Make your heart health a priority this month

By Kyle Schmidt

February is American Heart Month, serving as a reminder for Americans to check in on their heart health and take steps to stay fit.

“So we’ve done lots of things this month to kick it off and just remind people to think about their heart,” said Tammy Killin, CEO of the YMCA of St. Joseph. “You don’t have to be a member, you can come and get your blood pressure checked.”

The next blood pressure check at the YMCA will be Feb. 21. Killin spoke about the various ways to keep your heart in check.

“There’s so many ways that we can really help ourselves when it comes to our blood pressure,” Killin said. “There’s so many factors in that, whether you get good sleep, your stress level, what you’re eating, your movement. So if you think about all those things, you know what you’re putting into your body, how much you’re moving your body and then your stress and then sleep is so important. People don’t realize that, which is a struggle for some of us.”

Recipes were laid out on the tables at the gym to help people find quick easy and healthy meals to make at home to keep a solid nutritious diet. Meals aren’t the only thing that can be prepared ahead of time,

“A lot of times, especially in our society, we’re just kind of go rush, rush, rush. And we just grab what we can and what’s easy,” Killin said. “Meal prepping is kind of a big thing, but also snack prepping, you know, just little things you can do or just have healthy snacks, whether it’s an energy ball or bananas and peanut butter, just different things that you can do to make that healthy little choice makes a big difference.”

There’s no better time to make efforts to improve diet, sleep and exercise habits than during American Heart Month.

“I think we see that a lot of people struggle, and regardless of age, I think it has a lot to do with where we’re at in our life. … If we have a busy time, a busy schedule, so that can be even the younger kiddos just wanting to make a quick choice, an easy choice,” Killin said. “So whether you enjoy to dance or walking outside or you want to join a fitness class or you want to do personal training, you can do cardio, you can lift weights.”