As with most people, I have been experiencing the same fears and doubts about going out of my house during this crazy “COVID-19 Lock Down”. As most of you know, I fall within the list of “compromised people” because I have heart failure, which falls under the Heart Disease umbrella. Heart patients, as well as, people who diabetes, high-blood pressure, are obese, those who have poor immune systems, and the elderly make up these “high-riskers”.

Since my husband, John, and I work from home anyway, this hasn’t changed our lives that drastically as we are still fortunate enough to continue working. My daughter, a senior, was now home, but that wasn’t too much of a change either and now she’s graduated and will be moving out to be on her own in a week. We stayed in and tried to limit the number of times someone went to the grocery store. After the initial 3-4 weeks, I was going stir crazy! I’m a people person.

Thinking about the “fear factor” that this pandemic seems to have had on just about everyone in the country, and that basically no one really pushed back when the country literally “Shut Down, makes me wonder how powerful a cause can be when you hear and talk about it 24/7, especially on news! Not only the U.S., but Europe, as well. And we all did it! “WOW! When has that ever happened where the country just shuts down and nobody is going out anywhere? There wasn’t a lot of push back or complaining because we all heard how much of an impact this could be to help stop the spread and keep our medical facilities somewhat controlled with incoming patients. There are a lot of medical issues that I am not qualified to speak on, but it did seem like the right thing to do and followed the expert medical advice. However, even the medical professionals seemed to be baffled how to control this crazy virus.

That being said, I continued to go to the grocery stores and home improvement stores. Some of my friends were astonished that I went to test drive a car once stores started to reopen slowly. I admit, wearing a mask was not in my realm of thinking. I hate masks! They remind me of many, many times going to the operating room and having them put on me and looking up at the nurses and doctors who I couldn’t see who were going to be operate on me. I wasn’t found of looking at them as I began to doze off into some other world wondering who they were. So, putting one a mask, voluntarily, was not something I embraced. I missed seeing my friends in person and playing cards, going out to eat, and just getting together. Zoom Happy , but did begin to enjoy the “Zoom Happy Hours” and playing Euchre online with my cousins and friends. It just wasn’t the same though after weeks of this.

You know you could get in a car and get killed today, but most of us won’t let that stop us from driving again. We follow the rules, put on our seatbelts, stop at stop signs/lights, and basically follow the rules of the road. I figured, if I do that, my chances are going to go down of getting in an accident. So, why not mimic that with going out of the house and being around “other people.” I became more and more comfortable wearing a fun looking mask and carrying a big container of Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer in the car to clean up after coming out of a store. And then, washing my hands when I get home.

At the beginning of the crisis I had been working out fairly regularly – going to the gym and exercising in the pool, and then…that stopped. I found a wonderful YouTube Channel, Fabulous50s, that was designed for women over 50 who encourages women to exercise and build muscle through very short videos. It’s led by a women that is over 50 and looks great and know that understands that you are no longer a 20 or 30 year old that CAN’T do as much as you could do when you were younger. That makes all the difference when you can identify with the person leading you through an exercise routine. Although, that sort of got put on the back burner too.

At my most recent cardiology appointment in June, I had to admit that I had gained a little bit of weight along with retaining more fluid. I also told her about not being able to walk any significant distance without feeling very tired. She said that many, many people she has seen lately have put on the “COVID-19” and to just start doing something again to get started and WATCH THE SODIUM.

Even after the appointment and her little pep talk, along with my husband’s thoughts on my lack of exercise and poor eating habits, I still have had a hard time getting back into a work out routine. I have started to watch my sodium a bit better and getting back to eating more fruits and raw vegetables as snacks instead of chips.

I still wondered if Covid is the leading cause of death now. At least that is what the news seems to portray. They haven’t stopped reporting on the number of cases and deaths everyday. It’s like this is the only thing that people are dying from. I began to wonder if this was the main cause of death now in the United States, so I did a quick Google Search and found these results:

So, just reading through this list of summaries, I noticed Heart Disease seemed to be sprinkled throughout many articles. Maybe, instead of making people stay home and become stagnate and lazy (getting groceries delivered, fast food or restaurant food delivered, etc.), we should have the media and the country focus more on people’s healthy habits, like eating the right kinds of food, exercising, educating the areas of the country that don’t have access to this knowledge.

By doing this, it seems to me, that we can bring down the number of cases of heart disease, because all these bad habits would help eliminate or reduce the issues that really cause heart disease in the first place. By eating healthy, watching sodium intake (2,500 mg a day for normal people), exercising, it would be safe to say that less people would get diagnosed with heart disease, and therefore, not be a high-risk for COVID-19, or the flu for that matter. When you do these things, you’re significantly lowering the risk of having high blood pressure, diabetes, or being obese, which are the “triggers for not doing well with this disease).

I can’t change the world, appear on all the news outlets, or give talks with this revelation that I’ve had. And, I know I’m not the only one who may be thinking along these lines, but I can do my part to take care of myself and encourage others to do the same.

What am I going to do now? I’m going to consciously try to do a better job on my own healthy habits and try to be a model to follow. I will fall at times and I will splurge a bit because I want to continue to live a life that I love, but I’ve seen too many people get out of shape and deal with a lot of issues. I personally want to try to avoid that for myself as long as I can. John and I want to have plans for our retirement and I know he wants me to be able to enjoy it with him — so do I. My heart disease is congenital and I don’t have high blood pressure, diabetes, or am obese and I’d like to keep it that way for as long as I can!

Who’s with me? Start small and work up is what I always hear! Let’s do this so we don’t have to live in fear. I’m trying to start an online Zoom workout group, where I share my screen and watch the YouTube gal I mentioned above. I’ve practiced twice with my friend Amy and although it’s a little choppy on her end, it’s still a fun way to connect and have accountability partners. If you are interested in joining the group, let me know! There is no set schedule at this point.

Let’s do our best to live a healthy life until we go to a place that we are perfect!