Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Getting a flu shot is one of the most important things you can do to stay healthy this year. Flu shots are available and free to University of Alabama students at sites across campus and at the UA student health center and pharmacy. Check out our schedule at CCHS UA EDU flu shot. Call 205-348-6262 for a flu shot appointment at the student health center or walk
[00:00:23] Speaker B: up Monday through Friday from 4 to 4:45pm WVUAFM, Tuscaloosa.
[00:00:36] Speaker C: Happy Sunday, y'. All. You are listening to Fit to be tied with Sheen and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone. And it's February.
[00:00:42] Speaker D: It's February. And I think we should tell everybody that, yes, you guys have had a couple of reruns, but they were to encourage healthy living. New Year's resolutions. But we did have to throw in some reruns just because we've been kind of busy.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: Yeah, life happens.
[00:00:56] Speaker D: Life happens.
[00:00:56] Speaker C: We had some out of town things was like the MLK holiday and not being able to reschedule stuff. So just, you know, we are human beings too. We are keeping it real. So if you're ever thinking, oh my gosh, do Sheena and Whitney just strive for perfection all the time. How do I live up to those standards?
Baby, we're real.
[00:01:16] Speaker D: Just like that. Yeah. And I will say shout out to UA because we get such good time off as professional staff that you're able to take off and go get your teeth cleaned and get your eyes checked and do fun stuff like that. So it's kind of nice when you have, you know, a full time professional job and you can take off work and also get paid at the same time.
[00:01:34] Speaker C: Yes. It is amazing.
[00:01:35] Speaker D: It is amazing.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: It's so amazing.
[00:01:36] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:01:37] Speaker C: And you know, I know that normally during this time, we don't always just like put out there on the forefront what we're talking about for this show. But I'll go ahead and put out there a little bit that, you know, it's February. Lots of different things happen in February.
I mean, obviously you think about heart month.
Yes, yes, obviously.
But we're gonna talk a little bit about that today. But we're also gonn put our own little, our own little twist to it as well with a topic that we happen to talk about in the fall. So we have all these different things going on. But Whitney, I would love to know, how's life for you right now?
[00:02:17] Speaker D: Life's good. I'm not gonna lie. The rec has been bumping and I think, I mean, this is just Our busiest semester because we had New Year's resolutions. We have spring. But I have to tell you something kind of funny. And I was waiting to say this kind of when we started the show and not between segments or what.
So I have noticed, you know, I mean, you guys have heard me talk about Pilates, Pilates Reformer, and I teach that on the machines and everything. We have noticed an increase in Pilates Reformer this semester. And we've noticed also, like, our mat Pilates classes, like, they are booked and they are full. And I was like, why all of a sudden, does everybody want to do Pilates? Well, I had to ask my students because the students have social media and I do not. And apparently it's trending now in the sense of. Have you heard of that?
Like, the term, like, be that girl. Have you ever heard that? Okay, well, I didn't know what it was. This just shows my age. It shows that I'm not on certain things, like TikTok and stuff like that. But apparently there's, like, this running thing. And listeners, you may know what I'm talking about, where, like, people strive to be, quote, unquote, that girl. Like, you get up early, you work out, you've got your water, you do your Pilates classes. And I don't know how I feel about this because as a practitioner of Pilates, I'm kind of like, well, am I that girl? Because I drink water and I get up early and I do Pilates, but at the same time, I didn't know what it was. So apparently whatever is trending on social media is leading our students to come do Pilates at the rec. Which is awesome, because I love, you know, the participation and people getting excited because I've had a chance to actually teach people about Pilates. And not that it's just some trend. They understand that it was created by a man, and it's a lineage of over 100 years. So it's been kind of weird. But I didn't know if you had seen the trends.
[00:04:03] Speaker C: I'm not. Although I will say in terms of other pop culture relevance for anything else. So, you know, I like. There are certain types of shows that I like just on streaming services, one of which is a show called Love is Blind.
[00:04:19] Speaker D: Oh.
[00:04:20] Speaker C: So there was a season back in the fall of Love is Blind 3, and one of the contestants was a Pilates instructor.
[00:04:29] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:04:30] Speaker C: So she was in the pods talking to, like, the different people. Cause, you know, you can only hear their voice since Love is Blind, allegedly. So a lot of times she would Be doing Pilates, like, while she was talking to them.
[00:04:45] Speaker D: Interesting.
