Eating For Heart Health

Taking care of your heart health is complicated. You may be in the middle of adjusting your diet, quitting smoking, or starting an exercise regimen to help give yourself a longer, healthier, happier life.

Replace Snacks with Healthy Versions

Are you a habitual snacker? Those in-between meal snacks can spell the best times to make unhealthy choices. From sugary drinks to snow cones to little barbecue appetizers, the little things you eat can add up to a lot more work for your heart. Try to bring along healthy snacks like fruit or veggies mixes to balance out any bad decisions you might be making at parties. Or better yet, try to avoid those bad foods altogether.

Eat Before You Get Hungry

Being frustrated because you’re hungry is not fun. But, when you’re trying to eat healthy and even lose weight to take care of your heart, it can be almost impossible. When we’re hungry, we’re more likely to grab something quick that may not be so great for our hearts.

To avoid the temptation of a quick drive-thru order of fries or even a slice of coffee cake from your local coffee shop, try to eat a heart healthy breakfast. This will set you up for a better day, and you’ll have all the options in your fridge available to you.

Baby Steps

One way to try and manage parties is to avoid them completely. Or, you can go and practice using your willpower. In essence, try to be good, at least one meal a day. If you’re having a hard time giving up your favorite foods, we get it.

It can take a while to make sweeping life changes all at once. But, make a pact with yourself. If you eat something unhealthy, try to balance it out with a healthy option, and work toward making better and better choices every day. If you’re headed to a party, try to eat heart healthy foods all the way, up until you go to the barbeque. That way, if you do slip up, you have a whole two other meals that can help fight one not-so-great choice.

Give us a call at (480) 641-5400 to schedule a consultation with us to learn more about keeping your heart healthy this summer.