Healthy Lifestyle | Heart attack waiting to happen

The driver who collected me from the airport this morning was concerned about his health:

As I got into the car he was connected to someone at his Doctor’s Surgery who informed him that there weren’t any appointments available today. Apparently he had been waiting in a queue for 30 minutes. He seemed slightly disappointed but not surprised.

I don’t know what his symptoms were. Fortunately he didn’t volunteer any details and I didn’t ask. Even I have learned that’s not a question to ask close relatives let alone complete strangers. Given I was in his hands for the duration of my trip to the office, and that we were breathing the same air, I hoped it wasn’t anything too serious!

As he drove however I was treated to a monologue on his general state of health and associated concerns. One of the major factors seemed to be his father having a Heart Attack last year, something I could obviously relate to…

Driving a taxi isn’t the most physically active of jobs. Since he started driving about 18 months ago he has put on a lot of weight. In fact, he said he’s put on over 20 kilos. This seems an awful lot of weight to put on in such a short period; it just goes to show what a combination of negative factors can do for you.

Doritos are his major weakness. He eats two family bags a day; one to pass time while waiting on his car, and one at home as a pre-bedtime snack. He felt that he was “unable to give them up”.

There are plenty of more healthy snacks available!

Eating healthily is a challenge for him. He doesn’t like vegetables. Apparently he’s scared of them. To be more accurate, he’s scared of the idea of the taste of vegetables and therefore doesn’t eat them. As he continued to talk about his fear of vegetables, it transpired that due to this fear, he has only ever tried two types.

To his surprise, he actually liked both of the vegetables he has tried; grilled tomatoes and okra. I would therefore put him in the “likes every vegetable he’s ever tried, but hasn’t tried many” camp.

Over the weekend he had been required to help push a friend’s car. He struggled; feeling generally weak, he tired quickly and it wiped him out for the day. An ex-smoker, he doesn’t do very much exercise. He’s often exhausted after a hard day at work, and tends to relax in front of the TV to unwind.

It is recommended that we do a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week.

As our journey went on the number of risk factors increased. On one level I felt sorry for him as he was obviously worried and is stuck in a rut. Many aspects of his lifestyle are not that different to how mine used to be pre-Heart Attack.

On another level I wanted to shout at him; he seems fully aware of what he’s doing, not doing and the potential risks, but is seemingly unable to do anything about them.

I sincerely hope he does get an appointment with his Doctor, and I hope his Doctor is able to help him get back on track.

For me it served as a reminder of how easy it could be to slip back into bad habits. Any thoughts of skipping a trip to the hotel gym this evening due to fatigue were quickly erased.

The maintenance work at the Local Pool finished yesterday bringing the week-long closure to an end. I don’t usually swim on a Saturday, but I was keen to get back in the pool, particularly as we have visitors this weekend and an early morning swim seemed like a good way of getting some exercise without impacting our plans for the day.

Not being a regular on a Saturday, I didn’t quite know what to expect. Given it had been shut all week I assumed the pool be busy.

I arrived to find 6 lanes marked out. Normally the swimming team would have been using 4 of the lanes but today they were all available to the public. There were some early comings and goings, but shortly after my arrival there were only three of us in the pool, and it stayed that way for the duration of my session. What a difference it makes to have a dedicated lane. A rare luxury. Bliss!

Sharing a lane can be frustrating!

After the session, one of my fellow swimmers asked me a question:

“What are you training for?”

I thought this was a fantastic question to ask in a Swimming Pool / Gym type setting. There’s no real downside… if you’re not training for something you’re likely to be pleased that someone considered you might be, and if you are it’s obviously a good conversation starter.

Personally, I was really pleased to be asked. It’s the first time anyone’s openly mistaken me for someone who’s fit for a long time. I took it as a sign that I’m making progress.

As it turned out, the chap I was speaking to is training for an Ironman event in South Africa in April next year (2.4 km Swim, 120km Cycle and a 28km Run). Clearly he has a little more conditioning under his belt than me!

The delights of competitive Open Water Swimming!

I have to admit, I was a little bit jealous. I suspect I’ll never be in a position to take on such a gruelling challenge. I’ll continue to set myself challenging goals, but they will always be within the context of my medical history, long term medication, etc.

I was recently asked a question about what I can’t do as a result of my Heart Attack. The list of things didn’t extend much beyond “some rides at Disney” and “scuba diving”. I suspect in reality the list is much longer, but I’m not going to add Ironman events to it just yet. Instead I’ll focus on doing what I can, taking it one step at a time. Who knows where the journey will end up!