You can easily set these goals yourself
You don’t have any complaints or ailments? Then your health should be alright, right? We use this excuse sometimes to get out of something. But we do all agree that prevention is better than cure. So be kind to the health of your heart and listen to the advise of this cardiologist.
Cardiologist Jennifer Haythe tells Well + Good what she does to keep her heart healthy.
Your heart
Why is it important to keep your heart healthy? It is connected to everything in your body and therefore it is affected by a lot of things. Dr. Haythe explains that your heart is a muscle and that it needs training to keep fit just like your other muscles. Your heart is also connected to your neurological system so when you’re not feeling great or when you have a lot of stress, it affects your heart as well. Therefore, it is important to keep your heart fit.
1. Set training goals
Dr. Haythe often runs to keep her heart healthy. She motivates herself by signing up for marathons or half a marathon. When you do this, you do have to train beforehand. She spends about 45 minutes on powerful cardiovascular exercises as often as four or five times a week. Swimming and running are examples of such exercises. Luckily your don’t have to set such a difficult task for yourself. The American Heart Association advises adults to spend about 150 minutes a week on semi-intensive exercise such as walking, dancing or gardening. Alternatively you can spend about 75 minutes a week on intensive exercise.
2. Get yourself a mediterranean diet
It usually doesn’t help to deny yourself certain foods, but you can strive towards a certain diet. Dr. Hythe tries to stick to the mediterranean diet as much as possible. For her, that entails eating red meat once every two weeks. Besides that, she eats a lot of fish, chicken, legumes, fruit, nuts, and olive oil.
Go to the next page to read about three more tips.
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