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Heart Healthy Activities for Fall

With the first official day of fall approaching there comes a number of changes in our daily activities. The largest and most obvious change being the weather. It’s colder, which means that many of us begin to slow down and do fewer activities outdoors. Although this is the case there are still many things that we can do to help to keep our heart’s active.

Below are some recommendations of heart healthy activities that you can during the fall season.

Plan Seasonal Outings

Fall can be one of the most beautiful times during the year to go out and explore. The leaves are changing colour and it can create a really nice atmosphere to go exploring. Plan a day out with your family for a nice walk through some of your local walking trails or something more seasonal like an afternoon at the corn maze or pumpkin patch.

Make Fall Fun Crafts Outdoors

Fall weather can be a tad chilly but generally still nice, so crafting can be the perfect middle-ground endeavor: an indoor activity with lots of outdoor involvement. Plus, with so much nature to use, it’s economical too.

Visit your favorite park, take a walk in the woods or explore your own backyard to scavenge for colorful leaves, pinecones and other interesting bits of nature.

Exercise Outdoors

Although the temperature begins to dip beginning in late September and early October it doesn’t mean that you need to stop doing all of your regular activities. Many of our followers have shared with us that they like to continue riding a bike during fall, or even fishing to keep up there healthy activities. Find something that will be easy to do every week until you have to move your exercises indoors. Here is a list of some of our favorites.

Make A Family Meal

During the colder months of the year, nothing hits the spot quite like a nice warm meal. A nice stew or soup can really be a relatively easy, heart-healthy meal to have. When cooking try to involve your family, as so much of how they learn heart healthy habits comes from their elders. It’ll also help speed up the process of cooking if you assign them tasks like making mashed potatoes or cutting up the vegetables. Take some inspiration out of some of our heart healthy meals.

How Your Child can Learn About Heart-Health at School

Students are often busy as they had back to school during the first few weeks of the semester. They’re catching up with friends, joining clubs, and beginning their studies. All of these activities are highly important while progressing through high school, but one that should be added is learning about heart-health.

Each year in Ontario, children and teens are among the 6,500 people who experience sudden cardiac arrest. Although the amount of youth that is affected by cardiac arrest is much smaller than that of adults, we at The Mikey Network know that it’s important to teach good practices early on, so that students are prepared for emergencies in the future.

Heart-health isn’t limited to just learning how to perform CPR or how to save a life using first aid. It’s also about retaining a healthy lifestyle. Learn about some of the ways that your child can become involved in more heart-healthy forms of education.

Mikey Young at Heart APP

Not only does the Mikey Young at Heart app provide students with the opportunity to earn volunteer hours that they will need to graduate, but they will also learn how to use an AED or perform CPR in emergency situations. Students begin the process by downloading the app and registering online. Then they earn their volunteer hours by watching instructional videos and completing the course’s exercises.

Health Class

What these health classes are called will vary by school but will focus on teaching students the proper understanding of CPR, first aid, and the human anatomy. Registering for this course can give students a hands on approach to scenario’s that they may deal with if they were to face an emergency situation in real life. Students will also learn about the human anatomy which will provide them with further information on how the rest of the body functions. These classes are of great benefit to those who are looking to enter any medical profession later on in life.

Physical Education/ Sports

Having an active lifestyle is one of the best steps that you can take to prevent heart disease and cardiac arrest. Students that are enrolled in a physical education class or in an extracurricular sport will benefit from learning how to regularly perform a physical workout routine from a trained professional. Some schools will go even further by providing sports academies for students, where they’ll learn about sport/life balance and more advanced topics like Kinesiology.

Cooking 

Most high school students don’t have a good understanding of the nutritional effect that foods will have on their health. If your child is enrolled in cooking classes, they will learn how to cook meals to get through each and every day, while also learning about the proper nutrition that each meal will provide. Building an understanding of what is and isn’t a heart-healthy meal early on in their lives will help them to retain a healthier lifestyle.

These are just some of the things that can help to benefit your child’s heart-health. Regardless of what they do, or what courses they take, what’s important is that they are actively looking to improve their health and learn how to live a healthy lifestyle.

Learn More About the Benefits of The Mikey Young At Heart Program

As students head back to school there is often a lot to occupy their time during the first few weeks of the semester. They’re catching up with friends, joining clubs, and beginning their studies. All of these activities are highly important while progressing through high school, but one that should be added is learning about how to save a life.

To help your child get back into learning mode, as well as learning about the proper procedures for saving a life, we recommend that they sign up to the Mikey Young At Heart App. Now is the perfect time to do so, as they won’t be overwhelmed with a course schedule, as well as the many other activities that occupy kids when they head back to school.

The app which was created to provide your child with an understanding of CPR procedures and how to use an AED, is taught through instructional videos that they can view at their own pace. Not only is the app easy to use, the hours accumulated on it also count towards their volunteer hours that they will need to earn during the semester.

The best part about the app is that you can access it anywhere, so whether your child is at home relaxing, or studying with friends; they can keep learning.

