Today your heart will beat 100,000 times. There’s a good chance it will do the same thing tomorrow, unless you suddenly get chased by a rabid tiger after having a triple-shot of espresso. The fear and caffeine will fuel your adrenalin and increase your heart rate so you can flee from the tiger, leap a few fences, and return to work before the caffeine buzz wears off.Midlife is the right time to start loving your heart. One in two women will eventually die from heart disease or stroke, and eleven times more women die of heart disease than from breast cancer. If your midlife schedule is making you too busy to focus on this important ten-ounce organ, here is a list of ways to continue to damage your precious heart. 1. Smoke like a chimney. Odds are you won’t have to worry about old age.2. Worry in silence. The internal stress will put a strangle-hold on your arteries and consequently you’ll soon need to worry if your pacemaker will continue to work. 3. Ignore your high blood pressure. So you think it’s cheap and easy to get a heart transplant?4. Gobble tons of refined carbohydrates and fried food. You’ll have plenty of time to learn to spell arteriosclerosis while you’re lying in a hospital bed,5. You have a body mass index great than 25 and your waist measures more than 34 inches around. Face it, your heart is only the size of your fist and was not designed to support the weight of a young buffalo.6. You believe that exercise is for sissies and never run, walk, or do any exercise that keeps your heart rate above 120 beats per minute for any length of time. Keep in mind that being tethered to an oxygen tank and grasping heart medication doesn’t make you brave or smart.It’s time to protect your heart for the future, so walk every day, maintain a healthy weight, improve your diet, stop smoking, and reduce your stress. Your heart is programmed to beat 3.5 billion times throughout your life. Don’t stop the rhythm.