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Strategy Is Useless Without Execution

It happens all the time. You take your team away from the routine for a few hours, brainstorm, and develop a brilliant new strategy for your business. And when you all get back into the routine, the routine wins and strategy loses. Nothing changes.

The plan was brilliant on the whiteboard but never got to the real world. What happened?

Tactics are the measurable action steps toward a larger strategic goal

Your business strategy is useless without execution. Don’t leave that whiteboard without developing key tactics. Make sure the execution tactics you choose are directly in service of your strategic goal. For every action you take, you should be able to say how it relates to your overall business strategy.

I use the image of the pyramid below to explain strategy, tactics, and execution.

• Strategy is at the top of a pyramid. Strategy is focus. It’s a collection of choices that narrow your aim to target markets and with product or service offerings that match both the target market and your own identity. Strategy is, therefore, deciding what you are not doing; like who isn’t in your market and what products you aren’t going to offer.
• Tactics make up the second level of the pyramid. They are more specific and practical decisions taken to execute the strategy. For example, choosing to target the high-end less price sensitive market segment is strategy. Pricing is tactic. Choice of channels and marketing messages are tactics.
• Concrete specifics, milestones, budgets, tasks, responsibility assignments, tracking, and following up make up the third level, at the bottom of the pyramid. They have to be defined in detail and they should also be measurable.
• Execution is a good word for both of the lower two levels of the pyramid, taken together. Execution includes the tactics and the concrete specifics.

For example, in How to Develop Your Business Strategy, posted here a few days ago, I used a bicycle store as an example of how strategy leads logically to execution. Let’s start with strategy:

Imagine the difference between a bicycle retail store owned and operated by a former professional bike racer, and another one owned and operated by a couple with children who like bicycles as a family activity.

The first one will probably stock and sell expensive, sophisticated bicycles for the racing enthusiast and extreme long-distance or mountain biking hobbyist. The second will probably emphasize bicycles for children, bike trailers, carriers, and accessories for families.

Whichever direction the bike store takes is strategy, and it won’t work without execution, the tactics. In this case, the tactics would include what to stock in the store and what not to stock, general pricing level, promotions, bundles, participation in local events, tone and content of social media, advertising messages and media, even how to position service. And, aside from the tactics, it takes concrete specifics such as milestones (dates and deadlines) and budgets.

Execution should be strategically aligned with your goals

I’m amazed that so much of what I see written about business plans includes strategy but skips execution. In truth, the tactics are usually there, broken into sections such as the marketing plan, product plan, financial plan, and management plan. And the better business plans also include the concrete specifics, presented as major milestones, metrics, dates, budgets, and so forth. Alignment means the tactics match the strategy and the concrete specifics match the tactics.

So, the good news is that we actually do think through tactics and include them in the plan but the bad news is we don’t always articulate the relationships between the strategy and the tactics. And we don’t always add in the specifics. We lose strategic alignment, which is the coordination between your plan and execution.

What’s strategic alignment? It’s the right hand knowing—and working with—what the left hand is doing. So if the bike store owner says her business strategy is to focus on the family market, then she shouldn’t stock fancy bikes, she can’t charge upscale pricing, she can’t advertise in the extreme sports or extreme fitness websites. Her social media content is about kids and family, not racing. She takes her store to local activities like charity bike rides and school parades, not triathlons.

Lack of alignment happens way too often. I spent years consulting with Apple Computers helping dealers counter the so-called “box pushers” in big-box stores by focusing on small business and really good service.

“Strategy without execution is the slowest route to victory, and tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

– Sun Tzu from “The Art of War”

However, way too often, they’d claim that as strategy in meetings but still offer only mediocre service.

The good ones remodeled their stores to add a big service counter and put employees in white coats behind the counter. And they bundled installation into sales and added white vans plastered with “another installation” banners on the side.

Strategy, tactics, and concrete specifics: The planning pyramid

So as you do your plan, think of a pyramid in which strategy is at the top, tactics in the middle, and concrete specifics including milestones, tasks, budgets, and performance metrics at the bottom.

Make sure your pyramid points line up. If you are doing a Lean Plan, leave strategy and tactics as bullet points. If you are doing a formal plan, break the tactics up into marketing, product, financial, management, and other.

Do your thinking first, for your own use; then do whatever you need to meet the requirements of the formal plan for readers outside of your own team.

How does your business use tactics to execute strategy? Tell us on Twitter @Bplans, or reach out to me directly @Timberry.

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Proposed farm bill would put nutritious food further out of reach for vulnerable Americans, advocates say

By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS

The House of Representative’s proposed farm bill could have far-reaching effects on Americans living with chronic diseases like heart disease and stroke, advocacy groups say.

Last month, the House released its version of the farm bill that proposed sweeping changes to hunger assistance programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The provisions would mean stricter work requirements and reduced funding for nutrition education initiatives. Millions would either have their benefits decreased or be cut from the program.

The House and Senate still must reconcile their versions of the farm bill. The Senate’s bipartisan proposal ensures that vulnerable populations, including children, the elderly and the disabled, still have access to SNAP benefits.

More than 40 million Americans, including an estimated 16 million children, struggle to put on the table. SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is the nation’s most prolific anti-hunger program, serving one out of every eight Americans.

Whether temporary or chronic, research shows food insecurity is devastating for Americans struggling with serious illnesses.

SNAP is designed to help mitigate the risks of food insecurity, and has been shown to improve some health outcomes. In households that receive SNAP benefits, children have lower rates of hospitalization compared with similar households not participating in SNAP. The program has also been linked to positive health outcomes in adulthood, including reduced risk for obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.

Most SNAP recipients who can work do so, research shows. Among households with at least one working-age, non-disabled adult, more than half work while receiving SNAP. More than 80 percent of SNAP recipients work in the year before or after receiving SNAP, with rates being even higher for households with children.

“People don’t do anything well if they don’t have enough to eat,” said Asha Carter, community outreach specialist at D.C. Greens, a food justice nonprofit in Washington, D.C. From finding stable employment to having regular medical appointments, Carter said food insecurity should not be viewed as an isolated issue.

D.C. Greens is using input from SNAP recipients to create programs that better align with peoples’ needs. Its Produce Rx initiative, which is similar to a provision in the Senate farm bill, provides patients who are at risk or experiencing diet-related chronic illnesses with a monthly “prescription” for fresh fruits and vegetables from their health care provider that they can redeem for food at farmers markets.