[00:04:46] Speaker C: One scene where this, like, dude was, like, basically being very vulnerable, talking about his, you know, him growing up and being a minority and, you know.
[00:04:56] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:04:57] Speaker C: Or like, that was just a. And just a. Some kind of experience.
[00:05:00] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:05:01] Speaker C: And he was like, are you freaking exercising right now?
How rude.
Yeah.
[00:05:10] Speaker D: And so all for that camera.
[00:05:13] Speaker C: She would talk a lot about being a pilates instructor.
[00:05:16] Speaker D: Interesting.
[00:05:16] Speaker C: Throughout the show. And, you know, and of course, most of these people go on these shows so that they can promote themselves as an influencer. Post show.
[00:05:24] Speaker D: Was she that girl?
[00:05:25] Speaker C: She is definitely that girl. So she has recruited a lot of people to do her. Yeah. Her online pilates. I think it's like pilates by Raven.
[00:05:36] Speaker D: Okay. Okay.
[00:05:37] Speaker C: Yeah. Anyways. But yeah, interesting.
So she probably has also helped create some relevance to.
[00:05:44] Speaker D: Interesting. I mean, that's great. And maybe. I mean, and I'm grateful for all that, but I just thought that was so funny. And I think it's funny that you talked about love is blind because we are gonna be talking about heart month, and your heart is very involved when love is involved. And our other topic that we're gonna kind of incorporate. So, yeah, I think we got a great show.
[00:06:02] Speaker C: I think we do, too. But, y', all, we gotta take a break. You are listening to fit to be tied with she.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: Wvuafm tuscaloosa.
[00:06:21] Speaker D: Welcome back. You're listening to fit to be Thai with Sheena and Whitney. And it is February, which is heart month. And we always like to cover this topic every year because it's very important.
Our hearts have a very important function for the body. We cannot live without our hearts. And so I think, Sheena, you kind of printed off some papers for me to read.
You kind of, like, put some papers in front of me. I was like, yes, let's see what we have here. But heart smart basics. I kind of like this.
[00:06:48] Speaker C: Yeah, no, you know, these, of course. You know, in preparation for everything today, I was like, well, let's just print a bunch of stuff off. But as I was looking through these things, of course, you know, I started to think, too. You know, when we think about February as heart month, and we have all of these different awareness weeks and months and things that we celebrate, and it's always good to know the why, because I feel like there are many obscure dates that are out there. And I think we may have mentioned this last year, but February as heart month, it really is just a way for the nation to spotlight, you know, our country's biggest killer, which is heart disease.
In the notes that I was finding that I think it was President Lyndon B. Johnson who had had a heart attack, among many others, and really created that proclamation back in 1964 for February to be heart Month, just so that there could be just more coverage in regards to awareness, resources, and, you know, tips on lifestyle.
[00:07:56] Speaker D: So I was like, well, that's, you know, it's interesting. I was just thinking he said 1964 was when he had a heart attack. Well, you know, to me, back then, it's like, okay, we had knowledge, but maybe we were coming up on more knowledge of, like, how to prevent heart disease, what heart disease was. And I'm sure there's more dates we could look at. But isn't it interesting that we're still dealing with it now? And I almost feel like it's gotten worse.
[00:08:18] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:08:18] Speaker D: You know, like, just with the obesity pandemic and people being sedentary, I know in my line of business of just trying to get people up and moving and not seeing sitting all day long, like, I almost would think that nowadays we, we have so many modes of exercise, but I feel like it has gotten worse. And even like childhood obesity. It's gotten worse.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: Yes. And I think that's what.
I hate to sound all, like, conspiracy theorists. You know, we both love the Illuminati.
[00:08:45] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[00:08:45] Speaker C: Fascinated by it.
[00:08:46] Speaker D: Yeah. It's interesting. It's interesting that it's a topic of discussion, in my opinion.
[00:08:51] Speaker C: But, you know, if you were to, like, kind of be in those camps of people where you think like, oh, big Pharma is out to get us, like the food industry is out to get us, they're in cahoots together because they just want us to.
I think that there's some truth to that. So when we think about the quality of food in America and the standard American diet, and more so thinking about even just the types of ingredients that are legal here that aren't necessarily necessarily legal in Europe, and then also the culture that we live in now where it is so high stress.
[00:09:26] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[00:09:27] Speaker C: That'll be a great segue for later in the show when we talk about some other things that we want to correlate with this. But even when we just start thinking about we live these high stress lives, you know, the quality of our diet can be very poor.
