Heart Healthy Habits

New Year, New You?

Society has a long tradition of setting New Year’s resolutions, as we seek to improve our health and happiness over the year ahead. This often involves resolutions to launch into militant exercise, to give up alcohol for ‘Dry January’, or to commit to a new diet such as ‘Veganuary’.

Significant changes to the usual lifestyle routine can be difficult to manage and can consume a lot of time and energy. Some of us can summon the willpower to keep going for a month but continuing the resolve into February, March and beyond often proves more difficult and the resolve fizzles out. Others experience a pattern of ‘yo-yo’ dieting and exercising, perhaps never really gaining a glimpse of the improvements that were envisioned.

Our New Year’s resolutions may be well-intentioned but fewer than 1 in 10 of us stick at it until the end of January. However, this year, more than ever, we all want to leave the old year behind and do what we can to improve our quality of life in 2021. We believe that there is a gentler route to a healthier lifestyle, which doesn’t rely on the ambitious changes so typical of New Year’s resolutions.

We’re inviting you to join our community group in January for our Heart Healthy Habits month where we will help you improve your health and achieve and maintain those sought-after goals in an enjoyable and sustainable way. In our virtual group you can work at a pace to suit you and build confidence whilst still having the support from ourselves and other members of the group. There is no cost to you, no expensive equipment to buy, all you need is a comfortable pair of walking shoes or trainers.

What can you expect?

Through social media we will provide live exercise sessions, healthy recipe ideas, step challenges and informative posts and podcasts. We’ll discuss risk factors, bust food myths and make simple, effective suggestions to help you create sustainable habits, which you can continue for years to come.

Why Heart Health?

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide including 75,000 people a year in the UK, yet many of these deaths are entirely preventable. Poor choices in exercise, diet and lifestyle – the very things we want to address through our New Year’s resolutions – all contribute to our risk of developing heart disease. The good news is that it’s never too late, or indeed too early, to make positive lifestyle changes leading to a longer, happier life. Improvements in your physical health also lead to improved mental health so its win-win.

Join us on Facebook: The Running Granny or at our website: www.therunninggranny.co.uk

Who we are:

Jo Rycroft is a Consultant Exercise Physiologist. She is accredited in heart and cancer rehabilitation and is actively involved in delivering all round health improvement programmes at www.jrhealth.co.uk

Dr Angela White spent her medical career working in trauma and orthopaedics and has a special interest in health and ageing. Through her presence on social media as “The Running Granny”, Angela raises awareness of the need for us all to look after our own health.