This part of the Alumni website is dedicated to helpful tips, tools and resources that we all come across. These are always vetted to ensure the source is reliable and that the material is publicly available. As always you should consult your healthcare team for medical advice.

Nutrition Diary and Exercise Tracking Application

Click on the link below to check out MyFitnessPal. This is a free tool that you can sign up for. Don’t worry about being asked to pay later as they make their money from advertising. This is a little annoying but not that big a deal. You can upgrade to Premium which gives you more tools and removes all advertising. The free tools are extensive and very helpful in nutrition and macronutrient planning as well as weight management.

MyFitnessPal

Weight Management – February 1, 2021

This section was added to provide a helpful and detailed reference source for peer group members that are interested in managing their weight in support of a heart healthy lifestyle. The source is a comprehensive guide provided by a private medical clinic in the US, Kaiser Permanente, a not for profit integrated health care system with the mission of providing consultative health management, acute and chronic care to its members. They have an excellent website and the section on Weight Management can be accessed at the link below. Here you will interactive tools, information and guidance on all aspects of weight management.

Weight Management 

Eat Tracker

Check back here in November for a new tracking tool.

Exercise Planner

The link below directs you to a website that assists you in designing an exercise program based on your own personal situation. It will ask questions about your demographic information, what goals you have, how much time and effort you want to put into exercise and the equipment you wish to use (example stationary bike, therapy-bands, free weights and so on). Once you have entered the start up data it will automatically produce an exercise program for each day of the week. It does take some time and effort to get started but if you are serious about working out, this is like having your own personal trainer along with a nutritionist!

Remember to consult with your healthcare team about safety for you to exercise and don’t start a program without their approval.

Bodbot

Health Studies

For those of you who prefer to do your own research into how diet can influence health there is a reputable website that links dietary practices with health factors. Here is a link to the website.

Health Studies – Diet and Disease

For example if you search Vegan & Vegetarian diet for influence on Heart/Cardiovascular disease you get a menu of research results. An example of the research is shown below.

Healthy Plant-Based Diets Linked with Lower Risk of Coronary Heart Disease

Wholesome plant foods are the foundation of a healthy diet, but not all “vegetarian” foods are equally nutritious. To see how different variations of plant-based diets relate to the risk of developing coronary heart disease (when plaque builds and hardens in the heart’s major blood vessels and decreases blood flow), researchers analyzed data detailing what more than 200,000 people ate over 20 years and separated people into three versions of plant based diets: overall plant-based diet (includes all plant foods and some animal foods), healthful plant-based diet (includes healthy plant foods like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables), and unhealthful plant-based diet (includes sugar-sweetened drinks and refined grains). Not surprisingly, they found that the second choice – eating fewer animal foods and more healthy plant foods – was linked with a lower risk of developing coronary heart disease, while eating more animal foods and more unhealthy plant foods was linked with an increased chance of developing coronary heart disease.
Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2017 July; 70(4):411-422. (Satija et al.)