Sunday 12 July 2015

Learning Continues Every Day




It's corney I know, the expression, you learn something new every day. But for me at the moment, it is the case. 

I attended a course to up skill myself in, up to date first aid in an emergency, everything was pretty standard, building on common sense. Two things from the day stuck out for me; 

1. There are 75,000 suspected heart attacks in the UK every year!
2. I had no idea how hard it was to preform CPR

I was somehow shocked by the number of heart attacks, but really should I be shocked...? As a country our obesity levels are getting higher and higher, putting more and more strain on our hearts. I'm hearing about people doing more and more drastic things ego their bodies or in terms of dieting. Extreme/fad diets are exactly what they say on the tin, they see short term measures and actually do more harm than good. Resulting in similar pressures on your heart and body.

I can only take my personal experiences of extreme/fad diets into account here. I don't want to offend anyone on these diets, but just to be clear I'm not going to lie and I have tried them all (pretty much). They are short term! Lasting weight loss takes more.

Anyway, going back to the subject in hand. 

Heart attacks; there are some that will think that they go hand in hand, with the rise in obesity levels. Now I don't know the facts and figures, or research that has been done on this, so this is my personal opinion. The differences in our diets from many years ago, when heart attacks levels were lower, seems like one hell of a big coincidence to me, and I do think they are linked.

It's scary, heart attacks are serious, you've got to hope that there is someone trained and confident around you when one happens, to look after you and get you to hospital before your heart stops. Performing CPR is hard, it looks easy and rewarding in the movies, but it is really hard. Granted I only practiced on a dummy, but I did it for over 2 mins and thought to myself 'wow sometimes you'd have to perform this for so much longer, until the ambulance arrived'. You would be extremely lucky to have 2 first aiders around to help you.

I hope that I never have to preform CPR on anyone, however I'm glad I do know and have that knowledge if it came to it.

Life seems so fragile to me, I've not taken care of my body/mind before and it nearly broke me. I didn't listen to myself, who knows how long I could have carried on like that. My number could have been up a long time ago. I'm just glad I saw my way out, my way to happiness and confidence and if I can help others do the same, I would be honoured.  You only live once, why not try and see the best you and live your life?

I can't wait to take on clients and start helping them to see results. If only you could measure confidence levels - mmmm I might look into that!

Thanks for reading