Bio: A heart-disease survivor who walks at least 5 miles a day, Dawn Nakamura Kessler, 44, has served as a national spokeswoman for the American Heart Association’s annual Heart Walk in June, and is helping to plan the Colorado chapter’s Go Red for Women luncheon Friday. She was born in New York City, to parents of Japanese-Danish and Caribbean-Spanish descent, but spent her teenage years in Albuquerque, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of New Mexico. A former model now studying to become a personal trainer, she lives in Cherry Hills Village with her husband, Randy, a cardiothoracic surgeon, and their son, David, an eighth-grader.
The Journey: Always an active person, Kessler was headed for a career in teaching or marketing when she developed a strange malady at the age of 25. “When I’d go running, my chest would hurt, and I’d sleep all the time,” she recalls. “But nobody could figure out what was wrong. Fit women my age were not supposed to have heart problems.”
Eventually, doctors concluded she had bacterial endocarditis, an inflammation of the lining of the heart, complicated by a scarred and leaky mitral valve, perhaps caused by undiagnosed rheumatic fever in childhood. A team of surgeons, including the man she would later marry, replaced the defective valve with one from a pig (“which explains my eating habits at the time,” she says with a laugh), and she recovered and went on to have a child at 30. When she was 36, however, the valve deteriorated – as is common in such cases – and she underwent a second open-heart procedure in which a mechanical unit was installed.
The Strategy: Determined to stay as fit as possible, Kessler took up bicycling after her first surgery, even completing a 100-mile ride at one point. But walking became her real passion. “Part of me didn’t want to go back to running,” she explains. “I’m not a candidate for a heart attack, my cholesterol is so low, but I was afraid. And now, running doesn’t feel as comfortable or as natural…. Plus, I’m going to have my knees when I’m in my 60s.”
As a walker, she completed a half-marathon in Albuquerque, then in 1995 signed up with a partner to do the New York Marathon. “We trained for six months,” she says. “David was about 2 years old. I’d drop him at my mom and dad’s house the night before, and then we’d go walking early the next morning.” The race – they finished in 5 hours, 30 minutes – turned out to be one of the wettest and coldest ever: “Our feet were soaking wet, and we did most of it with space blankets wrapped around us, but we were so pumped. I found a part of me that day I didn’t know existed.”
The Details: Kessler since has done five marathons, and is now aiming for one in Long Beach, Calif., in October. She had to slack off for 12 weeks last year after injuring her foot in a local walk, but is back on her regular schedule, heading off with a friend at 5:30 a.m. each weekday for an hour-long trek around her neighborhood or along the nearby High Line Canal. At 5 feet 8 and 134 pounds, she goes through two pairs of shoes about every three months, buying about 10 pairs a year.
“You don’t have to get up at 5 in the morning,” she says. “Just take a few 10-minute walking breaks here and there during the day. There’s always a trail nearby, and in Colorado, you have absolutely no excuse not to be healthy.”
Exercis
Five to 6 miles of walking daily at a pace of about 11 minutes a mile, with 10 to 12 miles on weekends. In addition, 100 sit-ups a day (“someone told me it’s the only way to control your midsection after 40”), and three days a week, light weight lifting or swimming.
Diet
“Everything in moderation, and protein is essential,” she says. Steak or hamburger twice a week (for the iron), lots of seafood, salads and fruit, and some dark chocolate, but very little cheese and no sodas or sweets. Also, “I really watch my fats. I try to stay under about 45 grams a day.” Favorite treat: yogurt with banana slices and a crumbled graham cracker. “It’s almost like banana cream pie, but with a lot less fat than granola.”
Go Red for Women Education Day
When: 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Adams Mark Hotel, 1550 Court Place
Attire: Business casual; wear red
Admission: $100 includes education sessions, health screenings and luncheon with speaker Cleo Park Robinson
Reservations: Pamela.mccary@heart.org; 303-996-8737
