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Originally posted at: Best of June

Photo: @kylerichards18

Originally posted at: Kyle Richard’s Pink Sneakers

When it comes to staying healthy on a road trip, many people focus on diet and exercise. However, the sudden cardiac death of my healthy best friend during a two-day road trip made me realize that there are other crucial factors to consider.

In this guide I present a user-friendly checklist specifically designed for you to help ensure a safe and enjoyable journey. By taking the scenic route, incorporating green spaces, monitoring heart health, and prioritizing restful sleep, you can protect your heart, and make the most of your vacation or time away from home.

Take the Long and Winding Road

When planning your car trip, consider taking the longer, tree-lined route, even if it adds some extra time to your journey. Recent studies have shown that lining highways with trees up to a depth of 1 kilometer can significantly reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death. This green road trip decision helps you avoid the silent heart and nervous system villains of air, noise, and light pollution.

Embrace Green Spaces

Make it a point to spend time in green spaces during your road trip. Plan breaks every couple of hours to visit parks or green patches of land. Spending at least one hour a day outside in green spaces, even in cloudy or cold weather, helps balance your nervous system, improves heart rate, promotes better sleep, and boosts your mood.

Notably, anger has a profound impact on the heart, with research indicating that the risk of a heart attack or erratic heartbeat increases two hours after an anger outburst.

Know and Monitor Your Baseline Heart Rate

Familiarize yourself with your resting heart rate (RHR) and heart rate variability (HRV). Your sleep quality and emotions reflect in these metrics. Anger and lack of sleep, for example, immediately affect RHR and HRV. These metrics serve as your personal real-time heart attack warning systems.

Monitoring them is simple – you can check your pulse or heart rate for a minute and compare it with your baseline RHR. You can use a smartwatch, blood pressure cuff, or manual measurements.

For HRV monitoring, a $100 chest strap and a free HRV app are necessary. Spend a minute each morning measuring your HRV, and the app will inform you if your heart and nervous system are in balance.

For more on taking your resting heart rate and heart rate variability, please see my book, Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body with Green Space.

Action in Case of Heart Issues

If you experience sudden and lasting changes in HRV, RHR, or blood pressure during your road trip, seek immediate medical attention. Drive straight to the nearest emergency room and provide them with your recorded RHR and HRV data.

To learn more about what to do in such situations, consult chapter Should the Worst Happen to You: How to Live Through a Heart Attack, in Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body with Green Space.

In Summary:

To protect your heart, you need to follow these steps:

1) Take the scenic route.

2) Take green space breaks every couple of hours and aim for as close to one hour outside as possible.

3) Know and monitor your heart rate once a day.

4) Go to an emergency room if you notice any sudden or lasting change in your RHR, HRV, or blood pressure. Provide these numbers to 911 or ER staff and use the language provided in my book to describe the symptoms that you do have so that 911, ER nurses and doctors will listen and prioritize your care if required.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

When you go on a road trip, which route do you take? How do you choose the best route? Do you prioritize green space when you travel? Have you experienced sudden heart issues on the road?

Have you ever seen those gorgeous ribbon wreaths that pop up in elegant department stores for the holidays? Beautiful though they are, they are often expensive – and might not be exactly the colour or style to match your décor.

The good news is, they are simple and inexpensive to make – and fun! You can indulge your creativity and tailor them to match any season, party, or décor style. I have some I keep up all year round. Follow this easy step-by-step guide to create your own ribbon wreath – or make them as gifts.

You Need

1. A wire coat hanger or garden wire – thick and fine
2. Wire cutters and pliers in case you need them for forming your wreath from wire
3. Assorted ribbons (different colours, widths, and textures to create an appealing visual effect)
4. Scissors
5. Decorative embellishments
6. Hot glue gun

What to Do

Step 1: Select Your Ribbon

This is the fun part! Your choice of ribbon defines the overall look of your wreath. Sometimes I choose ribbons of different thicknesses or materials to add texture to the wreath – ribbons with sparkle, cotton and hemp ribbon, mesh ribbon – whatever takes your fancy.

I choose a colour scheme – traditional red and green or silver and blue for Christmas, orange, green and black for Halloween, pastels for a baby shower, rainbow glories for Pride – quite literally, whatever works for you is a great choice. Have fun looking for seasonal printed ribbons too – you probably have some in your stash already!

Step 2: Prepare Your Ribbon Strips

Cut your ribbon into strips. The length will depend on the size of your wreath, but around 5-7 inches is a good starting point. You want each strip to be long enough to tie around the wire. Don’t worry about making each piece exactly the same length – a little variation adds to the wreath’s charm.

Step 3: Prepare Your Wire Base

If you are using a wire coat hanger, gently open the triangular part of the hanger, bending it into a circle. It doesn’t have to be perfect; the ribbon ties will hide a multitude of sins, and the ring can be adjusted if necessary once you have finished tying your ribbons. The hook at the top of the hanger can be bent gently into a loop for hanging the wreath. This can be decorated with ribbon wrapped around it or can be disguised by gluing a decoration to it.

If you are using garden wire, cut a piece of thick wire to your required length with wire cutters (experiment with different sizes before you cut) and secure it into a loop with the finer floral wire by wrapping the ends of the thick wire to hold it in a loop.

Step 4: Tie Your Ribbon Pieces to the Wire

Take a piece of ribbon and loop it round the wire; tie a simple knot to secure it. Repeat until the loop of wire is full of ribbons. Squash the ribbon knots together tightly to ensure the wire is covered.

