Carbohydrate can be stored as fat, protein generally does not and it keeps you fuller for longer

3. Use my fitness pal app to calorie count. It keeps you focussed and it educates you about food and portion size.

4. Write down the calorie content of the ten foods you eat the most this helps educate you about your food.

Four rules for exercise

1. Gradually build up the intensity to avoid injury.
2. Vary what you do to avoid boredom-- walking, sitting up, bowls it does not matter.
3. Like a medicine take exercise regularly.
4. Start now and make it part of your daily routine.
Forming a habit of exercising is a lifelong gift. If I could prescribe it I would. Make exercise your medicine before you need to start taking medicine.

New Year's resolutions

Christmas is a great time to be with friends and family. Following on from this is new years and the inevitable drive to make a new year's resolution. Many of us will make a resolution to lose weight and get fitter.
A lot of us will keep the resolution for about a month and then slip back into our old habits. The secret is to make the resolution now and test yourself over Christmas. If your resolution survives the next few days then is may be strong enough to last well into the new year. Most diets work, but a year on we are back to our original weight.


Exercise has many health benefits both mental and physical. A sedentary lifestyle is a risk factor for heart disease
Tips for starting exercise.
Martial arts provides a good way to improve cardiac fitness 1. Be regular, just do it. It does not matter what you do initially but creating the habit of exercise in adults and indeed children is important.
2. Use complex movements and use larger muscle groups, this is more "efficient" at burning calories in terms of time and effort.
3. A good rule of thumb for exercise is to get slightly out of breath then you know you are doing something worthwhile.

Getting to your ideal body weight

Being overweight has negative effect on your well being and particularly your cardiovascular health
Simple rules for reducing your weight
1. Weigh yourself regularly
2. Reduce your portion size
3 Reduce your carbohydrate intake
4 Consider using a free app like "myfitnesspal" to calorie count
5 Increase your activity level, start slowly and build up everyday