A heart-healthy lifestyle goes a long way toward keeping your ticker in tip-top shape. A few easy changes can nip heart-harming trends, like high blood pressure or cholesterol, in the bud before they do damage.
It may seem daunting to overhaul your diet and lifestyle. Start by making small changes, and build up to a healthier lifestyle over time.
1. Eat a Healthy Diet
Eating a healthy diet requires consistently making good food choices over time. It also means replacing unhealthy foods and beverages with healthier ones.
Try to reduce your intake of solid fats (butter, stick margarine and lard), added sugars and salt. Use vegetable, olive, canola or peanut oil when cooking and avoid fried foods.
2. Exercise Regularly
A heart-healthy diet is essential, but exercise also plays an important role. Regular physical activity reduces your risk of obesity, high blood pressure and cholesterol.
Experts recommend 150 minutes of moderate-intensity, aerobic exercise each week. Incorporate muscle-strengthening activities two to three times per week as well.
Start small and add to your activity as you become more comfortable with exercise. You can even build movement into your daily tasks such as walking up and down stairs or doing jumping jacks while brushing teeth.
3. Quit Smoking
Quitting smoking significantly reduces your risk for heart disease and other health conditions. It can also help prevent complications for pregnant women and their fetuses. Many people relapse when trying to quit smoking, but don’t get discouraged. Instead, learn from your mistakes and try again.
To help you break the smoking habit, find ways to distract yourself from cravings, like sipping a glass of water or doing a jigsaw puzzle. You can also stock up on snacks like sugar-free gum, mints or lollipops.
4. Manage Your Stress
Some stressors are short-term and go away (a train delay or your child’s temper tantrum). But others can be long-term and ongoing, such as dealing with a difficult health diagnosis or searching for a new job.
Regular self-care practices can help keep your heart healthy and manage long-term stress. These include eating a balanced diet with fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins and limiting your sodium intake.
5. Stay Hydrated
Optimal hydration aids digestion, circulation and lubrication of joints. It also helps transport nutrients for energy.
The amount of water you need depends on climatic conditions, clothing and exercise intensity/duration. Drinking fluid during exercise helps replace the heat-generating sweat you lose, helping you maintain normal body temperature and reduce exercise-related muscle cramps.
A simple way to gauge your hydration status is to assess the color of your urine. If it’s clear or light yellow, you are well hydrated.
6. Get Enough Sleep
People who regularly get enough sleep are less likely to have high blood pressure, heart disease or stroke. Establishing a regular bedtime, avoiding caffeine and alcohol in the hours before sleeping, and limiting screen time can help promote healthy sleep habits.
Eating a diet that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins is important for overall health. But getting enough sleep is just as crucial.
7. Get Enough Vitamins
Vitamins help the body function properly. They also play a role in protecting the heart.
Lack of vitamin C, for example, caused the bleeding gums and listlessness of scurvy among ancient sailors. A deficiency of vitamin D, meanwhile, causes rickets, a disease that can lead to soft bones and bowed legs.
Eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy can give you all the vitamins you need. But many people don’t get enough.
8. Avoid Alcohol
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, but it’s not inevitable. While certain risk factors like family history and sex can’t be changed, there are many things you can do to protect your heart.
Heavy drinking does your heart no favors, and even moderate drinking can be harmful. To stay heart healthy, limit your alcohol intake to no more than one drink per day and avoid sugary drinks altogether.
9. Manage Your Blood Pressure
Over time, high blood pressure can damage the heart, arteries and kidneys. Regular exercise, such as walking, can be just as effective at lowering blood pressure as some commonly used medications.
Talk to your doctor about achieving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. And be sure to follow prescription medication directions. Your heart is worth it. You deserve to live a long, happy life.
10. Stay Active
Regular exercise helps to strengthen the heart, keeps cholesterol levels in check, and provides a boost of energy. Try to get in 30 minutes of cardiovascular activity several times a week.
Sneak in physical activity throughout the day by using the stairs instead of elevators, getting off a bus or train one stop earlier and walking the rest of the way, and performing exercises while you’re doing household chores.