We started our Heart Truth walkers today at Ijams.   And as I told the group you could hike once a week there for a year and do all different sort of hikes.  I never tire of  Ijams Nature Center.  Carol Osborne and I are "heart truth champions" for a Heart Truth campaign that Covenant Health is offering this year.  We have materials, and educational handouts informing women (& their loved ones) about how Heart Disease by FAR is our number one enemy.  1 out of every 4 women will die of heart disease, and like breast cancer we can fight it by prevention, knowing the symptoms and talking to our physicians. OUR groups tools for prevention is walking and taking more steps daily.  The Knox County health department started another Active 8 campaign so Carol and I got teams to participate.  We each have 15 folks on our team and they all got nice bags, Omron pedometers and we will meet once a week (usually thur) to walk different Knox city/county trails and greenways.  www.outdoorknoxville.com a good tool for finding trails or www.legacyparks.org  WE plan to share heart healthy recipes, learn more about different symptoms for women who may be experiencing heart attack symptoms etc each week.  We hiked the river walk area of Ijams after we started and enjoyed that a few ladies had "their men" in tow as they were off and also enjoyed this perfect weather for a hike. The Boardwalk area is really pretty and it looks out across the Holston and you can see old Penal Farm which is now UT ag farm.  We then came back to will skelton bike trail along island home road and crosssed to Meade's Quarry area.  We hikes up (counter clockwise ) hill and came upon old cemetary that has some interesting features. The family buried their divorced parents with their heads facing opposite direction and we wanted to "hear the rest of the story" on that tale one day.    There is a great overlook spot where the SMokies were clear in the horizon.  Then you come down and can see an off trail that can lead over to the new area (KEY HOlE) but we kept going around back to parking lot then up the Will Skelton Greenway for a nice 3.5 mile or little over that hike.   THENsome of us went to Three Rivers Market on corner of Baxter and Central and it is YUMMY and very very healthy.    It is a food co-op too.   You have to Have to try it some day.   Spots outside to hook up your dog and eat there with dog bowls and dog beds for them to sit on.    How cool is that !!

   All in all a great day to kick off a fun heart healthy activity w/ the help of KNox County Health Dept and our Heart Truth materials from Covenant Health