Don’t just take our word for how great the Mikey Young at Heart app is, ask our friend Kayley Baker, who this past year helped to save the life of an elderly man in downtown Toronto thanks to her training on the app.

I was walking in downtown Toronto on Labour Day Monday with my grandmother when we noticed people making a fuss. There was a man on the ground and he was blue in colour. Automatically I knew something was wrong!

My grandmother grabbed my backpack and I knelt down beside him to perform CPR. I got to just over 30 compressions and he started to make a wheezing noise. There were people standing around but nobody else knew how to properly perform CPR.

I knew CPR because I went through the Mikey Young At Heart App. Going through the videos and quizzes gave me the confidence to act immediately and without fear. I knew what to do and I knew if I did it, this man would have a better chance of survival.”

Learn more about Kayley’s story here.

Each year in Ontario, children and teens are among the 6,500 people who experience Sudden Cardiac Arrest. If administering CPR or an AED during an emergency like the one Kayley experienced, a person has a much higher chance of surviving. Sign up to the Mikey Young At Heart app today to learn how it can benefit your life and others.

Celebrate Your Loved one’s on National Senior Citizen Day

Across the world August 21, 2020 is National Senior Citizen Day. The day allows us to reflect on all of the valuable contributions that are older friends and family have made in our lives. It’s a day to honour them, and to show our love and affection.

This year, we encourage you to reach out and connect with your loved ones, which can be made all that much harder due to the current pandemic. Below are some tips that we recommend for spending time with your older loved one’s.

***Please take into account that many of these activities are meant for individuals who don’t suffer from any serious medical conditions, and who are less likely to be exposed to the COVID-19 virus.

Take a Walk as a Family

Regularly walking is said to be one of the healthiest things you can do for long term heart health. It is also a very enjoyable activity that you can do with your loved ones.

Make a plan for a nice walk around the neighborhood, or if you’re more active a walk in a different area than you’re not used to. Even planning a day around a walk such as going to a farmers market, a walk around a lake or even spending some time in a park.

Cook a Meal Together

Many of us can recall a time when we learned how to cook our first meals from our parent’s or even our grandparents. There’s often a nostalgic feel to certain meals with our loved one’s because of this.

Take some time and make a meal together. Make those old family favorites, or even better, show them some of the great meals that you’ve been able to learn as you’ve grown older.

Get Creative

Getting in touch with their creative side is another fun way for seniors to spend time.

Drawing, coloring, painting, and sculpture are all wonderful ways to be creative. Fun projects might include creating scrapbooks, organizing family photo albums, or making a family recipe book.

Play a Game

Games and puzzles are a fantastic source of fun times.

There are so many to choose from and most can be played in groups with visitors, one-on-one for quality time together, and solo.

Try some classic games or card games, jigsaw puzzles, or crossword puzzles. Or you can even introduce them to a new game that your family has.

The Role Stress Can Play on Your Heart

Stress is an inevitable part of our every day lives – from trying to manage work, to trying to find time for family and yourself. It’s important to recognize and manage it because stress can significantly raise the risk of heart disease and stroke. It could lead to the detriment of your mental health such as depression and anxiety if stress is overlooked over an extended period of time.

Stress first develops in the mind but has huge repercussions on your body. Stress can take a toll on your physical well being, damage your heart health, and over time can increase the risk of coronary artery disease.

Sometimes it’s not as simple as changing a job you dislike, change your work schedule, or avoid difficult people and situations. Here is our advice on how to better manage stress:

Get enough sleep

Getting adequate sleep is vital for mental and physical health. Fall short on rest can take a serious toll on your energy levels throughout the day, productivity, emotional balance, and your weight. 

Avoid sleeping in on weekends. The more your sleep schedule alternates, the more likely you will experience jetlag-like symptoms. To make up for those late nights, opt for a nap during the day rather than sleep in to prevent your natural sleep-wake rhythm from being thrown off.

Get off your phone! Plenty of us are guilty of mindless browsing on our phones before bed. Melatonin, a naturally occurring hormone is needed to help regulate sleep and wake cycles. The light emitted from all the screens of electronics suppresses melatonin production. Try listening to music or read a book instead.

Follow smart eating habits

Cut down on the alcohol, caffeine and nicotine. These disrupt your ability to get good rest and interferes with your sleep cycle when you are out of it, especially if you have any of them closer to your bedtime.

Avoid eating large meals late at night. Try scheduling your dinners earlier if you’re planning on having a large meal. Your digestive system requires a time and energy to digest food which may be pulling you back from your body on concentrating to sleep.

Exercise

Exercise during the day for optimal results. Regular exercise allows you to sleep better at night and energizes you throughout the day. Exercise speeds up your metabolism and stimulates hormones like cortisol. Morning or afternoon does not make a big difference but working out too close to bed can make sleep afterwards difficult.

It can take several months of consistent physical activity before you can get the full sleep-promoting benefits. Just walking at least 10 minutes a day is enough to improve sleep quality. If you’re not a fan of intense exercise, yoga and stretching are great alternatives to help regulate your sleep.

Have any advice on how to get the best sleep you’d like to share? Please comment down below!