Many of my patients express this concern of having no guidance to reach their exercise goals. The first question I ask my patients  prior giving an exercise prescription is, “What are your goals?” Are you interested in longer life and decreasing your chance of cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease or losing weight, increasing quality of life , or all of the above. Recently there has been so many publications in Journal of American College of Cardiology regarding this topic. If patient’s want to decrease cardiovascular events and live longer, simply walk 45-60 minutes a day  at your own pace for 4-6 days a week may be enough but the guidelines recommend 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week. However, do not expect to lose weight or expect to increase cardiovascular fitness with this regimen. In August there was a publication from Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Texas that showed running even 5 to 10min/day and at slow speeds <6miles/hour, was associated with markedly reduced risks of death from all causes and cardiovascular disease. But, for weight loss and cardiovascular fitness this is not enough. The intensity of the exercise regimen has to increase along with a strict diet. Mostly, I find most people not only wanting to live  longer and heart healthy, but patient’s want to be able to keep up with their grandchildren, look physically attractive, increase their confidence and self esteem by being able to wear their favorite clothing attire, and etc. At Cardiac Vision, we encourage not just a longer life but the focus is on the quality of life in order for patients to be happy about themselves. We have a well credentialed and qualified personal trainer that we work with to make sure you accomplish these goals.  We are aware of the financial barriers of having  a personal trainer but are wiling to work with any kind of budget. So check out Beth Harris under About Us tab – “Cardiac Vision Team” page at www.cardiacvision.com.  We work closely with bariatric patients as well and have had great success thus far. To make an appointment or if there are any further questions regarding this topic, give us a call at 904-330-1024 or email us at info@cardiacvision.com.