We are living in an age of everybody drives or uses some kind of convenience vehicle. You know, there's not a lot of walkability or walkable communities anymore. So it's just all of These different things. It's very interesting.
[00:09:58] Speaker D: It's almost like we've tried to make life easier, but we've actually made it harder and more stressful. You know, like, cell phones are a super great tool and a great thing. And the information you can look up and the Internet, computers, I mean, we have the information in front of us right now because we were able to Google, you know, heart smart basics or information about how to prevent heart disease. And we have all the information there. But it's almost like, what is it? Spider man says with great. What is it? What is the term? Spiderman says responsibility, whatever. You all know, you marvel people know what I'm talking about. But it's like, literally, if you're given this gift of things, you have to use it very wisely. So kind of as I was like glancing at this sheet, which is a really nice handout by the way, it's from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which is. It's pretty good little graphics. It's easy to look at. But I think sometimes in fitness for us, it's nice to define certain things. And I also know that, like, I teach CPR as well for the American Heart association or actually American Red Cross. Sorry about that. And I think it's interesting to know that, like, your heart rate is an important thing to look at, especially now that all of you have wearables. It's your Apple watch, your Fitbits, whatever you might use. It's nice to keep track of your heart rate and kind of see changes in that. Because I think if you're starting an exercise program now, you're going to start to see some, some changes in your resting heart rate. You're going to become more fit. But I think it could also be a good indicator of maybe irregularity in your heart rate. So if you are younger and you notice that your heart rate gets sort of fast, you know, and maybe you should get that looked at. But also our stress levels.
We talked about how, you know, heart disease is the number one killer. And that's kind of scary because I think it's. Is it the number one killer in all Americans or is it just like.
[00:11:43] Speaker C: I think that it's across the board and then there may be some different. I can't remember if there's some different.
Where it ranks in difference across, like, genders.
[00:11:55] Speaker D: Right. Cause I know for women it's a pretty big deal, which you would never really think about that because I think typically our bias is just to think like, oh, men, if they look a certain Way barrel chest, bigger up top. It's just there's more fat around the heart. I know for me, that's kind of like my thought process, but it's not always true, you know?
[00:12:11] Speaker C: Yeah, no, and I really, you know, I like what you were mentioning just in regards to just that awareness with like, heart rate and blood pressure. Yeah, and blood pressure, too. And so there's this term called interoceptive awareness where we, we basically have an awareness of, you know, when we're feeling certain things in our body, we know exactly what it's communicating and we know how to approach appropriately respond to that.
So that's something that I talk about a lot in intuitive eating when we're trying to get someone in tune with how hunger is being communicated for them as an individual, because it can be different. And so sometimes when you have people that you're trying to just introduce the concept of interoceptive awareness, we get them to basically sit there and try to perceive their heart rate. Do they feel like, oh, I can tell that I'm having a rapid heartbeat right now, or I can tell that my heart is relaxed pace and just having that awareness and then knowing how to respond to it appropriately. So I think being aware of that is really helpful. And then, you know, when we think about, from a standpoint of going to see your doctor and then you hear them talking about all of these different labs like, oh, my cholesterol is high, or this or that. I feel like sometimes people respond a little bit more in depth when they understand what these things are that the doctor is talking about.
And so I know with some of these materials from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, there's a section where it really talks about what those different components are in the lipid panel that you would have taken. So the way it describes cholesterol, it says it's a wax fat like substance that's in your cells. Our bodies generally make all the cholesterol needed for good health. And cholesterol helps make hormones, vitamin D, and substances to help you digest food. So I think it's good for folks to know, hey, our body does need cholesterol. But when we're looking at your lipid profile, sometimes you'll hear people say things like, oh, I have my good cholesterol, my bad cholesterol. What is that? And so. So you've probably heard of your hdl, which is known as the quote unquote, good cholesterol. And it could also be labeled as your high density lipoprotein. And so basically, what HDL does is it helps your body get rid of cholesterol so it doesn't clog your arteries. So it's a good guy. It's trying to kind of like clean your system out, clean those pipes out. Whereas your quote unquote, bad cholesterol, the LDL cholesterol, it deposits cholesterol inside the blood vessels that carry blood to your heart and other parts of your body. And over time, there can be blockages. So basically think of that HDL as trying to clean you out. And then the LDL that bad cholesterol is kind of adding to the clogging. So even just having those visuals can be really helpful for folks.
