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Ensuring Better Heart Health Through a Commitment to Fitness

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Ensuring Better Heart Health Through a Commitment to Fitness

This month give your heart the love it deserves. February is American Heart Month and the perfect time to refocus your efforts on heart-healthy habits for 2012. Nina Radford, MD, a Cooper Clinic Preventive Medicine Physician, offers her advice when it comes to heart healthy habits.

According to the American Heart Association's Heart Disease and Stroke 2012 Statistical Update, only 20.7 percent of Americans meet the federal guidelines for physical activity. Less than one percent of Americans meet the definition for an "ideal healthy" diet. Overall, 68 percent of Americans are overweight or obese. So, it is not surprising that many of us made New Year's resolutions that involved exercise, weight loss or improving our diet.

It is very clear from numerous scientific studies that making healthy lifestyle changes reduces the risk of heart disease. If we know what is good for us, why are Americans gaining weight, being less active and making poor choices at mealtime? Making lifestyle changes are hard and sticking to those changes is even more difficult! In fact, there are now scientific studies focused on how we can be more successful in achieving changes in our physical activity and dietary habits. Here are some recommendations about how to be successful in achieving your heart healthy goals for 2012.

Healthy Goals
Make goals that are specific, achievable in the shorter term and realistic. While your ultimate goal may be to overhaul your entire diet, start with a goal that is smaller and that you know you can achieve. For example, during the month of February, substitute a piece of fruit for chips at lunch. Once you have mastered that change, you can move to something else for March. Do you want to improve your fitness? Making a goal to run a marathon in six weeks is probably just a tad unrealistic and sets you up for failure. How about taking an exercise class after work two days a week or walking your dog after dinner? Slow and steady wins the race.

Healthy Planning
Make a plan to monitor your success. Have you set a goal to walk for 30 minutes three or four times per week? Put a calendar on the refrigerator and check off each day that you meet your goal with a happy face. Have you set a goal to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables per day? Put a check mark for each serving you achieve on each day. You may be surprised at how motivating it is to look at a calendar full of happy faces or check marks!

Healthy Support
Plug into a support system. Many studies demonstrate that it is hard to successfully change your lifestyle without support from friends, family or the community. Skip the snooze button and plan to meet a friend at your local gym several mornings a week. This makes you accountable to someone beside yourself for getting up and out in the morning. Skip the weekend doughnuts and sign up for a nutritional program to keep you on the right track.

Making lifestyle changes that stick is not easy. American Heart Month is a great time to not only revisit your heart healthy goals for 2012, but to make sure you have a realistic plan in place to achieve those goals.

For more information about Cooper Clinic click here or call 972.560.2667.