Carter said the response from both SNAP recipients and physicians has been overwhelmingly positive. D.C. Greens is currently working on expanding the program by partnering with a grocery store in one of Washington, D.C.’s poorest neighborhoods.

As groups like D.C. Greens work to put healthier food within reach for vulnerable populations, nutrition groups look for solutions that encourage healthier eating habits among SNAP recipients.

“Currently, [SNAP] is sending competing messages,” said Angela Rachidi, a poverty studies research fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute. “It’s the largest nutrition assistance program, yet it allows unhealthy products to be purchased.”

Research into SNAP diet quality is ongoing, but current literature suggests that despite the program’s documented success in reducing hunger, SNAP still needs improvements to address issues related to diet quality.

A 2012 study that analyzed the diets of 3,835 low-income adults found SNAP participants consumed 39 percent fewer whole grains, 46 percent more red meat and, among women, 61 percent more sugary beverages.

As Congress irons out the details on the future of SNAP, health groups such as the American Heart Association say cutting SNAP benefits would be devastating.

“If we truly want to see better health outcomes, we need to make nutrition a priority,” said AHA CEO Nancy Brown.

“We need a final farm bill that strongly addresses what all Americans choose to put on our plates every day.”

If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

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Shot Scope Case Study #2: George’s Poor Greenside Play

George is a long-time user of both Shot Scope V1 and now V2. We met George when one of our team members happened to play with George at an event last month. George mentioned his scoring and handicap had climbed from 4 to 6 over the past year and that he couldn’t pinpoint the cause. George hadn’t made any significant swing changes although he did change his wedge set-up.

In 2017, Shot Scope identified poor gapping with his PW, 49°, and 56° wedges. This season, George altered his setup to use a PW, 50°, 54°, and 58°. The Shot Scope team decided to work with George on a case study and see if we could identify a cause for his increased handicap.

George’s Stats

George’s game overview shows he is now a 6 handicap, and his general game is in a good state. George mentioned that he plays 4/5 times a week (he is retired) at different courses and in competitions. He doesn’t hit the ball too far, but with 64% fairway success he is accurate with the Driver. With no obvious red flags, the team decided to look at George’s wedges, since that is the only change he has made.

Avg. Wedge Distances

As you can see from the Shot Scope V2 Data, George’s gapping has improved with the new wedge set-up. When he added the extra club, George removed his 4-iron, which he hardly used since he carries a 23° Hybrid. This was definitely the correct decision for George, and it’s great to see the difference between his 2017 and 2018 distances.

Short Game Performance

When looking into George’s short-game performance data, we found something intriguing. George uses a lot of clubs around the green, playing predominantly at a links course there should be a lot of chip and runs. He has a poor proximity to hole average with his 50°, 54°, 58°, 50°, and 23° hybrid. Those clubs account for 64% of his greenside shots. It’s possible there could be a bias towards using the new wedges at an increased frequency, and the inaccuracy could boil down to a lack of practice with the new lofts. There are obvious reasons to use high-lofted wedges around the greens; e.g., out of bunkers or other situations where obstacles must be carried, but on true links courses like the ones George plays, he could play more chip and runs. There is little reason to use the hybrid as the data suggests that George is not very good with this shot.

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Short Game Potential

We sent George an example of what his short game could look like if he decided to use specific clubs for short game shots, and how without changing technique, he could improve his scoring. We are aware that there will still be an occasional need to use high-lofted clubs around the green, but most golfers can benefit from lofting down around the green.

Not only could George improve his average proximity to the hole by 2.3 feet, but he could also potentially get up and down 11.5% more often.

Showing George the potential performance of his short game should encourage him to loft down around the greens and ultimately lower his handicap. George may not be able to resist using the higher lofted clubs around the green, but that is the goal.

Recommendation

George should attempt to use his putter, PW, 9i, and 8i more around the greens and not to use the H23 or 50 at all. George should monitor his stats to see if can attain the potential usages per club and maintain the up and down ratios.

GET YOUR SHOT SCOPE GAME EVALUATION

Would you like to take part in a Shot Scope Case Study? If you are a Shot Scope user with over 15 rounds in your account, enter your details below – including handicap, location, and the area of the game you think requires work. Shot Scope will select different users and compile reports.

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5 Things to Consider When Opening a Car Dealership

Opening a car dealership requires careful planning. Aspiring dealers must take into account the specific legal requirements they will need to comply with to open a dealership in their state.

You must also consider other aspects such as your local market, whether to offer new and/or used cars, what startup expenses you will be facing, and how to develop a solid business plan. You’ll need to account for all of these areas and more if you want your business to take off strong and keep going for a long time.

For a list of the most important things to consider when opening a car dealership, read on!

1. Dealership location

The location of your dealership has an impact on the number of sales and profit you make in a given year. Some states are more profitable and provide a better business climate than others.

What makes a state a good place to open a dealership? Average yearly sales, the costs associated with opening the dealership, as well as average payroll costs and weekly employee salaries in your area, are all factors that you need to consider.

At the same time, there are also some downsides to opening a dealership in the most profitable states. For example, despite great demand in many of these states, business conditions are not necessarily always optimal or easy (among other factors, you need to consider GDP growth, annual payroll expenses, and crime rate). And what’s more, if you do open your dealership in one of these business-friendly states, you will contend with plenty of competition.

In picking your dealership location, you must also think about what kind of dealership you wish to open. The National Automobile Dealers Association’s (NADA) midyear and annual reports can offer you plenty of information to make an informed choice.

2. Type of dealership

Do you know what kind of dealership you want to open? Will you be opening a new (or franchised) vehicle dealership, or will you specialize in used vehicles—or perhaps both? You could also focus on offering electric vehicles, luxury vehicles, or primarily foreign vehicles. This is related to the location of your business and your target audience.

Some states, such as Florida, are known for their preference for Asian cars. And when it comes to used cars, while the majority of states have a clear preference for pickups, other states prefer SUVs and more compact cars instead. In other words, understanding local tastes will be essential to your success.

An additional consideration you could also have at this point is whether you would want to include a service department to offer maintenance and repair work. According to the NADA data report, dealership service and parts sales across the U.S. have nearly doubled over the last eight years, resulting in a total of $114.15 billion of sales for all new-vehicle dealerships. It could be a source of additional income for your dealership.

The important thing to bear in mind here is that whatever you choose will determine the course of your business. For example, opening a new vehicle dealership will require more financing, while a used dealership will require less financing but is also likely to yield fewer profits.

