New Year’s resolutions for those who hate resolutions

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters   

Well, we’re into the New Year now. For some of us, that’s almost enough time to notice small cracks beginning to appear in the boldly announced resolutions made in the midst of all those post-Christmas excess guilt pangs. When I was one of the volunteer run leaders at our local Y Marathon Clinic during the last century, we’d often hear such resolutions from the first-timers starting our training workouts at this time of year – something like “This is the year I’m finally going to quit smoking, lose 20 pounds and run a marathon!”

“Honey,” I would gently say to them: “Pick one!”          .  Continue reading “New Year’s resolutions for those who hate resolutions”

Top 5 most popular Heart Sisters posts from 2022

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters  

Before I tear the last page from my 2022 calendar (yes! I still love my big paper calendars!), here’s my annual look back at what my readers were reading this past year on Heart Sisters. It was indeed a freakishly weird year for this site: the first time since its launch in 2009, for example, that I took a complete summer break from writing about women and heart disease. This happened unexpectedly after I became utterly obsessed with my newest passion: trying to grow roses in pots out on my balcony.  (If you’re a rose lover, you can find the archived gardening updates I wrote all summer, starting here). Spoiler alert: like many things in life, this summer adventure turned out to be mostly about managing unrealistic expectations. . .   Meanwhile, here are the five Heart Sisters posts that were most popular in 2022: Continue reading “Top 5 most popular Heart Sisters posts from 2022”

What to get for the heart patient who has (almost) everything

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters  

You could do last-minute Christmas shopping for another scented candle or pottery vase (that just might end up some day on somebody’s yard sale table together). But if you have a woman in your life who has been diagnosed with heart disease, you could choose a truly useful gift this year. Here’s why, in my admittedly biased view, that gift could be my book, A Woman’s Guide to Living with Heart Disease. And Santa can even save 30% off the cover price when ordering from my publisher, Johns Hopkins University Press!) * Continue reading “What to get for the heart patient who has (almost) everything”

I’m still alive, post-influenza. I think. . .

by Carolyn Thomas     ♥    @HeartSisters 

        Where I’ve spent the past 19 days…

I’ve missed a bunch of really good stuff during the past few weeks: walking our Everly Rose home from Grade 2, watching Baby Zack take his first steps, long phone chats with my sister up-island, or writing last Sunday’s blog post here on Heart Sisters. Also:  Getting dressed. Brushing my teeth. Washing my hair. Feeling like a human being. In fact, I’ve been at death’s door (sort of) with a brutal case of influenza – commonly known as “the flu”.  And let me assure you, the flu is NOT “just like a cold”.         .    Continue reading “I’m still alive, post-influenza. I think. . .”