Keep Your Heart Healthy Giveaway

This month I have had the pleasure of trying out two heart monitors thanks to a promotion I was asked to be a part of for American Heart Associations Heart Healthy month. I am also glad to post that I am going to give away two of the Reebok-Sportlinewatches below designed to keep track of your heart along with other vitals. The ultimate goal of these Reebok-Sportline watches is to raise awareness about the benefits you receive by exercising while using a heart rate monitor.

MSRP varies

MSRP varies

Age, Gender and Heart Disease
 
- Many people mistakenly think of heart disease and stroke as conditions that only affect older adults. However, a large number of younger people suffer heart attacks and strokes. More than 150,000 heart disease and stroke deaths every year are among people younger than 65.
- Heart disease is the leading cause of death for American women, killing nearly 422,000 each year. Following a heart attack, approximately 1 in 4 women will die within the first year, compared to 1 in 5 men.
- More statistics can be found at the Million Hearts Website, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 

The Reebok-Sportline Watches I Reviewed



The Reebok-Sportline CARDIO 660 is a watch that connects to a strap around your chest. The strap helps keep track of your heart rate and the watch records it. The watch also keeps track of your steps, distance, time and calculates your calories.

Reebook Heart Rate Monitor without a Chest Strap is a watch that has a metal ring around the time area. This metal ring takes your heart rate when you put your finger on the corner. You can take your heart rate at any time. The watch also keeps track of your steps, distance, time and calculates your calories and speed.

The Reebok-Sportline Heart Monitor Watch I Liked Best

I have really enjoyed using both watches since I have never used a heart rate monitor before in any of my training for triathlons. I can now be sure that I am pushing myself enough while training. This has been especially helpful since my next race is just four weeks away and the weather has been really lousy to get out and bike. So I do most of my training on a spin bike during a class or on my bike trainer.

I like both devices but the Reebook Heart Rate Monitor without a Chest Strap is my favorite since I do not have to strap it around my chest. It was a little tricky at first to get the hang of how to use this watch, since you have to put your finger on the metal part for it to read your heart rate. However, it is worth the little extra effort since I love how comfortable it is, especially, when I swim.

If you are interested in learning more about triathlons and learning how this out of shape mom became a triathlete you can visit my trisportsmom.blogspot.com.

If you are interested in winning a Reebok-Sportline watches please visit my trisportsmom twitter account and look out for the tweet that states: "The 2nd and 32nd person that retweets this post will get one of these two #hearthealthy watches." If you are the 3rd or 32nd person I will contact you via Twitter with more information if you win. ONLY ONE RETWEET PER ACCOUNT WILL COUNT.

Why Use Heart Rate Monitors

The American Heart Association says, "Your target heart rate helps you hit the bull’s eye. “We don’t want people to over-exercise, and the other extreme is not getting enough exercise,” says Gerald Fletcher, M.D., a cardiologist and professor in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Jacksonville, Fla." Heart rate monitors help you see if you are in the right zone. The American Heart Association provides this chart to help you see if you are on target. "The table shows estimated target heart rates for different ages. In the age category closest to yours, read across to find your target heart rate. Your maximum heart rate is about 220 minus your age. The figures are averages, so use them as general guidelines."

Age	Target HR Zone 50-85%	Average Maximum Heart Rate, 100%
20 years	100-170 beats per minute	200 beats per minute
30 years	95-162 beats per minute	190 beats per minute
35 years	93-157 beats per minute	185 beats per minute
40 years	90-153 beats per minute	180 beats per minute
45 years	88-149 beats per minute	175 beats per minute
50 years	85-145 beats per minute	170 beats per minute
55 years	83-140 beats per minute	165 beats per minute
60 years	80-136 beats per minute	160 beats per minute
65 years	78-132 beats per minute	155 beats per minute
70 years	75-128 beats per minute	150 beats per minute

The American Heart Association also states: "If your target heart rate is too high, you’re straining. So slow down. If it’s too low, and the intensity feels “light” or “moderate/brisk,” push yourself to exercise a little harder. During the first few weeks of working out, aim for the lowest part of your target zone (50 percent). Then, gradually build up to the higher part (85 percent). After six months or more, you may be able to exercise comfortably at up to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. If you have a heart condition or under cardiac rehab talk to a health care professional about what exercises you can engage in."

Heart Healthy Resources

Heart Attack Risk Calculator  - Discover your 10-year risk of heart attack or dying from coronary heart disease and what you can do about it. 

The heart healthiness of “real” physical fitness  

Be One in a Million Hearts

Keep Your Heart Healthy Giveaway

Remembering Steve Jobs

In 1993 I was hired by a school to work and teach in a lab full of MAC LC's with no hard drives. My server was a MAC SE. I actually had two. I have to tell you that because the rest of my story needs you not to worry about one of my SE servers.

At 21, and with not much else to do, I decided I needed to learn the ins and outs of this MAC SE and the best way to do that was to crash one. Yes, I said crashing one and on purpose. Remember I had one that worked and ran my network so the other one was just a back up. I also have to mentioned I was armed with great forces, the APPLE help desk guys. I had them at hello. Yes, I called them at all times of the day to pick their brains dry of everything they knew about the MAC SE. You see back then the guys at the APPLE helpdesk would do that for you...they would sit with you for hours and help you for as long as you needed. Now remember I said this was 1993 and I couldn't just sign up for a class to learn how to uncrash a purposefully crashed MAC SE. This faithful little MAC SE became my classroom. It opened doors to a whole new way of looking at computers. Sure I had been playing with UNIX, experimenting on the web... as the birth of the WWW was occuring, programming old languages but nothing intreged me as much as learning how to use this little SE. Thanks to it's easy to rebuild system I became obsessed with learning all about it. I learned it so well that by the time I rebuilt it I could have told you by memory every file in the systems folder. Now my thoughts might still be controversial, to WINDOWS fans that is, but I recognized then that this little SE had a superior system. The style, ease of use, how easy I could crash it and fix it again it was proof enough for me. I had fallen in love with my little MAC SE. I wished everyone would see what I saw in my little SE. I tried to convince everyone but only a few listened. Until one day, about 20 years later, they brought out the iPhones. People finally seemed to see how wonderful Apple products were but isn't it to bad it had taken 20 years?

I'll never forget my little MAC SE it will always hold a special spot in my heart. It was the birth of something wonderful for me. Now here I am 20 years later and I am still teaching computers. I have Steve Jobs and the founding developers of APPLE who provided me with a wonderful little machine that made sense. A machine that was easy enough to crash and rebuild because it was so intuative. I am thankful for the developers and Steve Jobs for being so innovative in their creations. Today I remember Steve Jobs with this video, it pretty much sums it all up for me too. Rest in peace Steve Jobs. The world and I have so much to thank you for.

Remembering Steve Jobs

I Gotta Share!

"At the onstage introduction of Twirlr, a new social-sharing platform, someone forgets to silence their cell phone. And then ... this happens.... " Read the full article on TED.

I Gotta Share!