Take Heart-Part 2
Get Fit and Heart Healthy
Getting fit helps your heart get healthy. A hundred years ago, only about ten percent of adults were overweight. Today about sixty-one percent of adults are. Reaching and maintaining a healthy body weight will pay off in many ways, including lowering your risk for heart disease by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels as well as increasing energy. More than one-third of people who are overweight say they get little or no exercise. Working out just thirty to forty minutes a day can help you burn up to five hundred calories each session and your body will continue to burn up to one hundred calories the rest of the day after you stop exercising! Exercise does not have to be hard or structured to get results here are a couple of examples to get you started. Every little bit of exercise adds up. If you take fifteen minutes to walk the dog in the morning, ten minutes to walk and pick up your lunch, five minutes to walk around the office for a mid afternoon stretch, fifteen minutes to weed your garden when you get home from work and fifteen minutes after dinner playing tag with the kids your activity adds up to one hour and three extra calories burned for the day. Fifteen minutes of mowing the lawn with a push mower, washing the car, downhill skiing on the beginners slop or walking at a brisk pace burn seventy to ninety four calories. If you only have five minutes jump rope, walk the stairs, dance to a song on the radio, just keep moving, even fidgeting and tapping your toes under your desk burns calories. Finding activities that you enjoy that move your body will help you to loose weight, get fit and have fun.
Remember to talk to your doctor before starting any exercise program.
Make Good Food Choices
Making good food choices can be hard but a healthy diet is an important part to improve heart health. Here are some tools to get you started on your way:
Choose whole grains: By choosing brown rice, whole oats, whole wheat pasta and multi- grain bread you get nutrients like folate, magnesium and vitamin E as well as fiber instead of the empty calories found in overly processed foods like white bread.
Add Beans and Legumes: Beans are a great way to get fat busting fiber. An easy way to add beans and legumes to your diet is to sprinkle a green salad with an ounce of kidney beans, or make a pot of minestrone soup with lots of vegetables and beans for a low calorie high fiber lunch.
Eat all your fruits and vegetables: The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) now recommends eating at least 7 servings of vegetables a day. Don’t be afraid, a serving is 1/2 a cup so if you have a large green leaf salad of spring greens, escarole, and radicchio with broccoli, red bell peppers, sprouts and radishes for lunch you will have gotten at least 3 servings out of the way. By adding two veggies to your dinner plate and a snack of carrots and celery all 7 will be in. It is also recommended that you have two servings of fruit a day. Try to have them as the whole fruit and not fruit juice since fruit juice often has added calories and little to no fiber.
Choose Lean Meat and Fish: Choose meat that is naturally low in fat, such as turkey breast, skinless chicken, fish or seafood. It has been recommended by the USDA for heart health that you eat three servings of fatty fish per week. Fatty fish including salmon, trout and herring, they are a god sources of heart healthy fish oils.
Avoid “Bad” Fat: Reduce the amount of “bad” fat by limiting processed foods, especially those made with hydrogenated oils like lard and margarine. Examples of foods high in “bad” fats know as trans fatty acids are French fries, fried fish or chicken, doughnuts and cakes. If you have a recipe that calls for frying try baking instead. This is an easy way to cut both fat and calories.
Add “Good” Fat: There are good fats out there and using them in your cooking will help lower bad, LDL, cholesterol. Use small amounts olive oil, canola oil or use cooking spray to coat the pan to add flavor and reduce sticking. A little fat goes a long way to make food taste better. It is a perfect example of less is more.
A word about treats: We all need treats from time to time but satisfying treats don’t have to be health zappers. A few ideas, look for mini sizes of the treats you love including single serving popcorn, cookies and snack cakes. Add dark chocolate, new research shows it has heart health benefits and use fruit as a tasty dessert, it has all of the sweet with none of the fat that weighs you down.
Sources: The American Heart Association, The Women’s Heart Foundation and Prevention’s Ultimate Guide to Women’s Health and Wellness
Nutrition through the life cycle by Judith Brown. Photos: The California Department of Aging Stay Well Campaign 2000
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