[00:15:13] Speaker D: Well, and Sheena, I think because I freaked out because I'm a vegetarian, y' all know this. So I don't eat a lot of, like high cholesterol type of foods in general, but I have a little higher collective cholesterol. Like my total. My HDL is amazing. I remember, like, I did a little wall Bama screening and they're like, yeah, your cholesterol is a little bit high, you know, And I was like, how, what the heck? I'm a vegetarian. Course I went off the deep and I was like, well, got to be a vegan now. And that didn't work because that was really unsatisfying. But I'm even speaking as a vegetarian, but what kind of foods can someone eat to increase their hdl?
[00:15:49] Speaker C: Yeah, actually, that's a great question. So for one, I think you want to look at this collectively in terms of what's going to lower your LDL and then what's going to increase your hdl, that good cholesterol. And it's interesting because really, when you're thinking about lowering your ldl, I feel like a lot more of that is going to be dietary based.
So having a lot of what called soluble fiber, that kind of helps, quote, unquote, absorb that bad cholesterol. So think of things like oatmeal is a really good example, but something like hdl, a lot of it is more so behavior based. So that's going to be quitting smoking. If you're a smoker, that definitely will help your hdl. And then physical activity, especially weight bearing exercises, strength training, can specifically help increase that hdl. So when we think about foods that can help hdl, you don't hear recommendations about that as much.
[00:16:52] Speaker D: Specifically, it's more so lifestyle, maybe. Yeah. Okay.
[00:16:57] Speaker C: So I like that. It's kind of that combo move.
[00:16:59] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:17:00] Speaker C: Before we geek out more about this I know we've got to take a break, but catch us on the flip side. You were listening to Fit to Be Tied, which she made a 94% reaction.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Wvuafm, tuscaloosa.
[00:17:22] Speaker D: Welcome back. You're listening to Fit to Be Tied and we're talking about heart month and all these fun handouts that Sheena makes me read to increase my knowledge on heart health, which I really do appreciate it. Sheena, of the two of us is probably the more organized when it comes to being prepared. I bring my phone and then I bring the humor.
[00:17:40] Speaker C: Well, truth be told, even though I do find these different things, you're the best about actually reading them. Sometimes I will find stuff and I'll just print it all off because I haven't read it yet. But we're busy people. You're like, oh, yeah, I read it. That was cool.
[00:17:58] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: And then you don't have to kill trees.
[00:18:02] Speaker D: Like, but
[00:18:06] Speaker C: we talked a little bit about Colossians, cholesterol.
[00:18:08] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:18:08] Speaker C: Just kind of being aware of that. One other thing that I was going to mention with your lipid panel is that sometimes you might just hear like, oh, your cholesterol is great, but your triglycerides are really high. And folks are like, well, what the. What is triglycerides? Right. So that is going to be another type of fat that is in your blood, but instead of it coming from animal based dietary sources, because that's usually how where cholesterol is coming from is. It's usually going to come from, like an animal product. Triglycerides are the type of fat that are produced in the blood from a lot of refined carbohydrates and sugars. So I may have someone that's like, oh, well, I don't eat a lot of bacon or this or that. Why are my triglycerides so high? Well, if maybe there's someone who they really drink a lot of water, but they exclusively drink sweet tea, so something like that, or they mostly rely on a lot of, you know, processed, refined carbohydrates from the vending machine and don't have a lot of opportunity to get fresh produce in their diet, that kind of stuff. So that. That can definitely increase triglycerides. So I always like to let people know those different.
[00:19:27] Speaker D: Yeah, and I didn't. I mean, you put that into a good perspective because, like, I never really think about triglycerides. I don't know. I guess because I do like a lot of healthy foods in general, but I do love a vending machine. You know, snack. When I'm kind of like, don't, like, like, need a snack? I always try to go for, like, the peanut butter crackers, but even then, there's kind of a little extra process in it. So, like, maybe a little, like, snack mix of some nuts and some raisins, Something like that would probably be a better choice. But, yeah, thanks for breaking that down. I was also kind of looking at the blood pressure terms, because I know a lot of us, especially if you're younger, blood pressure and, like, high heart rate probably doesn't really go off on your radar that much unless your watch tells you or, like, kind of. Sheena, you're talking about, like, feeling what you feel like when you do have high blood pressure. But, you know, just to throw this out there, a normal blood pressure reading is 120 over 80. And I think, like, when I first started getting my blood pressure taken, where I actually was aware of it was probably when I had finished college. I never even thought about, like, maybe I should go check my blood pressure. Because your apple watch will not tell you your blood pressure.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: I don't think.
