February is heart month, and in more than one way! It is time to take care of your heart and the hearts of the ones you love. There are a lot of do’s and don’ts to keep your heart healthy like some of the ones found in the Take Part To Nourish Your Heart blog from 2015.
We have decided this year to give our top nutrition, exercise and lifestyle tips to keep your Heart Healthy!
Exercise Tips
Tip # 1: Dance. Why not dance your way through 300 calories? Getting on the treadmill or bike every day can get a little boring and boring leads to decreased interest. Why not try out a Zumba class, the “Just Dance: 2016” video game or better yet… turn your iPod on and dance like it is 1999!
Tip # 2: Stretching helps to reduce stress! Decreased stress has been shown to help reduce the risks of heart disease.
Tip # 3: Be a Kid Again! Exercise does not need to boring. Play like you were a kid again, go skiing, rollerblading, skating, or play tennis! Check out a trampoline park or indoor climbing gym! Find something that you enjoyed as a kid and do it again. Learn how quickly you can burn calories when you enjoy these activities.
Tip # 4: High Intensity Interval training. HIIT is a great way to blast calories without investing a lot of time. Try out one of our at-home HIIT workouts and be amazed at how quickly you can see and feel a difference in your cardiovascular fitness!!
Nutrition Tips
Tip # 1: Choose the right Fats! Increase the amount of GOOD fats in the body, such as avocado, nuts, seeds and fish. Decrease BAD fats such as saturated fats, fried foods, and junk food. GOOD fats help to reduce heart disease!
Tip # 2: Increase Soluble fibre in your diet. Soluble fiber can be found in
Tip # 3: decrease salts in the diet. Use lemon and other low sodium and salt free spices for you food (Herbamaer, low sodium vegetable stock)
Tip # 4: Increase antioxidants in the diet.
Lifestyle Tips
Tip # 1: Relax the mind. Do a jigsaw puzzle! When we take our mind off of everyday stresses and focus on a puzzle or some other task to keep your hands busy it really helps to reduce your stress levels.
Tip # 2: Laugh! yuk yuks, the comedy network or a good group of friends are all a really great way to laugh just a little bit more during the day. Laughter is an amazing tool to help reduce stress and relax your heart!
Make one change at a time and take care of your heart this February!
