The other day I was taking my wife for breakfast so it was about 7:30 in the morning and as we looked down one of the roads, there was a person walking. It was cold! We looked at the temperature in the pickup and it read 24 degrees – and that didn’t take into account the wind chill. We decided that was real dedication. A dedication we both wished we had.

I will be the first to admit I do not like exercise. My wife and I walked for a while but then used the excuse it was too hot, too cold, too windy, too busy – anything that would get us out of it. After my hip replacement and the great physical therapists that rehabbed me, I was in good shape. And then….I didn’t keep it up.

What has been a consistent part of my life is cardiac rehab through the hospital and it has been a blessing in my life in so many ways. You have to understand, I’m not talking about going through Phase II which is about three days a week for six weeks while on the heart monitor. I’m talking about five days a week right now unless something interferes. I’m talking about going to cardiac rehab basically since my first stents in 2003. It’s a great program with some great nurses and I’ve made some really great friends. We’ve solved a lot of the world problems during that hour of working our hearts out and we bonded because we were all in the same boat – heart patients. After all, your heart is a muscle and needs to be strengthened – but safely – reaching a target heart rate and keeping it by working out on the different machines.

This is National Heart Month. Wear Red for heart. I’ve been fortunate to have never experienced an actual heart attack and caught all the blockages before that happened. Five stents and a quadruple bypass later, here I am back exercising my heart five days a week under the close eye of Bonnie Garza, “my” cardiac rehab nurse. Yes, it’s always done under a watchful eye and that goes a long way to feeling it’s okay to exercise and get stronger.

My wife told me when I first started in cardiac rehab this would be the rest of my life. When she retired she said she would only go back to work if there wasn’t money to pay for me to go do cardiac rehab – she feels that strongly about it. You see, she worked for Dr. Billy Don Jones when he established the first cardiac rehab program in Brownwood. She saw first hand the people who would come and do their initial rehab then “intend” to keep up what they had accomplished at home only to come back in a few months because their intentions fell by the wayside. All this to say, stopping isn’t an option for me, at first because of her, but now because I see the difference it makes in my life.

It’s heart month! Take care of yours! Stay “heart healthy”.

And to that person walking in 24 degree weather – cudos to you. I admire you.

Until next time, so long everybody.

***

‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].