[00:20:27] Speaker D: I mean, it could.
[00:20:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't think so.
[00:20:29] Speaker D: I don't think it does. Which apple? You should probably get on that. But, yeah, I think it's interesting to know that anything that starts to go between 120 to 129 for your systolic, that top number that's elevated high blood pressure is going to be over 130, which is, you know, if it ever becomes an issue, just go to your doctor, ask him what's going on. It could just be high blood pressure and maybe doing a little yoga could kind of help or re evaluating what you do in your day so that you aren't so stressed and you can accomplish things. But there's also, you know, our genetics that can play into that. So I think it's important to be aware of that and monitor your blood pressure if you think you have some issues.
[00:21:06] Speaker C: Yes. And it is known as the silent killer. You've heard our guests, Nico Morgan talk about that before, and I will tell y', all, it for real is a silent killer, because I have sat here before and had no idea that my blood pressure was, like, 158, 123.
[00:21:24] Speaker D: Yeah, that's not.
[00:21:25] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:21:26] Speaker D: Yeah. What did you feel like when it was like, did you know that that was. Your blood pressure was high?
[00:21:30] Speaker C: I really didn't. There's always been some rare times where I knew it was high because I was having a really bad Headache, Okay. It's not the norm for me. So then I looked and I was like, oh, 170 over. Cool, cool, cool, cool.
So that's always concerning. And I think some people are gonna feel it and then others aren't. So don't just assume, oh, I feel great. But really, you know, in your place of work, know where the free blood pressure cuff is, or invest in one, you know, and you might say, well, I'm not, you know, I'm not retirement age yet. Why do I need.
[00:22:06] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:22:06] Speaker C: But really it's a great investment. They're very inexpensive and it's just nice to have some awareness for it.
[00:22:12] Speaker D: And I almost wonder thinking about stress and anxiety just in general, because it all plays around and we're going to talk about how you can decrease that work on some things for yourself. But I almost wonder, like, the statistics now because we are very stressed, especially after dealing with a pandemic. I even hate bringing up the pandemic because the word of it and just thinking about COVID does even bring a little bit of anxiety to me as well. But just thinking about, like what we had to deal with. We were scared all the time. It was just like we were scared to leave our houses. We were scared to be in the same room when we know. And we're gonna talk about this in a second, being around people is probably what helps you bring down the stress and give yourself a little bit of relief. So let's talk about some self care tips for heart health. Maybe that'll kind of help get us into the right frame of mind for our next topic.
[00:23:00] Speaker C: Yes. So let's kick things off kind of with your area of physical activity.
[00:23:05] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:23:05] Speaker C: How do we, how do we just make that work for us?
[00:23:08] Speaker D: You know, it's interesting because when you think about exercise, exercise generally puts stress on your body.
So like cardio puts stress on your heart to become more efficient. And then strength training puts stress on the bones to become, you know, stronger bones and, you know, muscles and all that kind of stuff. So it's kind of interesting that it actually helps you. So I like for people to think about maybe not exercise as stressing your body, but just general physical activity. So let go of the idea that you have to do so much cardio, you have to do so much strength. But I always say, like a general guideline is like 30 minutes a day of just moving your body physical activity, and the easiest thing you can do is walking. And I feel like walking is recreational. I know it's kind of gross outside, right? Now, but the weather's gonna start getting pretty. Come to the rec center. We'll let you jump on the track. But get a friend, talk about things. Listen to a podcast, listen to some music. Combine your physical activity with something that gives you a little joy. Maybe like a Netflix show. Like if you want to watch, you know, TV while you do some cardio. But try not to make it so intense, especially if you're, if you're just now starting out. I think that's important just to feel good for the right endorphins.
Yeah. Oh, look, it even says a 30 minute brisk walk on my little. On my little cheat sheet, you know, but also, you know, I talk about yoga all the time. If you're new to yoga, just go to YouTube and watch like a 20 minute little basic beginner yoga class. Yoga is just about breath, work and stretching and the moment you kind of go into that space and let go of everything that's bothering you and say, you know, I'm just gonna go in here and do yoga for 30 minutes. Yeah, it's, it's pretty easy to do. Really.