3. Business and financial plan

Your business and financial plans are two other important pieces of the dealership puzzle. Ultimately, these two will be informed by the choices you make with regards to where and what kind of dealership you wish to open. Based on that, you start to develop your plans for how you will run the business, from A to Z, and how you will finance it.

To develop a sound business plan, you will need to reflect on and determine:

• A strategy for how you will run the business
• A vision for your dealership
• A business structure
• The product range you will be offering
• A market and SWOT analysis
• How you will market your business
• How many and what kind of employees you will hire, and much more

If you’ve never developed a business plan before, it may be wise to consult specialists on the issue, or at least take a look at a sample business plan to see how they’re structured.

There are different kinds of business plans too, so think about why you need one—to get a bank loan, outside investment, or as an internal strategic plan to guide your growth. Any money you invest in developing a business is well-spent and will likely help you save a lot more down the road by reducing trials and errors you may make due to lack of strategy or experience.

The above is also true for your financial plan. Moreover, if you plan on looking for investors or applying for a loan to get your dealership rolling, you will be asked to present detailed and comprehensive business and financial plans. To make a rough calculation of your startup costs, try the SBA’s startup costs spreadsheet.

4. Licensing requirements

To open a dealership in any state, you will need to obtain a business license allowing you to sell vehicles of a particular kind. License requirements vary significantly between states. Some states have minimal requirements and few fees, whereas others have strict, lengthy and at times expensive licensing procedures.

Licensing requirements you will frequently encounter are:

• Lease or own a property for your dealership
• Comply with specific location requirements for your office and showroom
• Pass a criminal background check or personal history questionnaire requirement
• Obtain an Employee Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS
• Obtain a state tax number from your local tax department
• Provide copies of your insurance policy and your auto dealer surety bond agreement
• Provide a copy of a franchise agreement (if selling new cars)
• Pass a state-mandated dealer training course
• Pass an inspection of your dealership premises
• Complete and submit your dealer application form, along with all other required documents
• Pay all application, licensing, and dealer plate fees

5. Legal provisions and requirements

Once you begin selling vehicles, you will be required to comply with various state and federal laws. These include the specific dealer licensing laws that apply to you based on the state you’re in, the Federal Trade Commission’s Used Car Rule, as well as your state’s used car lemon law if one exists.

One of the specific requirements included in most states’ dealer licensing laws is the requirement to obtain a surety bond. Dealer bonds are financial guarantee agreements that guarantee that dealers will comply with the state laws that govern the sale of cars. They are a form of protection for consumers and the state government and offer compensation in cases in which dealers violate the laws and cause losses or damages to either of these parties.

When you apply for a license, you will need to provide a surety bond in a certain amount which is the amount of maximum compensation that the surety may cover in case of claims against your bond. Understanding federal and state laws that apply to your business is essential for staying out of costly claims.

Under the FTC Used Car Rule, on the other hand, you must create a Buyer’s Guide for every vehicle you are selling that includes various types of information concerning the vehicle, your dealership, the vehicle warranty, etc. Not doing so can result in penalties which can be very severe in certain cases.

As for lemon laws, though they are often erroneously thought to apply to dealers as well, new vehicle lemon laws apply to manufacturers of vehicles that are defective. Used car lemon laws, on the other hand, may apply to you but only if you are located in one of the six states that currently have instituted such laws. These states are Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York. Certain states may also have a warranty requirement on the sale of used cars, so make sure to look into this as well.

Do you plan to open a car dealership, or are you in the process of opening? If you have a suggestion you’d like to add, reach out to us on Twitter @Bplans.

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A better way to predict heart attacks and strokes in space

By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS

Researchers may have developed a more reliable way to predict the risk of heart attack and stroke in astronauts – and the technique may eventually help gauge the same danger for regular folks on Earth, too.

NASA astronauts currently undergo a special screening method that scans coronary arteries for a buildup of calcified plaque. This calcium scan, which is not routinely done in clinical practice, is a powerful tool in assessing cardiovascular risk. Yet scientists have had trouble integrating the results from these scans with traditional risk factors for heart disease, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and family history of heart attack.

But researchers have developed a new equation that combines the calcium scan scores with those well-established risk factors. The result is a more accurate way to predict a person’s risk for having a stroke or developing heart disease within the next 10 years, according to findings published Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

“The application for NASA is incredibly important. You can imagine if someone had a heart attack in space, it would be catastrophic for the person and the mission,” said Dr. Amit Khera, a cardiologist and the lead author of the study.

“But we were kind of serving two masters in this project. Obviously for NASA, it’s a tool they need to help in decision-making for astronauts in their missions,” said Khera, a professor of medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “But for terrestrial medicine as well, it has lots of potential applications in terms of helping us predict better who’s at risk for heart attack and stroke, and who might need more intensive treatments.”

The new risk scoring system is the first to help predict both heart disease and stroke, said Dr. Michael Blaha, a cardiologist not involved in the new study. It also looked at a younger age group than a similar heart disease risk calculator developed several years ago that also incorporated calcium scan results. That calculator, which Blaha helped develop, was based on patients at an average age of 65. In the new study, the average age was 51.

“It’s been clear within the last several years that the calcium score by far adds the most risk-predictive value on top of traditional risk factors, and this study helps confirm that,” said Blaha, director of clinical research for the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease in Baltimore.

“I like this new risk score. The only thing I’m not certain of is where it will fit in and what the clinical impact will be,” he said. “I don’t know how unique will it be in the space of risk prediction tools, which is already crowded.”

For astronauts and other professions that come with a high level of danger, better cardiovascular risk calculators can be crucial. But having such tools available for the general population could help improve medical efficiency, Khera said.

Doctors already rely on certain risk factors to help gauge the need for prescriptions such as cholesterol-reducing statins or whether they should suggest a daily aspirin regimen for patients, he said. A new risk calculator could help medical professionals refine those assessments.

“Hopefully, we can eventually apply this tool in office-based practices to … communicate better [with patients] about their risk and do that with more accuracy, so we can determine what might be the best treatment for them,” Khera said.

If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

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Limit low-calorie sodas and drinks, and stick to water instead, researchers advise

By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS

People are drinking fewer diet drinks these days, and a panel of health experts agrees that’s a good idea.

