Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Making a Commitment to Healthy Living

OK, so I haven’t blogged in a long time. I have been asked several times to commit, but always find an excuse to postpone it. As with most things in life, you must want it, need it, have to have it, in order to commit to it. IT can be anything, from eating right, balancing a check book, proposing to the one you love or simply remembering to say thank you. As the Cardiovascular Patient Educator of the Frances Langford Heart Center I am committed to educating patients, nurses, our community and most importantly our children.

According to the American Heart Association, the rise in childhood obesity has become an epidemic that is sweeping the nation. This generation is the first in history to be expected to have a shorter lifespan than their parents. Obesity can lead to diabetes, hypertension and/or hyperlipidemia.

Research and time have proven that education can prevent and reduce many disease processes. Our goal is to prevent heart disease through education. Our children need to be active, eat healthy and maintain an ideal body weight. The number of obese, inactive diabetic children is on the rise which can lead to heart disease.

As a parent I find myself allowing my children to eat unhealthy, play hours of video games and not educating them on the need to prevent the above mentioned life threatening disease processes. Like many parents we do this out of convenience. Do we ever take a moment to realize that this convenience may ultimately harm them? I am the parent, as such, I provide nourishment, activity and daily schedules for my children.

What can I do to change this? I have cleaned out my pantry. Good healthy snacks have replaced the “junk” food. Video games and TV are limited to 30 minutes a day. My children are actively involved in sports, spend more time outdoors and are benefiting from leading a healthy lifestyle.

Sure my children were very sad, cranky and upset for several days. Their snack cakes were gone, they couldn’t finish their video game or sit on the couch for hours. Now, they make smart choices, because I am providing only healthy choices. It’s amazing how simple it is to recondition a young one. Our entire family has benefited from this lifestyle change.

As for educating other children, I recently visited Mrs. Sanchez’s fourth grade class at Crystal Lake Elementary. They’re studying anatomy and physiology this semester. I provided the series on the cardiovascular system. As a bonus, I challenged each student to keep their heart strong, eat right, be active, and maintain an ideal body weight.

I am hopeful that these smart, enthusiastic children will go home and encourage their parents to commit to making a lifestyle change in order to prevent heart disease.

--Melissa Zinderman, RN
Cardiovascular Patient Educator
Frances Langford Heart Center

No comments: