I, Joan O’Keefe, hereby admit that I HATE to be cold. I am a California girl and I despise the cold. However, I’ll be the first to tell you that the weather is NO excuse for not exercising.

I’ve said it before – exercise is vital. You must do something every day. The benefits of exercise are only 25 hours long. Of course, exercise will help you lose weight, but the benefits of exercise are more than just the calories burned during your workout. Exercise makes you calmer, lowers stress hormones, it blows out the cobwebs, letting you think more clearly and making you a nicer person – Just ask my husband. There are times when he will get this look on his face and say as kindly as can be, “Joan, maybe you need to go exercise.” I am crabby, grumpy and generally unpleasant to be around if I haven’t exercised. He can tell if I need to lower my stress hormones!

Exercise also improves sleep and builds muscle. Building muscle is huge. If you are not exercising and using your muscles, you lose muscle and if you lose it, you’ll have to eat less because you’re not burning calories. Exercise increases your metabolism for the next 24 hours and you’ll burn more calories all day. Exercise + following the Forever Young Diet and Lifestyle + CardioTea (my personal secret weapon) + portion control all equal weight loss.

So, what’s a girl who hates the cold to do all winter long? Move the workout indoors. You always have a choice. Say you have four kids and you’re stuck indoors in an ice storm with no chance of making it to a gym. What do you do? Run your stairs! Do it for 30 minutes. I’m not talking taking laundry up a couple of times, I want you to put on your sneakers, start in the basement if you have one, and head to the top floor. Go downstairs and repeat – for 30 minutes straight. You’ll know you’ve done something after this.
I also suggest trying new classes. Winter is the perfect time for this. Many gyms run the best promotions of the year in January. Get in there and try a new class – you’re guaranteed to be with other beginners this time of year. Try yoga, pilates, even spinning. Just be sure to shake it up. Do something Tuesday/Thursday and something different the other days. Make it fun. Join an indoor pool. Let the kids play and then swim some laps yourself.

Now, if you don’t mind the cold, options abound for you. My husband, a North Dakota native, loves the cold. He finds early morning frigid temperatures exhilarating. So, if you’re like James and the cold doesn’t bother you, bundle up, get out there and skate, run or walk, or better yet, try interval training. Walk a block, run two, etc.

Please take my advice and don’t let old man winter keep you from exercising and being the best you can be!

What kind of exercise does your cardiologist do? Exercise doesn’t have to involve a treadmill or weights. In fact, some of the best work outs are things you’d never consider “exercise.” Check out this article about a unique workout James O’Keefe, MD, Chief Medical Officer of CardioTabs loves.

via Working out with spare tires can help you get rid of your spare tire – KansasCity.com.

Though she’ll vehemently deny it, my 96 year-old mother is to blame for my terrible legs. I inherited my varicose veins from my mother. We have horrible genes for horrible legs. Through four pregnancies I battled varicose veins and have had an on-again-off-again battle with them ever since. I had one on my right leg that wrapped around my knee. It was extremely painful. I had it removed about a week and a half ago. I actually went in and they inserted a laser into my artery and collapsed it. The big downside is that the laser damages the vein and causes tons of inflammation. Following the procedure, I was very good. I wore my support hose and walked and did very light exercise as recommended. However, about a week later the leg was still uncomfortable and very sore and not getting better.

To make matters worse, at this point I’m now away from home visiting my mother in Arizona. I’m scared. My leg is so uncomfortable by this point and swollen and inflamed that it feels as though my leg is falling asleep all the time. I start thinking the worst, what if I’ve developed a clot? I try to be rational. Fortunately my husband arrived in Arizona that day. We think, what will bring down inflammation and thin my blood? Of course! Omega-3. I hadn’t even thought of it until that moment. I had forgotten to bring my fish oil with me to Arizona. Fortunately, my husband had it with him. I took four of them that day (Sunday). Within 12 hours, my leg was 50% more comfortable. The numbness was done and the pain felt duller. The swelling was even a little less. I could literally feel it healing. That was Sunday. I took four more each day, Monday and again Tuesday and guess what? The difference was remarkable! The reduction in inflammation occurred within 12 hours and by Wednesday I was back to normal! I’ve since dropped back to my normal dosage of just two omega-3 softgels per day. (I use the Ocean Safe Omega-3 from CardioTabs.)

I don’t want to sound like an overhyped testimonial. I know the science of omega-3 and inflammation, so this shouldn’t have been such a surprise to me. But I was panicked and this really helped. I just had a very personal experience with science – an amazing personal experience – and I wanted to share it with all of you. Let’s just hope my mother is not reading this!