A science advisory from the American Heart Association published Monday in the journal Circulation counsels against regular and long-term consumption of diet beverages, particularly in children. Instead, the group of leading nutritionists, doctors and researchers urged people to replace sugary and diet drinks with plain, carbonated or unsweetened flavored water.

The committee spent two years combing through dozens of studies – some of which brought up associations between low-calorie sweetened drinks and weight gain, dementia, stroke and other health problems – and concluded that the science was still too fuzzy to draw hard-and-fast conclusions about the health effects of diet drinks.

“There’s not a huge body of literature, either observational or clinical trials,” said the writing group’s chair, Rachel K. Johnson, a professor emeritus of nutrition at the University of Vermont. “Based on the evidence available at this time, this is the best advice we have.”

The advisory acknowledges the reality that many people might use diet drinks to wean off sugar-loaded drinks if they feel they can’t make the wholesale leap to water. “This approach may be particularly helpful for individuals who are habituated to a sweet-tasting beverage and for whom water, at least initially, is not a desirable option,” the report said.

Encouragingly, the writers pointed to federal data based on self-reported surveys showing adults and young people already are drinking less of both sugary and diet drinks.

In 2006, adults drank an average of about 5.6 ounces of low-calorie drinks a day. By 2014, that fell to 3.8 ounces a day, the federal data shows. Consumption for kids and teens declined during that time, too, in the range of less than an ounce a day. A serving size is about a cup, or 8 ounces. A can of soda is usually 12 ounces, although some come in 8-ounce sizes, too. Sports drinks come in a variety of bottle sizes, from 12 ounces to 32 ounces.

When it came to sugar-laden drinks, adults in 2000 drank about 16.2 ounces a day, according to the data. That declined to 8.4 ounces a day by 2014. Kids reported drinking 17.9 ounces each day in 2000, and 8.1 ounces a day in 2014. In 2016, the AHA issued its first scientific statement warning about added sugars intake for kids, saying children and teens should consume no more than 8 ounces of sugary beverages a week.

“We want to make crystal clear it’s important to maintain that [downward] trend,” said Alice H. Lichtenstein, vice chair of the writing group and director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at Tufts University in Boston.

“We hear a lot about potential adverse effects of low-calorie sweeteners, but much of it is speculation. We have to go with the available evidence,” said Lichtenstein, the Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts. “The best advice we can give at this time is to ramp down intake and avoid excess consumption.”

The advisory was more cautious in its advice for children because there is “virtually no data” on the long-term effects of low-calorie drinks, said writing group member Dr. Frank Hu, chair of the nutrition department at Harvard University and professor of nutrition and epidemiology.

“One question we discussed is whether for children who are obese and who drink regular soda on a regular basis, is it OK for them to drink diet soda instead?” Hu said. “The consensus is that for short-term weight control, it’s OK. Certainly, it’s not the best alternative … because we all know there are more healthy alternatives, such as water, low-fat and fat-free milk.”

The report included an exception for one specific population: children with diabetes. The authors say those children who eat a balanced diet and who are closely monitoring their blood sugar may help keep their levels in check by substituting low-calorie drinks for sugary ones when needed.

In 2012, the AHA and the American Diabetes Association issued a scientific statement saying artificial sweeteners used “judiciously” in foods and beverages could help people lower added sugars intake, maintain a healthy weight, and lower the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. But it warned the science was “limited and inconclusive” about that strategy.

The new science advisory included eight low-calorie sweeteners – six currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration and two extracts from plants.

AHA science advisories typically review and analyze recent research on topics related to heart and brain health, as a way to educate the public and synthesize the latest information.

While this new advisory pointed out the dearth of clear evidence from diet drink studies, nutrition researcher Christopher Gardner feels there is plenty that is clear.

“Artificial soda, there’s nothing good about it,” said Gardner, who was not an author on the latest advisory. He was lead author on the 2012 scientific statement and is director of Nutrition Studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. “There’s nothing health-promoting about it. The only health-related role it has is as a transition beverage, replacing or displacing sugar-sweetened beverages.”

But even that, Gardner said, doesn’t seem to be playing out in current trends, pointing to declining consumption of both regular and diet drinks.

If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

The post Limit low-calorie sodas and drinks, and stick to water instead, researchers advise appeared first on News on Heart.org.

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{VIDEO}: Ace’s 350-Yard Driver Fitting

MyGolfSpy is known for the most extensive golf club tests anywhere. We’re thorough as hell, but admittedly we do have a gap in our data. The truth of the matter is we don’t have any testers who can pound it tree-fiddy. So to fill in the holes and round out our data, we flew in YouTube sensation Ace from fried eggs golf.

You might know Fried Eggs from the legendary Turbulators Rap, and Golf Shop videos like TaylorMade P790 Irons, and the Wilson Triton Driver. It’s borderline not safe for work, but you might also want to see what happens when a golfer hit the new PING i500.

When your swing is a sweet as Ace’s and you can bomb the ball 350, it’s hard to improve. Can you really expect better? Hell yes, you can. Watch as the MyGolfSpy team finds Ace an extra 16 yards. I’m talkin’ about tree-six-six, yo!

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When it comes to protein, quality is more important than quantity

By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS

High-protein diets are everywhere, but not all protein is created equal. For heart health, experts say the key is moderation and choosing wisely.

“Very high intake of meat, especially processed red meat, is not good for overall health,” said Dr. Jyrki Virtanen, author of a recent study on protein consumption. “Those who are used to eating very high amounts of meat could consider moderating their intake.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recommendation for protein is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight – or about 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight. For a 155-pound adult, that’s roughly 56 grams. For a 190-pound adult, it’s about 68 grams. The USDA has a calculator to help determine a recommended daily allowance.

Virtanen’s study found middle-aged and older men who ate higher amounts of protein were slightly more likely to develop heart failure than men who ate lower amounts. He and his colleagues looked at data from 2,441 Finnish men over two decades and found 334 cases of heart failure. The results showed men who consumed the highest amount of protein had a 33 percent higher increased risk of heart failure than men who consumed the lowest amounts.

“More research on this topic is definitely needed,” said Virtanen, an adjunct professor of nutritional epidemiology at the University of Eastern Finland. “But our findings indicate that high protein intake may have some adverse effects on health, especially if the protein is coming from animal sources.”

Just what kind of protein is best for cardiovascular health is a question that’s evolved in recent years.

A study in November said eating a mostly plant-based diet was associated with a 42 percent reduced risk of developing heart failure for people with no history of heart disease.

