Your heart is in your hands. Every year on your birthday, make an appointment to get your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar checked, and ask your doctor to help you reach or maintain a healthy weight. Be sure to follow your doctor recommendations, including taking prescribed medications as directed.
2. Get Physical
Step, march or jog in place for at least 15 minutes a day while watching your favorite TV shows. Increase your activity by five minutes each week until you get at least 30 minutes most days of the week.
If exercise and diet do not reach your goal, ask your doctor about adding medication.
3. Drink more water
Take a water bottle with you wherever you go. This will keep you hydrated and weight bottle will strengthen the hands.
4. Eat healthy
Keep packages of unhealthy food hidden. Put raw vegetables and fruits in front of the refrigerator and healthy snacks in front of the store, so that's what you see first. If you grab healthy foods for at least 21 times, healthy choices will become a habit.
Also, look for red American Heart Association and white hearts tab. This simple, reliable food tool helps you identify foods that can be part of a sensible eating plan.
5. Control Cholesterol
Eat foods rich in saturated fats, trans fats or cholesterol can lead to high blood cholesterol levels. To help keep your cholesterol levels down, eat foods low in saturated fat and trans fat, such as lean chicken or turkey (roasted or baked, with skin removed), fruits and vegetables, low-fat or fat-free dairy products and cereals.
Look for cookbooks that focus on heart health in your local bookstore and check out the recipe section of the American Heart Association in www.heart.org
6. Reduce Salt
To reduce high blood pressure, watch your salt intake. It can be disguised in food labels as sodium alginate, sodium sulfite, sodium caseinate, disodium phosphate, sodium benzoate, sodium hydroxide, monosodium glutamate (MSG), or sodium citrate.
7. Stop smoking
Try this four-step way to kick your habit:
On Day 1, reduce the number of cigarettes you smoke by half
On Day 3, to reduce the number of cigarettes and smoking in half again
And on Day 5, again reduce smoking in half
For Quit Day ... quit!
Keep the numbers under control: Quitting smoking
8. Maintenance of healthy weight
Excess weight increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. To achieve a stable, painless loss slowly. Every day, if you eat 200-300 calories less than you would otherwise consume, and exercise at least 30 minutes most or all days of the week, you'll get closer to your goal and be able to achieve weight loss that is stable and painless.
9. Stay Positive
If you get off your schedule of exercises, have a cigarette, or eat fattening meal, I'll be back on the road to re-establishing a healthy lifestyle.
10. Give yourself credit
To maintain momentum with exercising, losing weight or quitting smoking, keep track of your achievements and reward yourself with something you enjoy.
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