Here, I am creating a wreath to hang in our apple tree as a summery picnic decoration, using lovely vintage ribbons in pastel colours that I purchased at an estate sale along with a collection of other gorgeous haberdashery materials. The ribbon is petal-soft and that open weave will let sunshine filter through beautifully.

Step 5: Embellish

If you would like to, you can embellish your wreath with glass baubles, tiny toys (perfect for a child’s room), silk flowers or seasonal decorations. I sometimes use a glue gun to attach them, or I dangle a decoration such as a bauble, a bat for Halloween or a snowman for Christmas from a fine ribbon tied to the top of the wreath so it hangs down in the middle of the hoop.

You can make these wreaths with strips of coloured netting (tutu net or tulle), strips of coloured felt, strips of fabric cut from upcycled clothes – any type of material. Experiment and have fun!

If you make a ribbon wreath, we’d love to hear about your experiences and see your photos, so please share them here in the comments and on our Facebook page.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Have you tried making a ribbon wreath? Have you experimented with different types of fabric? Have you made any seasonal wreaths in this way?

This blog is about my experiences and practices because this is what I know. I feel happy, positive and vibrant at 89. Do you feel the same at your age?

There are 4 things that contribute to optimum health as we age. These are diet (40%), physical activity (30%), sleep (10%) and other lifestyle choices (20%).

‘Other lifestyle choices’ refer to drugs (e.g., excessive alcohol), smoking, vaping, etc. Moderate alcohol is OK and even beneficial, according to some sources. I have alcohol every day, and I have found it to be beneficial for me.

Health gives us vibrancy of life, especially mental health and happiness which is ultimately what we all want.

Your genes contribute to around 7% of your health. Lifestyle does the rest.

The video below is relevant, particularly concerning genes.

Nutrition

You don’t need to be finicky about diet. Eat plenty of a variety of fruit and vegetables. A regular simple blood test will tell you if any health factors are outside limits. Your GP will alert you and recommend how to fix problems.

Don’t eat to excess. Get up from the table feeling you could eat a little more! Eat more protein for bone and muscle strength. You will be less likely to fall.

Exercise

As we age, our bones and muscles lose strength, our flexibility decreases and many of us develop heart problems. Most importantly, ensure the major scourge of old age, your heart, is strong.

The following is my gym work, every 2nd day. You must start slowly and build up to a fitness level over time. Experiment with comfortable equipment settings. Get advice from a professional trainer if you are doubtful. I didn’t and just ‘listened to my body’.

1. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). I do this by rapidly running on an elliptical trainer 3 times until I am heavily puffing at the end of each run. It takes less time. Do a similar exercise on a gym bike.
2. Include a variety of weights for bone strength.
3. Consult a physio to advise flexibility exercises or just ask Bard!

That’s about 3.5 hours or less out of your week! Have fun too. Play pickleball or golf. You will meet great people. If the above is too much, try walking to start. It is a good and refreshing exercise.

Arthritis

Most of us develop Arthritis as we age and this is why flexibility exercises are important. Last year I developed a painful right hip, and my physiotherapist recommended a series of exercises to loosen my hip after X-Rays showed ‘Severe Arthrosis’ in both hips.

I was skeptical but I now do these every day. The pain has gone and freedom returned! Physical activity allows blood to flow to the cartilage keeping it healthy, so I suggest you follow your physiotherapist’s advice and just do the recommended exercises.

Happiness

Exercise will produce endorphins that flow through your brain and make you feel you can ‘take on the world’. I am fortunate that my family, children and grandchildren are very dear, close and loving. However, this may be out of your control.

Friends are important so make a big effort to maintain contact, meet them for a coffee and join groups to meet new people. I have written a separate blog on Happiness.

Sleep

Some people believe they don’t need much sleep. This is rare, and you should ensure you sleep for between 7 and 9 hours, as noted in an excellent book by Matthew Walker of Harvard University.

I practise mindfulness if I lie awake. It works for me by relaxing the mind and body. It requires persistence and practice.

Advantages of Good Health

Mental and physical health are essential for a happy life. As noted above, better health is available to anyone with some motivation, a sensible lifestyle, etc. The rewards are enormous.

I sometimes experience euphoria just walking to meet a friend for coffee, because the endorphins are flowing, and I feel great. Try standing up straight, with head and shoulders back. It is so easy to put off exercise, eat too many sweets, etc., but the joy of discipline and positivism is more rewarding. You can start today. Just do it!

Optimism

Optimists tend to live 10-15% longer than pessimists. Don’t fret about issues you can’t change.

• A study of 69,744 women by the University of California, San Francisco, found that the most optimistic women lived an average of 14.9% longer than their pessimistic peers.
• A study of 1429 men by the University of Pittsburgh, found that the most optimistic men lived an average of 11.2% longer than their pessimistic peers.
• A study of 839 medical patients by the Mayo Clinic, found that those with a more pessimistic outlook were 19% more likely to die over a 30-year period.
• Optimists are more likely to take care of their health, both physically and mentally and are also less likely to experience stress. Optimists are more likely to have strong social support networks, which can contribute to longevity.

Discipline

Turning your life around toward mental and physical health is not easy but with practice, you create your own rules, and the satisfaction comes from keeping them.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

How do you feel at your age? Which of the four areas of health do you need to improve? Which ones are you working on?