The American Heart Association’s lifestyle recommendations for reducing cardiovascular risk emphasize a healthy eating pattern that includes:

–Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, non- and low-fat dairy products, skinless poultry, fish, nuts, beans and non-tropical vegetable oils.

–Limiting red and processed meat, sweets and sugary drinks.

Still, many people cling to the notion of eating lots of meat and protein, fueled in part by the enduring popularity of low-carb, high-protein diets such as Paleo, Ketogenic, Atkins and the Zone, said Jo Ann Carson, a dietitian and professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

“But if you use that very high protein diet to lose weight, typically the only way to keep that weight off is to continue to follow that dietary pattern, and there might be potential health issues there,” said Carson, chair of AHA’s nutrition committee.

“Probably the biggest problem with large amounts of protein is when it doesn’t leave room in your diet for antioxidant-rich and fiber-rich fruits and vegetables and whole grains,” Carson said.

In May, the AHA issued a new advisory recommending people up their intake of omega-3 fatty acids by eating one or two servings of non-fried fish or shellfish a week. Carson said fish was among “the good-quality proteins people should be looking for, including lower-fat dairy and plant-based proteins, like soy and quinoa.”

As people get older, their protein requirements typically increase, Carson said. But no matter their age, people confused about their protein intake should seek out an expert.

“I think it’s a good idea to work with a registered dietician, especially if you have a family history of heart disease,” she said. “They can tell you ‘This is a healthy diet’ or ‘You’re getting enough protein, but the rest of your diet needs work.’ Much more important than the amount of protein you eat is the quality of your protein.”

If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

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SuperSpeed Golf & The Neurological Path To Distance

When it comes to training aids, you can safely split them into three categories. The first category we can safely call eye-rollers: even the most casual of golfers can look at these things and think what kind of a chucklehead would spend his money on that? And admit it, we’ve all bought at least one.

The training aids in the second category are, in fact, fairly useful, but a creative golfer could probably figure out how to sorta-kinda-almost make the same thing on his own. The Putting Stick is a prime example – a flat, plastic contraption to help groove your putting stroke. It works very well, and if you crave instruction, bells, whistles, and testimonials, you’d be happy to buy it, and it would probably help you. If you don’t value any of that stuff, a yardstick might get you most of the way there.

The last category is the smallest and the toughest to crack: training aids that actually, you know, work, and have some real science behind them. The DST Compressor is one example, the Orange Whip is another, but very few ever reach this hallowed ground.

SuperSpeed Golf is knocking on the door of this rather exclusive club for two reasons; it works and, more interestingly, as a product, it very likely isn’t what you think it is.

It’s a whole lot more.

What Is SuperSpeed?

Once you take equipment out of the equation (heck, even with equipment in the equation), the only way to hit the ball farther is to swing faster.

Not harder. Faster.

There’s a physical fitness and strength aspect to swinging the club faster, but all things being equal, the key to increasing your swing speed may, in fact, lie right between your ears.

SuperSpeed calls it Overspeed Training, and it involves swinging three weighted shafts as aggressively as you can to prove to your neurological systems that your body can move that fast.

“We first learned of the concept – called overload/underload training – in 2012 at the World Golf Fitness Summit,” says Michael Napoleon, President and Co-founder of SuperSpeed Golf. “A brilliant coach named Tom House talked about the work he was doing with baseball pitchers using overweight and underweight baseballs to help them increase pitching speed.”

What Napoleon is talking about is resetting your neurological wiring and training your brain to understand that you can swing faster.

“You’re actually able to – by swinging underweight and overweight clubs – make the body move significantly faster than it does during the golf swing,” says Kyle Shay, Napoleon’s business partner and the other co-founder of SuperSpeed Golf. “You’re doing a physical thing swinging our clubs, but you’re actually increasing the speed at which your brain signals to your muscles to move during the golf swing.”

It’s an interesting concept, and it’s important to understand it’s more than just swinging a heavy club. Napoleon and Shay are both PGA teaching pros with very different backgrounds, but they share a similar passion for turning complicated concepts into something you and I can get our heads around and actually use.

To get to the root of it all, we have to go back to music school.

The Joy Of Sax

“I’m a golf coach, but all my formal education and degrees are in music performance,” says Napoleon, who holds a doctorate in Saxophone Performance from Arizona State. “We spent a lot of time detailing how people should practice and how people learn. Should they practice in little bursts and take breaks? Should they be going for two-hour blocks? How many days a week should they practice, and how much time each day?”

As a golfer, however, Napoleon found that while his teaching pro knew the game, he wasn’t able to provide a specific practice or drill program that would work for him. That spark led him away from the sax and into the golf world.

An accomplished amateur golfer who eventually burned out, Shay earned his physiology bones working in a rehab center teaching corrective exercise. The two ultimately met up in Chicago and formed a teaching center called Catalyst Golf. Their meeting with House led to testing the overload/underload concept on their students, and the results wound up being life-changing.

“We had 56 or 57 people go through testing,” says Napoleon. “I think we had 98% of them see at least a 3 or 4 miles-per-hour speed gain just after the initial session. As soon as we saw those results, we knew we had something. We didn’t know why it was all happening yet, but we were confident we had something that was going to work for just about anybody that picked it up.”

The Need For Speed

So what, exactly, is SuperSpeed Golf, and how is it any different from swinging a weighted club?

A SuperSpeed Golf set features three gripped shafts with different weights on the end. The lightest is 20% lighter than a standard driver, the next one is 10% lighter than your driver, and the third is 5% heavier. A training session consists of three sets of 10 reps swinging each club as fast as humanly possible, starting with the lightest and working your way up to the heaviest.

“If we start with something 20% lighter than their normal driver, we know their kinematic sequence (legs-torso-pelvis-arm and club) is going to be the same,” says Napoleon. “They’re going to get the same recruitment out of the ground, legs, and pelvis throughout the entire sequence as they do during a normal swing.  The brain is thinking that this motion is the same motor pattern as their golf swing, but because of the reduced resistance and reduced weight, it can go a lot faster.”

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Napoleon and Shay say a typical 100 MPH swinger will swing the lightest SuperSpeed club around 118-119 MPH. When they jump to the middle weight club, speed will drop to around 115 MPH. By the time they hit the heaviest club, they’ll still be swinging faster.

“Because we did this neuro-muscular speed reset with the light clubs, we’ll see that player who started at 100 MPH swing the heavier club usually around 110 to 112 MPH, significantly faster than their normal golf swing,” says Napoleon.

