Category: Travel

Cardio Ideas During COVID and Travel

Currently, I’m out of town taking care of some family matters. Due to the tight schedule, I chose a hotel close to the airport for convenience.

As we’ve discussed before, in order to lower blood pressure naturally, it’s important to consistently get cardio exercise. Before the days of the pandemic, I would hit the hotel gym after dinner and use the treadmill. However, due to the current Delta variant causing concerns, even though I’m vaccinated, I decided to be a little more cautious. The gym was very busy throughout my stay, so I had to get a bit creative. An alternative is going outdoors to take a walk, however my hotel wasn’t located in a very safe area for extensive walking.

That’s when I realized I could use the stairway within the hotel to get some pretty serious cardio. Of course, be sure to wear good walking shoes, hold onto the rail if necessary, and if you already have pre-existing balance issues, proceed with caution! Also, don’t forget to bring your hotel key card and cell phone.

Climbing stairs really gets my heart pumping, and after going up and down from floor one to nine about 3 times, I got an incredible workout! It also felt safer from COVID since there was no one else in the stairway. Remember, ideally you move continuously during the activity so your heart can become stronger!

Not to mention, it was super convenient to just lace up some shoes and skip the fuss of the gym or driving somewhere else.

The only downside was the complete and total lack of view 😆. Nothing exciting about a hotel staircase. However, I did reach my goal of getting heart-healthy exercise!

Have you found creative ways to incorporate exercise into your day?

My “gym” for today! Not very exciting but it got the job done!

Cheers to Ginger Tea and Your Heart!

There is a lot we are told to avoid when that high blood pressure diagnosis rolls in. Don’t drink too much caffeine. Avoid drinking too much alcohol.

What is the best drink for high blood pressure?

Good news! There are many options out there that are quite delicious and can even lower blood pressure naturally.

Today, I’d like to share about ginger tea! Ginger tea is naturally caffeine-free brewed from ginger root. To save time, you can make ginger tea from tea bags (dried ginger) or you can make it from fresh ginger root by boiling chunks of it in hot water.

Ginger may potentially lower your blood pressure naturally. As with many natural remedies, more scientific research is needed. Of course, it’s always good to check with your doctor first before adding them to your diet if you are uncertain. Especially since ginger may interact with certain blood pressure medications.

For almost any food or drink for lowering blood pressure naturally, be mindful of using it in moderation. It is best combined with a balanced lifestyle of healthy low salt diet and consistent exercise. Quick fixes are usually not the healthy way.

Please don’t drink 8 cups of ginger tea, then eat pizza all day and do no physical activity. Balance is key.

When I’m away from home, sometimes I’ll bring a few ginger tea bags with me to enjoy after dinner. It’s an easy way to include a healthy hot drink during times of travel! See below for my current favorite ginger tea! It’s delicious with a small dash of honey 🙂🍯

Delicious tea that may help with lowering blood pressure naturally (and also benefit digestion!)

Reference:

https://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jnhs/papers/vol6-issue5/Version-3/M0605037986.pdf

Daily Cardio on the Sammamish Trail in Redmond, Washington

There are many different ways you can start introducing more physical activity in your day to lower blood pressure naturally. It might be walking, swimming, or even other pool activities.

The key is to start moving and try for at least 30 minutes a day of continuous movement. If that’s not possible, don’t despair! Breaking it up into 2 separate segments of 15 minutes each is beneficial too!

You might be thinking: well there’s no way I’m going to drag myself to the gym and walk on a treadmill at the end of a long day. That’s totally fair.

When it comes to lowering blood pressure naturally by exercise, choose what fits into your life and is sustainable as a habit. Consistency is highly effective. Aim for 30 minutes at least 5 days a week.

I personally enjoy taking walks. The sights and sounds of getting outside is helpful for improved mental health (yay lower anxiety!). It’s also convenient for me to just lace up my shoes and step outside. Also, for those of you with back, hip or knee pain, walking is lower impact and less painful.

If you’re ever in the Seattle, Washington region and want to experience more than the typical tourist attractions, head on over to Redmond and take a nice brisk walk down the gorgeous Sammamish River Trail. I’ll include a few pictures below for your reference!

What are you doing on a daily basis to increase the level of physical activity? Please share!

The Sammamish River Trail is 10 miles long and passes through the city of Redmond.

Kitchenettes, Travel and High Blood Pressure

When traveling with high blood pressure, it can be challenging when it comes to lack of control over meals. If you’ve been following this blog, you know I am a big supporter of balance. Finding some kind of compromise is really the key; even during travel.

One way to gain some control and maintain a low salt diet when traveling is to choose hotels that have kitchenettes.

This way, if you indulge a little during lunchtime, you can grab a few simple ingredients to throw together a salad and enjoy with fresh fruit and nuts for dinner. This allows you to minimize the amount of salt and unhealthy fats for one of the meals.

It’s not the perfect solution, but I find perfection hard to keep up with. (I also have a post on tips for eating out, as that happens quite a bit during travels.)

I’m currently in Redmond, Washington and staying at the Hyatt House Redmond. It has a nice little kitchenette, living room, and bedroom. The rates are reasonable. The facilities aren’t fancy, but they meet my goals of space and control over what I eat. The staff is nice, and there are beautiful trails right outside the door. More on that later!

See below for a few photos. Have you ever made your own meals when traveling? If you have any easy go-to recipes to share, I would love to hear!

Hyatt House Redmond has kitchenettes, which helps with making low salt meals during travel.

Hiking in Cama Beach Historical State Park

It’s always a joy to have the opportunity to visit a different place. I’m currently visiting the beautiful Washington State, one of my favorite destinations. This trip, I’m staying in Redmond (located 15 miles East of Seattle) and rented a car for my adventures.

I love Seattle and its vicinity for many reasons, but I’ll focus on just one of them today! There are so many beautiful local and state parks to explore. Within the parks are often opportunities to find hiking trails.

Hiking is a fun and unique way to work in some excellent cardiovascular exercise. To lower blood pressure naturally, I aim to do 30 minutes of exercise daily. Having the opportunity to hike breaks up the monotony of the daily neighborhood walk. In addition, hiking helps to improve your balance and agility as it challenges your body to move in different ways than just walking on flat ground.

I drove to Cama Beach Historical State Park and cherished a lovely hike on the Bluff Trail which connected to the Marine Trail. Beautiful views of lush green forest foliage leading to sparkling blue waters sure made exercising for lower blood pressure great fun today!

You’ll find a few photos from the hike below! Are you a fan of hiking? What’s your favorite place to hit the trails?