By: Paloma Cortes – Gleaners Nutrition Education Team
February, the month of love. Lots of vibrant red good-looking hearts all around; but is your heart vibrant and good looking? Take care of your heart not only from heartbreaks but also from heart attacks or strokes.
According to the American Heart Association, being part of a healthy living movement is the key to success if you want to keep your heart in a good shape. This movement can be divided into three big sections, those are eating smart, moving more, and being well.
Here is a brief explanation of them.
- Healthy eating: Essentially you need to take care of your daily diet by choosing colorful options of fruits and vegetables (all forms and all colors count). Loose weight by getting better choices and getting active. Get some cooking skills and use them at home, this can help you to maintain better eating habits by finding or creating balanced recipes to reach your goals in no time, eat smart every time. Choose wisely when grocery shopping.
- Healthy lifestyle: Having a certain way of living impacts greatly on your overall health. Focusing on mental health and wellbeing is about taking care of you and the others surrounding. Keeping healthy habits by taking small steps at a time will make these habits easier to reach. It is important to have a decent amount of quality sleep to build a healthier version of yourself. Manage your stress by creating time for yourself. It is known that quitting smoking, vaping, and tobacco use lowers the risk of heart disease. Also It has been studied that having a pet may bring some benefits such as raising fitness levels, lowering stress levels and boosting happiness and wellbeing to yourself. Last but not least, connecting with others and creating a safe, social environment will keep you and your heart feeling well.
- Fitness: Get ahold of the fitness basics and the impact of it on your health. Getting active can means that something is better than nothing, doing some exercise event at home will get you on the right path. Staying motivated for fitness is basic to maintain a long-term health heart. And as simple as it sounds, walking is an activity that we can easily do to get active and stay active.
So, as you have seen, taking care of our hearts shouldn’t be that hard, you just have to be committed to it and follow some simple steps. In no time you will find yourself walking on a healthy living movement for your health.
References:
American Heart Association. (n.d.) Healthy Living. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living
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