[00:24:50] Speaker C: No, I love your plug for that. Because I think now that I've made this switch in my mind of thinking about my movement or physical activity as a vehicle for just increasing circulation and getting better blood flow, AKA a better oxygen, more appropriately to body parts, I need to make this happen because I think it can be so easy when you're sitting at your desk to think, well, what's the point of me, like getting up from my desk? It's not like I'm gonna, you know, you know, lose weight by doing like a five minute walk around the building. Well, maybe not necessarily. That five minutes is going to increase some blood flow, oxygen, you're gonna be outside for a minute. Like all of those things. I love the way that you bring
[00:25:34] Speaker D: that even, like, it doesn't even have to be structured. Like, do you like to dance? Do you like to move your body around? Just put on a good playlist or some music. But it just needs to make you mentally feel good. I really, truly believe that exercise has those benefits of if you do hiit training, if you do strength training. Yes, we know that very precise thought out prescription of exercise can get you where you want to be, but also, like, are we just trying to kind of feel good through life? And that's what I like to remind people. Sheena, I'm curious with you. I feel like you can talk about all kinds of things food related, but just in general, what are some things that people can think about while when eating, preparing meals, going out to eat to help them maybe decrease the risk of heart disease or become more self aware. What kind of choices should they make?
[00:26:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say, you know, definitely having a lot of variety in your diet and that. Because I think that sometimes it can be so easy to think like, oh, I gotta eat heart healthy. I'm only gonna eat fruits and vegetables. You're gonna get burned out on that. We wanna have a little bit of everything. And I think that it's important to go into this without this mindset that I have to completely cut out xyz because it's. If you have any hint of that, then you're gonna eventually build up on those cravings and you're gonna just go crazy with it. But I think really start to think about how you're eating right now Instead of focusing on what I want to take out of my diet. Maybe you're noticing like, oh, my lanta, I never eat fruit. What is happening?
[00:27:07] Speaker D: That's me. I never eat fruit.
[00:27:09] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[00:27:09] Speaker D: This is so me.
[00:27:12] Speaker C: Your new quote, unquote challenge to yourself would be, let me see how I can start being more intentional about adding fruit to my diet or adding more water intake or maybe noticing like, wow, I only choose the regular version of a lot of items. There are a lot of canned produce items that are lower sodium varieties that I should do. Or maybe I should actually take a little bit at the sodium label for once and, you know, some more awareness.
[00:27:41] Speaker D: I kind of like that. And I know we're gonna come up on a break, but I just had this epiphany. I was like, why don't I really like fruit? Like, fruit's okay. But I kind of just realized I don't think my mom liked fruit a lot. Growing up, we were more vegetable people. So I remember, like, we just didn't have a lot of it in the house, but if we did, it was kind of like I just never really ate it anyway. That's just a whole nother story about my life. But we should probably go to a break.
[00:28:03] Speaker C: We probably should. I have so many things I want to say right now.
[00:28:07] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:28:08] Speaker C: You're listening to Fit to be tied with Sheena. I'm Maddie Plays at the house.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: Wvuafm tuscaloosa.
[00:28:26] Speaker D: Welcome back. You're listening to Fit to be tied with sheena and Whitney.
[00:28:28] Speaker C: And man, we just.
[00:28:29] Speaker D: We're all over the place with our heart health this month because. Because we really do want to talk about the second Part of our show and it's leaving us little to no time. But Sheena, you sent me some articles which I think were awesome and I did fom through them like you said I probably would. But mostly these articles were stating that if you are grateful or if you have a heart of gratitude, which is what we talked about last semester, you can what, decrease your risk of heart issues or you can heal from heart surgeries. It's very cool.
[00:29:04] Speaker C: It basically having this attitude of gratitude really helps with your overall heart health.
And this is coming from a variety of angles. So the first angle is if you are a quote unquote grateful person, you're gonna have less stress in your life. So basically, you know, your perspective on things is going to be different. You're going to be focusing on these positive things. But then also with having this attitude of gratitude, some of the studies that we found it showed that people were more compliant about doing things like taking medications, you know, being diligent with having daily movement or whatever. So it was kind of interesting. It's like not just like, oh, I'm grateful, but there's also characteristics of grateful people that I don't know. Yeah, it was just this all encompassing thing.
