yebaah!

I don’t have to tell anyone how important it is to keep a healthy heart.  I don’t deprive myself of any food and at times, I overeat, but now I always know when to stop indulging and start exercising.  

I learnt that any exercise that does not get your heart pumping does not achieve much.   This cheap little gadget has been helping me get my heart going at the right level and my body back into shape. 

Strapping this heart  monitor helps me maintain a certain heart rate to prevent my heart from excessive strain on one hand and on the other, to achieve the optimal exercise results.  For women, the rule of thumb is 226 - age = maximum heart rate (MHR).  For men, it’s 220 - age = maximum heart rate. 

To burn fat or for weight control and loss, one needs to be working at 60-70% of one’s MHR.  For fitness and endurance training, it’s 70-80%, but exercising at 90-100% overloads specific muscles and risks serious heart injury. 

Using the monitor, I found that a leisurely walk barely gets me to the fat burning zone, while brisk walking for 30 minutes to one hour does.  To increase my exercise level, I brisk walk uphill or play boxing with my Wii for about an hour.  Both get my heart seriously beating at 70-80% of my MHR.   Two weeks at this level got me fitting back to my size 8 clothes.  My aim is size 6 in another two weeks.