So today April 23rd marks two years since my dad had a heart attack and thankfully with Gods grace he’s alive and kicking today! It was the scariest day of my life when my dad suffered this painful moment in his life, I was going to work late that morning when my dad was complaining of chest pains and I’m so grateful for the ambulance men arriving within less than 10 minutes of making the call – thank you to the NHS and all the amazing staff members!
Hours later, which felt like an eternity, my dad was out of surgery with a stent in his heart and on his road to recovery. I don’t want to dwell too much on that awful day but it’s really important to look back at the things that may have triggered the heart attack and how to prevent it from happening.
There’s history of heart disease on my dads side of the family with my granddad passing away from a heart attack and my uncles have had stents put in before having an actual heart attack. Stress is a really big factor of heart problems, it really made me realize that fighting and arguing over things is so unnecessary and it’s important for everyone in the family to change their habits, views and outlook on life. Diet is another key factor to really pay attention to, this means taking into consideration what kind of foods you are consuming – cut out all the junk food, sugars and fats and look for healthy alternatives. Start exercising and moving your body, start slow with walking and building it up to other activities such as swimming or badminton, anything that gets the heart flowing and pumping. Rest and sleep is also another major thing to take seriously in order to stay fit and healthy as your body needs that time to recover from the day and rejuvenate itself.
Last year my older brother ran the London Marathon for The British Heart Foundation which is an amazing cause, this year I’m kind of following in his footsteps by running a similar thing for the same charity but you can run the 26.2 miles over the course of a month in May. It’s entirely up to you how you plan your run, you can complete it in a day or spread the miles out over the month as long as you complete the challenge within four weeks. I think it’s really cool because at this stage of my running I wouldn’t be able to complete a full marathon in one day but I like to run a few miles daily, so it’s nice for people who want to participate in a marathon of some sort.
Here’s my donation page if you wish to contribute to this great charity or wish to get involved by signing up to complete this amazing challenge yourself.
https://mymarathon.everydayhero.com/uk/soniaatwal
It’s so easy for us to take our body’s for granted until something bad happens, so let’s start making positive changes to great health now. Even if you’ve suffered any kind of illness it’s never to late to change things for the better.
