Feb 4 is National Wear Red Day!

What’s more fashionable than a red dress?

The Heart Truth: National Wear Red Day, Friday, February 4, 2011. Get Involved!

The symbol of National Wear Red Day, designed to increase awareness of heart disease among women, is a red dress! The goal is to get more women taking action by talking to their doctor about their risks for heart disease and making lifestyle changes to reduce those risks.

Did you know that heart disease is the #1 killer of women? I guess a lot of people don’t know that, maybe being breast cancer awareness has been so heavily marketed it would be easy to think that breast cancer killed the most women each year. So that’s why National Wear Red Day was created.

Why am I talking about this today? Because my dad died suddenly of a heart attack under the age of 50. That’s a huge risk factor for me, increasing my risk of heart disease by 136%. So when my first cholesterol test measured 200 and my doctor started talking about ways to bring that down, I paid attention. At that time, pre-kids, I was a couch potato and a junk food junkie. I was heavier than I should be and incredibly out of shape.

After the birth of my first baby I hit the gym hard. Pregnancy and child birth were actually good for me, kick starting my weight loss and giving me the drive to work out. My cholesterol dropped like a rock, as did my blood pressure and resting heart rate. I’ve been able to maintain that low cholesterol even when I’m not eating well through my active lifestyle. I get a full physical with bloodwork almost annually, because I am ever conscious of my family health history.

So today I’m joining in with my red dress, made by Liz Claiborne. And I thought I’d shop around and find a few others that I love, in case you were inclined to find one for yourself!

Here’s a cute and affordable one I found at Target for $39.99.

And here’s another I found at Nordstrom by Ralph Lauren. They have several great styles I like from both Ralph Lauren and JS Boutique. 
And just to present some beautiful options for curvier women, here’s a stunning red dress I saw at Nordstrom by Calvin Klein
So I hope you’ll take this Fashion Friday  post to heart and after you pick out your red dress, go talk to your doctor about your heart health! Now hop on over and check out some other Fashion Friday posts! 

Enjoy Salad Dressing Without All the Fat and Calories

Today’s Works for Me Wednesday tip is a truly simple one that I learned from my Weight Watcher’s leader many years ago when I actually went to weekly meetings. In March of 1998 while I was home from college, my dad sat me down and gently suggested that he and I could both stand to lose a few pounds and exercise more. Neither of us was obese by any standard, but he was right. I cheerfully agreed and then returned to college without giving it another thought, since I was focused on finishing my honors thesis, graduating, and getting married all in the next couple of months. Then he died, suddenly of a heart attack in December. I think it was the following March that I signed up for Weight Watchers, followed the program faithfully and lost over 30 pounds.

Eating healthfully almost necessarily involves a lot of salad. I am not a fan of salad without a really tasty salad dressing, and most super low fat dressings are disgusting. So here’s the tip that rocked my world. Especially at restaurants where dressings are delicious and especially fattening.

Ask for the dressing on the side. Then take your fork and dip it in the dressing first, then stab some veggies and eat. 

You will be amazed at the result. You get all the taste of the dressing, but a teeny tiny fraction of the calories compared to pouring the dressing over the lettuce. Try it sometime and see how much is leftover in your dressing cup when you’re done.

So tell me what your favorite salad dress is. Mine? Is the Tangy Tomato at Outback Steakhouse. Yum!

works for me wednesday at we are that family