[00:30:02] Speaker D: Well, it's interesting because I'm sitting here thinking about gratitude from like a yoga perspective. And yoga, it's not a religion. It is, it is a form of practice that's influenced by eastern religions. But I always think to myself, like, if you look at our wellness will, there's that spirituality component and there's the social component. And I think even if you took away exercise, even if you took away nutrition, if you were to surround yourself with positive people, if you were to find a higher power, whether that is believing in God or something bigger than yourself or yourself, depending on what that is and how you treat things, I mean, that's going to put everything into perspective. So I think sometimes you kind of have to shift. Like everything that we do nowadays in my opinion is a very woe is me. It's a very self centered inward look. And I think if we were to look outward and be grateful for the things that we do have, even though we might not have everything, we might have some diseases, some things, we find those specific things, I really do think it can change our outlook and make us less stressed and elevate our serotonin in the brain and make us want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.
[00:31:14] Speaker C: I agree. And I think too one of the things that I noticed with these articles is that there was this Emphasis on really how can we create this culture of gratitude within a workplace too?
Just so that there is kind of this, like, pay it forward movement. You know, you're going to have people that feel much more satisfied in their jobs as well as being healthier. And so some of the examples that they gave for ways to incorporate gratitude into your team include actually saying thank you to nurture relationships and trying to make a habit to show gratitude to someone in the office once a week. Because I think we could ask countless Americans who say they don't feel like they are counted as worthy.
[00:32:02] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:32:03] Speaker C: In their job. They feel like they're doing a thankless job. Or even, it says here, encourage your teammates to share something they're grateful for at the start of meetings. It'll help your teammates focus on the positive in their life.
Offering meditation programs that help employees focus on what they're grateful for. And giving your team gratitude journals and encouraging them to use them in their personal lives. I really liked a of lot, lot of those suggestions and I was just
[00:32:30] Speaker D: kind of looking down and one of them says, like, out of the blue, write a thank you note. Did you say that already?
[00:32:35] Speaker C: I didn't.
[00:32:35] Speaker D: No, you didn't. Because I might have zoned out for just a second as I was reading through my notes. I was just going to be completely honest. But yeah, I mean, out of the blue it says, just write like a thank you note to see the reaction. And I think, like, sometimes I know for me and you, Sheena, we've been working in our particular roles for a long time now to where we have a tendency to kind of see things from a different level lens. And so it's nice to kind of see how our jobs have been, you know, when we first started to. Now maybe people that we manage and remember that we were once in their shoes and maybe we can input a little gratitude towards them and kind of a little friendly, I don't know, little friendly reminder of, you know, how far we've come.
[00:33:13] Speaker C: Well, and I will say you are good about that because for listeners who don't know, in our division of student life, from time to time in our monthly meetings and especially during the holidays, they'll have these little cards out.
[00:33:27] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:33:28] Speaker C: People can write little, basically these little, like, thank you notes that are all cutesy and then the division will get them out to the appropriate mailbox on campus. And you are always good about sending one to me.
And I'm like, I feel loved and appreciated.
[00:33:45] Speaker D: Well, just know that you are. Just know that you Are hopefully you can read my handwriting on those when I write, because I have such horrible handwriting. But, yeah, I think it's just kind of like a little call to action to each. To ourselves. And I think that in the workplace, it's very important. But I also think people should remember that the workplace is just part of your time. You should also be doing these things with your family members, with your extended family members, because, I mean, no offense, workplace, but that is what's more important than the workplace. Workplace. You know what I mean? So I think sometimes, especially in higher education and even students, we tend to go, go, go, go, go, do all these things because we work a lot of hours. We have to do this and this and this. But I think, you know, you can also have gratitude for your family, Whether it's praying together at night or you're talking about things that you're thankful for going around the table. I think it just kind of shows, like, the, like, humanity, you know?
[00:34:41] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think the big thing to remember with this is that when we're talking about gratitude and really seeing it as an agent of change for your health, we want to think about this as a daily practice. I think it can be so easy to just want to rely on that fleeting emotion of being excited or grateful for something cool that happened in the moment. But there's going to be a lot of days that happen where nothing cool happened at work. Nothing cool happened in your house. Actually, the complete opposite of that happened. And that's going to be the perfect moment where you've equipped yourself to be like, okay, despite this really crappy circumstance. What am I grateful for today? Well, I'm grateful for the fact that my car worked.
[00:35:27] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:35:27] Speaker C: It did get me to work that I can see, because I have, you know, I have family members that are going blind, you know, and it sounds like, oh, wow, you're being so dramatic. But no, really, really. Yeah.