“We do like to finish with the lightest club at the end, just to retrigger that neurological system to the faster speeds.”

Standard protocol includes normal swings, step-forward swings (think a high leg kick baseball swing), a Happy Gilmore type swing and opposite side swinging.

“What we’re trying to do with that is develop the deceleration chain of the golf swing,” says Shay. “You can only accelerate as fast as you can decelerate, so in a golf swing when you get past impact into follow-through, you have to stabilize into that left hip/left leg so you can stop the pelvis and stop the swing. The better we can post or stabilize into that lead side, the better we can create clubhead speed.”

Faster vs. Harder

Ever wonder how a shrimpy guy like Justin Thomas can hit the ball as far as he does? Or how a bigger guy like Ernie Els – The Big Easy – hits the ball so far with such an effortless swing?

“They’re swinging in a very efficient sequence,” says Napoleon. “They’re able to stabilize those segments of the swing very well, which adds to the whole fluidity of the motion.”

When we amateurs try to hit the ball farther, we tend to just grip the club tighter and swing the club harder. And more often than not, that throws the whole swing sequence out of whack.

“Once you see that acceleration start in the lower body, the whole kinematic sequence happens in a specific pecking order. The pelvis is going to get to its max speed and then it has to stop. What we found is the faster the segment is able to stabilize in the kinematic sequence, the more energy gets transferred to the next segment in the series – to the torso and then to the arm and club and then, ultimately, to the ball.”

Both Shay and Napoleon shy away from hard when talking about the golf swing, opting instead to use the more descriptive aggressive or fast.

“As a coach, I’m more of a minimalist in all this,” says Napoleon. “I don’t want to explain to the player how to make the club move faster. I want them, from a discovery standpoint, to make three or four swings during the training, see on radar which ones went faster, and then they start to learn what pieces made the club move faster. That’s how you teach complex bio-mechanics to someone without overloading them with a bunch of information they don’t need.”

Speed Racer

So you may be asking, why the heck don’t you just swing a heavier club, or why not just swing a driver upside down to create more speed? Fair questions both and, as it turns out, baseball studies have refuted to the notion that weighted bats, or clubs, do anything to promote swing speed.

“We found that when you get above 5% heavier than your regular driver, you’ll start to see swing speed actually slow down,” says Napoleon. “TPI did a great study on this disproving the ‘donut on a bat’ theory.”

“They had collegiate and high-level professionals do their normal donut bat routine while on the on-deck circle and tested to see if that increased or decreased bat speed. On average they’d see a 30% drop in bat speed, and it would take them three or four swings to get back to normal. You have to be careful when swinging something heavy for too many reps.” Michael Napoleon, SuperSpeed Golf

Going too light is a problem, as well, such as when you swing an alignment rod or turn a driver upside down.

 

“You’ll start to see the sequencing change quite a bit,” says Napoleon. “You’ll see arm and hand speed increase, but there’s not enough weight on the end for your brain to go ‘okay, I need to use my lower body and my torso to go faster, too.'”

“We tested to see how light you could go without being too light, and how heavy you could go without being too heavy so you could maintain an increase in speed without altering the kinematic sequence.”

Using a fan or a parachute to increase resistance are just other ways to make the club heavy without adding any actual weight to it. Napoleon says anytime you try to swing something heavier than your normal club, the extra inertia is going to make it harder to make the club change direction, accelerate or even move.

“Your body can’t do it as quickly,” says Napoleon. “You may go pick up your regular club and it’s going to feel lighter, but neurologically your body actually remembers the speed it was going with that heavy club, and it will actually swing slower.”

Yeah, But Does It Work?

Another fair question. SuperSpeed Golf is finding its way into the bags of dozens of Tour pros, including Phil Mickelson, Graeme McDowell, Xander Schauffele and Kevin Na, as well as dozens of Champions, Web.com, LPGA and Symetra Tour players.

SuperSpeed’s baseball training has made it to the major leagues, with 8 teams using it from the low minors to the big leagues, including the reigning World Series Champion Houston Astros.

“A lot of guys get so much more joy out of playing golf,” says Shay. “They’re not struggling, they’re hitting it past their buddies. It’s gratifying to see guys that have lost some club speed over the years, your 50+ golfer, getting some of that speed back. Now it’s two clubs less into greens, or they’re not hitting hybrids into every par 4, or they don’t have to move up a tee box. We hear it all the time.”

One recent testimonial came from a customer in Boston who had just won a fight with cancer.

“He was just getting to the point where he could go back out and play,” says Napoleon. “He played with the same group of guys he’d played with for 20 years, and he wasn’t able to hit the ball far enough to even play from the forward tees. He got our stuff and worked with it for four or five months, and he was finally able to get back to where he could play golf again.”

“That could have been a guy that would’ve quit playing the game because he lost too much distance. Now he’s back to playing golf and having fun with his friends every week.”

Everyone wants to hit it farther – it’s the rock upon which the equipment industry is built. SuperSpeed Golf isn’t going to promise you 20 or 30 more yards, but they do say that if you follow the program, you will see an immediate and – if you follow the training protocols they provide – permanent increase in swing speed.

“That’s the really cool thing,” says Napoleon. “Just about everybody gets a gain along the way because most people have never done any kind of purely neurological speed training, especially in golf. It’s like if you’ve never gone to the gym and then started lifting dumbbells – you’ll start seeing results right off the bat.”

“There’s a lot going on under the surface that makes this very complex,” adds Shay. “But we’ve tried to make it as simple as possible. Can you do eight minutes three times a week and just follow a few simple steps?”

My own experience with SuperSpeed Golf falls into the so far, so good category and I am noticing drives getting a bit longer as the season wears on. But I’m also getting some odd looks at the driving range, which I presume are related to SuperSpeed protocols.

“I bet half those people will start researching online,” says Napoleon. “If you’re doing that while warming up and then go blast it past your buddies, I bet they’ll all be doing it within a week.”

For more information, videos, and testamonials, visit SuperSpeedGolf.com.

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Ya no es la mujer que era. Paso de pesar 380 libras, a ser entrenadora personal.

Por AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS

Annabelle Jimenez (izquierda) recibió el premio New York Lifestyle Change Award de la vice presidenta ejecutiva de Macy’s Molly Langenstein en el evento 2018 Go Red For Women Luncheon celebrado en Nueva York. (Foto cortesía de Annabelle Jimenez)

A Annabelle Jimenez le dolían las rodillas continuamente. También le dolía la espalda.

