Notes from my first day of Ornish Rehab

Looking east from the 3rd Floor of the Cardio care building...it probably looks a lot like the building across the parking lot. The mountains beyond are probably close to my home in Black Mountain.

A station outside the reception area offers hand sanitizers. I don't like Purell because of the after-sticky-lotion that it has. So I use a clean paper towel to wipe off my palms. Other times during the day I was happy to do 20 seconds of hand washing.

One view of the gym. I walked the track around the outside on Tues. I made it further than the distance of 0.55 miles which is the circumference at Lake Tomahawk. It was much easier to walk in an air conditioned environment. The treadmills with a yellow sign on them to not be used are to keep patients at least 6 feet away from each other (if there should be that many.)

Yep, we each wore a heart monitor as we exercised. And our fearless leader checked our blood pressure, our heart rate, and our oxygen percentage several times during the 30 minutes that we exercised today. There's also a central console which I think shows some technicians the status of our heart monitors. I am so pleased with the amount of tracking of our heart activity...this is why I feel very safe with the exercise program.

I think 16 times around on the red path of the walking track was a mile. I made 12 circuits, with a few rest stops as needed. It wasn't as hard as the day before had been at the lake. I think that's partly due to lower humidity. I'll keep trying to find a good time at the lake, because I need to have 180 minutes a week of aerobic exercise.

The chairs and mats are in the area where we'll have instructions about some of the weight training. I gauged my efforts were a bit light today.

And then we had a delicious vegetarian lunch, then talks about nutrition, stress relief and finally support groups.

I brought home a lot more reading, as well as things that I need to track. Oh dear, I'm not good at writing any more, with the nebulizer meds which give my hands the shakes. I'll do the best I can. Which was my intention for today. I did. And I was exhausted when I got home. I hope my endurance at having attention and sitting will improve as the 3 hours each afternoon will require that...Tues. and Thurs. We start with the exercise before lunch, which is good. When I get around to doing an hour's meditation I hope I can stay awake!

Today's quote:
When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatize those who let people die, not those who struggle to live. -Sarah Kendzior, journalist and author (b. 1978