Women embark on journey to heart health
Better U program includes gym memberships, workouts
Cindy Federman is looking for a fresh start after a divorce and guiding her youngest child through his last year of high school. Tonya Hall had bariatric surgery, but still needs to learn how to eat well and take care of herself. Misty Jones suffered a cardiac arrest at work after doctors failed to diagnose a congenital heart condition.
The women are three of the 14 participants in Better U, a free, 12-week heart health and wellness program run by the American Heart Association. Better U is in its eighth year and attracted 178 applicants for its 2019 session. A panel of seven judges, including Better U director Maria Mazzone Decker, interviewed 25 women and struggled to choose just 14. Decker said she looked for women who want to get healthy from the inside out, not women whose goals were simply to lose 10 pounds.
Decker is a longtime American Heart Association volunteer. Last year, she closed her cafe, Zia Maria, at SEFCU. The credit union gave the association $15,000 over three years in her name, earmarked for Better U.
The program includes memberships at either the Guilderland or Clifton Park YMCA under the guidance of a personal trainer; weekly group workouts; ongoing emotional support and, new this year, oneon-one sessions with student dieticians from the Sage Colleges.
The program ends with a dress fitting at Macy’s and professional hair and make up prior to the Go Red for Women luncheon May 16. The co-chairwomen this year are Cindy Applebaum, publisher of the Albany Business Review, and Kathleen Pingelski,
owner of Microknowledge, Inc.
The Better U participants met for the first time last week at the American Heart Association offices. They each sat for a filmed interview. They will do it again at the end of the program. The interviews will contrast each woman’s tentative first steps with the confidence the Better U staff hope they will feel when the program is over.
The women were nervous, excited and apprehensive, wondering what is to come. Federman announced she was the crier of the group, and her eyes were bright with tears as she described the pain of divorce and turning 50, feeling uncertain about what the rest of her life holds. But, Federman said, she’s optimistic — a word she hasn’t used lately — and invigorated to start a new chapter of her life.
Misty Jones, 48, thought she was just out of shape and that’s why she felt horrible whenever she worked out. Then, she collapsed at the association’s Heart Walk last year. She was diagnosed with several pulmonary emboli — blood clots that get caught in one of the arteries that go from the heart to the lungs, which can be fatal. She also had a condition that causes her heart to beat too fast. Both conditions have been treated and Jones has been cleared to workout, but she’s scared.
Workouts start Tuesday.