[00:35:41] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:35:41] Speaker C: There are people that do not have the luxuries, especially for us as Americans.
Spoiled little.
[00:35:48] Speaker D: Don't even get me started on that. On that tangent there, Sheena, on that tangent. But I do think. I mean, gratitude, I think, is positivity, and I think that. But as, like, right now, it's interesting that we're in the month of February, which to me is one of the hardest months to kind of get through until we get to spring, because we don't have as much sunshine. We got a little rain. We're still gonna have some cold spells, you know, it's Valentine's Day, isn't Fun for everybody, you know? So I think, isn't that ironic? Valentine's Day and heart month. And yet it's not always the best for everybody. But anyway, just thinking about these things, maybe what you need right now is your gratitude journal. Maybe the month of February is gonna be tough until we round that corner till spring break, and we get some sunshine and we get some warm air. Fresh air, and we can go outside because we need those elements. So maybe this is a time for everybody to think of one thing that they are grateful for or thankful for, because I think that that elevates the positivity. Whereas we live in a world that's all negative. You know what I mean? It's just very. And I think we have the power to change that, and we could be healthier now.
[00:36:52] Speaker C: Whitney, I know we're about to have to go break, but point blank, like, if I had to be like, whitney, what's something you're grateful for right now? What would you say?
[00:36:59] Speaker D: Oh, my gosh, that is such a great question. Honestly, this sounds really lame, but I think my car, because I can get to where I need to go.
[00:37:06] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:37:06] Speaker D: Because, for instance, I have a client that I work with, and she's not from this country, and she doesn't have a car, and it is such a stress in her life to make it to a Pilates session and Pilates. When she comes, we try to kind of wind down and make it hurt her time, but I can see the stress on her face, carrying her heavy backpack, carrying her clothes from one thing to the next. That I'm, like, truly grateful that I do have a car that I can get from point A to point B, and I don't have to always rely on a bus system. It's nice that we have them, but let's be real, you know, so. But yeah. What about you?
[00:37:39] Speaker C: I think the ability to choose what I can eat every day.
[00:37:45] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[00:37:47] Speaker C: You know, sometimes Jerry and I joke about, like, oh, you know, what are we gonna have for dinner? Like, I hate that we have to make this decision.
[00:37:54] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:37:54] Speaker C: But even though. Yes.
I. You know, that can be annoying sometimes. I'm so grateful that we even have the luxury to choose, because there are so many people that don't.
[00:38:04] Speaker D: They don't know when they're gonna eat.
[00:38:05] Speaker C: Yeah. And so I'm like, thank you. That I can go to a local grocery store and I can choose what kind of. Of protein I want. Oh, do I want Brussels sprouts today or broccoli? And I'm like, anyways, it goes back to the whole spoiled first world problem thing.
[00:38:21] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:38:21] Speaker C: On that note, let me just, I'll stop and then you'll catch us for our last little bit. You're listening to Fit to Be Tied with Sheen and Whitney on 90 points like the capstone.
[00:38:36] Speaker B: Wv tuscaloosa.
[00:38:46] Speaker D: Welcome back. You're listening to Fit to Be Tied. And I have to share a funny story with y' all as we close out our show.
And I think my mother in law, I don't think she listens to the radio show, so it will be fine. But you know, we're talking about just the luxuries that we have in this country. And my mother in law is Vietnamese and she, you know, came from Vietnam and had to learn English here and everything. And I remember we when the pandemic hit and we were really low on toilet paper choices and you couldn't get your cottonelle or quilted northern or whatever you use. And she said, you know, Americans are so spoiled sometimes because when she was growing up, she had to use whatever she could get when she went to the bathroom, whether that was like a corn cob. And I remember I kind of laughed and chuckled, but then I was like, now wait a minute, she's being serious. Like, we have it made. So I think that's just we should be grateful for what we have in this country.
[00:39:35] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:39:35] Speaker D: Our toilet paper is super great, you
[00:39:37] Speaker C: know, and with family members that are also from a third world country. Yeah. I mean, it just puts a lot of perspective on things. And so I'm so grateful for what we have. But with that said, y', all, we've had a fabulous show. We're going to continue to talk about heart health throughout the month as we have our various guests. But until then, we hope y' all have a fabulous week. And you have been listening to Fixby Tide with Sheen and Whitney on 9.7 capstone.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: Wvuafm tuscaloosa.
