BetterU: Exercise, Groceries and Weight Loss, Oh My

Did you know that in order to stay heart-healthy you should be doing 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week?

To a busy working mom of 3 kids, that sounds virtually impossible. Laughable even. I don’t have 150 minutes to do anything beyond the necessities it seems, let alone exercise. And so I broke it down. First, I need to acknowledge that exercise is a necessity. It won’t matter that I packed Chatterbox’s bookbag and wiped down the kitchen counters if I’m lying in a hospital bed after suffering a stroke, now will it? Second, while the 150-minute number sounds daunting, it translates into 30 mins per day/5 days a week. And what’s more is that if I choose to up the level of my workout to vigorous-intensity, I can cut that amount of time spent exercising to 75 minutes per week, which provides some better options for my schedule.

The BetterU Program has a great Activity Chart that shows a variety of different exercises and how many minutes of each it takes to burn the same amount of calories. So for example, vaccuming for 45 minutes burns the same amount of calories as jumping rope for 15 minutes, which is good to know (especially since I hate vaccuming).

I’m appreciating this new information. 75 minutes, I can do! That’s 25 minutes of vigorous-intesity exercise, 3 times per week.

In addition to exercise, the grocery store plays a major role in our quest for heart health. Choosing better options can be hard, especially with all the nutritional labeling info on food packaging and the various categories to consider. Calories vs. Fat Calories. Saturated Fats. Sodium. And the list goes on.

Here’s a quick tip: When you see the heart with a check mark symbol on food packaging in the grocery store, you’ll instantly know the food has been screened and verified to meet the American Heart Association’s certification criteria to be low in saturated fat and cholesterol for healthy people over age 2. Isn’t that cool? I’ve never really paid attention to that before. The AHA can even help you create your grocery list. Click here for more.

Weight Update
And a spot of good news for me this week! I logged my weight into Weight Watchers and got my 5% milestone star and congratulations! This means that I’ve lost 5% of my original weight. Yay me! Granted, it’s taken waaaay too long for me to reach this milestone (i.e. 8 months), but still, I’ll take it.