Sabía por qué. Llevaba mucho tiempo tratando de controlar la calidad y la cantidad de lo que comía, y pesaba 380 libras.

“No podía caminar una cuadra sin sentirme extremadamente cansada y con dolor”, dijo.

Jimenez tenía síndrome de ovario poliquístico, una condición hormonal que aumentó su riesgo de diabetes, de síndrome metabólico, de enfermedad cardiovascular y de presión arterial alta. Por muchos años, médicos le habían insistido bajar el nivel del colesterol. Pero porque no le recetaron medicamento para controlarlo, no se lo tomó con la seriedad necesaria.

En poco tiempo, tuvo que enfrentar varias realidades duras.

Su médico le dijo que era prediabética. El papá de su hijo había supervivido un paro cardíaco y tuvo una derivación coronaria triple. Él tenía diabetes y por consiguiente, un riesgo más alto de tener problemas del corazón. Y ella sabía que otro factor de riesgo era que su familia tenía un historial de enfermedad del corazón.

Lo consideró todo, y llegó a una conclusión: A los 34, tenía que hacer cambios significativos. Si no por ella, por lo menos por su hijo, Jaylin, quien tenía 9 años.

En agosto 2015, después de más de una década de contemplar la cirugía de derivación bariátrica, Jimenez se sometió al procedimiento.

La cirugía ayuda a perder peso porque reduce la cantidad de comida que puede tolerar el estómago, y la cantidad de calorías que absorbe el cuerpo. Para que la cirugía sea exitosa, se necesitan hacer cambios de estilo de vida, y esta vez, Jimenez se empeño en que fueran permanentes.

Y lo han sido. Por medio de la dieta y del ejercicio, redujo su peso por casi a la mitad de lo que pesaba, e inspiró a su hijo, a su esposo y a su mamá a tener una mejor salud. Jimenez se entregó tanto a su bienestar que se ha certificado como una entrenadora personal. En marzo, le reconocieron sus esfuerzos con el premio Go Red For Women New York LIfestyle Change Award.

“Soy más fuerte de lo que pensaba y no quiero dar vuelta atrás”, comentó. “La mentalidad es muy inmportante, y uno tiene que creer que lo puede lograr”.

Después de la cirugía, Jimenez incorporó el ejercicio en sus nuevos hábitos de vida.

El primer año, sudó al compás de vídeos de ejercicio que veía en su casa. En agosto de 2016, empezó una trabajar con un entrenador en un gimnasio.

El cambio más significativo fue el que le hizo a su dieta.

Por muchos años, fue una mamá soltera que trabajaba tiempo competo, y se acostumbró a saltearse las comidas durante el día. Luego, se atoraba de comida rápida o de botanas de mala calidad que venden en las tiendas de autoservicio. Ese hábito persistió incluso después de casarse en 2012.

Desde que se hizo la cirugía gástrica, ha sido más metódica en la planificación de sus comidas. Ahora hace un horario semanal de cada comida y cada botana que se comerá. Ha eliminado las comidas grasosas y las que tienen un contenido alto de azúcar, y ha sustituido el agua gasificada por las bebidas con azúcar agregada.

Para poder apreciar la dificultad de hacer este cambio, se deben considerar sus circunstancias.

Jimenez vive en Queens, Nueva York. Su vecindario urbano está atiborrado de restaurantes de comida rápida y tiendas de autoservicio –pero no tiene un supermercado. Para ir al más cercano, tiene que caminar 10 cuadras al metro y luego transitar por cuatro paradas.

Jimenez perdió 100 libras el primer año, y 80 el año siguiente. Los cambios inspiraron a sus seres queridos.

Jaylin dejó de pasar tanto tiempo en el sofá y empezó a mover el esqueleto. Se mantiene activo jugando al baloncesto en el jardín trasero.

“Le enseño a comer de una manera más limpia y más sana”, dijo Jimenez. También se asegura de que él entienda cuáles son los riesgos de la enfermedad del corazón y “la importancia de cuidar de la salud cuando uno es joven”.

A su esposo, Eddie Roman, le diagnosticaron prediabetes en 2016. Con su ayuda, su nivel de azúcar ha vuelto al nivel normal –y ha bajado tres tallas de pantalón.

“La comida rápida era todo lo que conocía, pero Annabelle me ha ayudado a tener más conciencia de lo que estoy comiendo”, dijo Román. “Leo las etiquetas para chequear las calorías y la cantidad de azúcar, y nunca pensé que eso ocurriría”.

Jimenez persuadió a su mamá a hacerle cambios a la dieta típica puertorriqueña que, en general, es rica en carbohidratos. Como resultado, por primera vez en una década, tiene la diabetes tipo 2 bajo control.

“Ahora se come una porción de arroz, en lugar de un plato entero de arroz”, dijo Jimenez.

Después de cambiar radicalmente su salud y de mejorar la de su familia, su próxima meta es inspirar a otros a que también cambien sus vidas.

“Me siento más contenta que nunca”, dijo Jimenez. “Cuando uno puede lograr sus metas, hay mucho que disfrutar. Creo sinceramente de que si alguien se toma en serio cambiar su vida, y se propone aceptar el reto de un camino difícil, se puede lograr el éxito”.

Si tiene una pregunta o un comentario sobre este artículo, por favor mande un correo electrónico a editor@heart.org.

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She’s half the woman she used to be, going from 380 pounds to certified personal trainer

By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS

Annabelle Jimenez (left) received the New York Lifestyle Change Award from Macy’s executive vice president Molly Langenstein at the 2018 Go Red For Women Luncheon in New York City. (Photo courtesy of Annabelle Jimenez)

Annabelle Jimenez’s knees ached constantly. Her back, too.

She knew why. Having long struggled to control the quality and quantity of her diet, her weight had ballooned to 380 pounds.

“I couldn’t walk a block without feeling extremely tired and in pain,” she said.

Jimenez grappled with polycystic ovary syndrome, a hormonal condition that increased her risk of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease and high blood pressure. For years, doctors had urged her to lower her cholesterol level. But because they hadn’t put her on medication, she didn’t take it seriously enough.

Then she endured a series of wake-up calls, all in a short span.

Her doctor said she was prediabetic. Her son’s father had just survived a cardiac arrest and a triple bypass operation. The fact he was diabetic, and thus at higher risk for heart problems, made an impact, too. And she knew her family history of heart disease was another major risk factor.

