Meet Isa
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After I had my stroke I wanted to get out and about more. I realised that although I was busy and had a good social life I was sitting down for most of it. I decided I wanted to be more active.
This leaflet says that we should aim to be physically active for at least 30 minutes on at least 5 days of the week.
How will I go about that?
| What I used to do | What I do now |
|---|---|
| Watch television | Put my remote next to the television so I have to get up to change the channel and walk around the room every time there is an advert break. |
| Chat on the phone | Stand up whilst chatting on the phone. |
| Spend time online | Set the time on the kitchen cooker to break up my time spent online. |
| Get the bus to bingo | Walk the short distance with a friend for confidence. |
| Meet friends for coffee | Meet up with friends for Tai Chi and Yoga and then go for a coffee. |
| Spend more time in the house now that I am retired | Look at volunteering at my local CHSS charity shop. |
As you can see from Isa’s experience being more active does not need to mean big changes to your lifestyle. Increasing your activity levels can be enjoyable, fit into your social life, improve your mental wellbeing as well as improving your fitness.
If you would like to explore this area in more depth please visit our Being active topic.
Key point
Remember small changes to your activity can make big differences to your health.
More information
Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland factsheets:
Research papers:
- Stroke survivors’ and family members’ perspectives of multimodal lifestyle interventions for secondary prevention of stroke and transient ischemic attack: a qualitative review and meta-aggregation [.pdf, 269 KB] Lawrence M, Pringle J, Kerr S, Booth J. (2015) Stroke survivors’ and family members’ perspectives of multimodal lifestyle interventions for secondary prevention of stroke and transient ischaemic attack: a qualitative review and meta-aggregation. Disability & Rehabilitation, early online: 1-11 doi:10.3109/09638288.2015.1031831
- An exploration of lifestyle beliefs and lifestyle behaviour following stroke: findings from a focus group study of patients and family members [.pdf, 293 KB] Lawrence M, Kerr S, Watson H, Paton G, Ellis G. (2011) An exploration of lifestyle beliefs and lifestyle behaviour following stroke: findings from a focus group study of patients and family members. BMC Family Practice, 11:97