She added it all up and came to a conclusion: At 34, it was time to make some major changes. If not for herself, then at least for her son, Jaylin, who was 9.

In August 2015, after more than a decade of considering gastric bypass surgery, Jimenez underwent the procedure.

The surgery helps with weight loss by reducing the amount of food the stomach can handle, and how many calories the body absorbs. Lifestyle modifications are needed to ensure its success, and Jimenez devoted herself to making them stick this time.

And they did. Through diet and exercise, she’s cut her weight nearly in half, and inspired her son, husband and mother to get healthier. Jimenez became so devoted to fitness that she’s been certified as a personal trainer. In March, her efforts were recognized with the Go Red For Women New York Lifestyle Change Award.

“I am stronger than I thought I was and I don’t want to go back to where I was,” she said. “Mindset is important, and you have to believe you can do it.”

After the surgery, Jimenez welcomed exercise into her new lifestyle.

The first year, she sweated to videos at home. In August 2016, she began working with a trainer at a gym.

The bigger adjustment involved her diet.

For many years, she was a single mom who worked full-time, and she fell into the habit of skipping meals during the day, then gorging on fast food or low-quality snacks from convenience stores. That continued even after getting married in 2012.

Since the gastric bypass surgery, she’s more methodical in her meal planning. She now maps out each meal and snacks for an entire week. She’s eliminated fatty and high-sugar foods, and swapped sweetened beverages for seltzer water.

To fully appreciate the difficulty of this change, consider her circumstances.

Jimenez lives in Queens, New York. Her urban neighborhood is filled with fast-food restaurants and convenience stores – but not a grocery store. The closest one requires walking 10 blocks to the subway and then riding four stops.

Jimenez lost 100 pounds the first year, then 80 the next year. The changes inspired her loved ones.

Jaylin got off the couch and got moving. He stays active by playing basketball in the backyard.

“I’m teaching him to eat cleaner and healthier,” Jimenez said. She’s also making sure he understands his risks of heart disease and “how important it is to take care of one’s health when you are young.”

Her husband, Eddie Roman, was diagnosed with prediabetes in 2016. With her help, his blood sugar is back to normal – and he’s down three pant sizes.

“Fast food was all I knew, but Annabelle has made me a lot more aware of what I’m eating,” Roman said. “I’m actually reading the labels to check the calories and sugar, and I never thought that would happen.”

Jimenez convinced her mother to make changes to her traditionally carb-heavy Puerto Rican diet. As a result, her Type 2 diabetes is under control for the first time in a decade.

“Now she has a portion of rice, rather than a whole plate of rice,” Jimenez said.

Having overhauled her health and improved her family’s, her next aim is inspiring others to change their lives, too.

“I feel happier than I have ever been,” Jimenez said. “There is so much enjoyment when you are able to reach your goals. I honestly believe that once someone is serious about changing their life and take on the challenge of enduring a difficult road, success can be achieved.”

If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

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Great American Road Trip Infographic – Text Only

Published July 23, 2018

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS Presents Coast To Coast

Trials and roads across America allow bicyclists to pedal roughly 4,000 miles from coast-to-coast.

(Map of United States with bike routes indicated)

Map key:

Symbol for Route number

Proposed corridor

States with official route

Detailed call-out graphic of Alaska

Source: Adventure Cycling Association

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Making the case for better health in public housing

By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS

Heart disease become personal to Marcella Roberts when she was diagnosed with high blood pressure. Her efforts to build heart-healthy public housing won her the American Heart Association’s Louis B. Russell Jr. award in June. (Photo by Tim Sharp for AHA)

As an attorney and vice president of a real estate firm, Marcella Roberts makes decisions based on data — cold, hard facts. But the stats about heart disease in women didn’t become real for her until it became personal.

Two years ago, while attending the American Heart Association’s flagship meeting, Scientific Sessions, Roberts had her blood pressure taken. It read an alarming 195/110. (Put in perspective, blood pressure under 120/80 is considered normal.)

“The lady at the booth said, ‘Something must be wrong.’ So, I put my arm in it again and it said the same thing,” Roberts said.

Sitting and resting, and then relaxing with a chair massage, didn’t change the results. Roberts ended up in the emergency room — a trip that would ultimately change her lifestyle and galvanize her efforts to help communities get healthier in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama.

Roberts was honored last month with the AHA’s Louis B. Russell, Jr. award for her outstanding service to minority and underserved populations. The award’s namesake was an African-American man and the 34th person to undergo a heart transplant, surviving more than six years — a world record in the 1970s.

After Roberts’ ER trip, she started taking blood pressure medication, hit the gym and cleared her cupboards of junk food, dropping 30 pounds in 90 days. She also started volunteering for the AHA’s awareness movement for women’s heart and brain health, Go Red For Women.

Even before her risk for heart disease skyrocketed because of high blood pressure, Roberts was no stranger to this devastating disease.

She had witnessed the deaths of three friends younger than 50 from heart attack and heart failure. It’s no coincidence that they were all black because, as Roberts now knows, 48 percent of black women 20 and older have heart disease. Over 50,000 die annually of cardiovascular conditions.

“I am even more determined to educate African-American women, my own family and the community at large about heart disease and how it can be prevented,” said Roberts, whose father died of congestive heart failure.

Roberts, whose firm specializes in affordable housing, knows that factors such as housing, transportation, food access, street safety and proximity to medical care impact heart disease, the leading cause of death in the world.

Those factors, collectively known as “social determinants of health,” have not traditionally been thought of by many as heart-health issues. But Roberts knows addressing them is important to help people live in healthier environments.

“I structure deals that prioritize and redevelop public housing and create quality, decent, affordable housing for low- to moderate-income families,” she said. “Most of these families live in food deserts with no access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Many are smokers, have uncontrolled hypertension, have not seen a doctor in years and don’t exercise.”

As chair of the Greater Southeast Affiliate Multicultural Committee, she led a pilot program focused on affordable housing. Nearly 1,000 residents have received health education and almost 300 housing units are smoke-free, while community gardens are springing up.

“It touches my heart when they realize the impact smoking has on their children and when they understand they really can cook healthy meals on a limited budget,” Roberts said.

“I’m doing what I was called to do,” she said. “My purpose is to empower people to overcome obstacles. My only regret is that I didn’t start this journey sooner.”

If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

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