Heart Healthy Families
February is American Heart Healthy month, an important time to acknowledge the ways in which we can keep our hearts healthy. More and more often in recent years people of all ages have suffered heart health issues due to things that could be changed or recognized sooner. It’s always a good idea to learn at an early age what you can do to keep your heart healthy and how to keep your body balanced. Here are some ways you and your family can promote a heart healthy lifestyle with simple tips to remember in your normal routine:
Diet & Exercise
What your body does and what you put in your body are two main contributors to heart health. Consider your diet and what your family normally consumes each week. Make sure to think about the ways you prepare your food at home and the kinds of things your diet regularly includes. Lots of fried foods and desserts can lead to health problems in the future.
Soda & Sugar in Beverages
It is easy to add a lot of sugar in your diet by drinking sodas, juices, energy drinks, or sports drinks. Replacing the sugary drinks with water as a part of being conscious of your sugar intake is important for heart health. Adding more and more sugar into your diet is adding a lot of unnecessary calories and can lead to weight gain. If you have gotten used to drinking things like this regularly, it can seem difficult to completely remove them from your diet. Start small and slowly replace them with water, or use this as a special treat to limit sugar intake.
Considering Family Food Choices
The easiest way to make changes to the way you eat and overall diet is together! The whole family should join in on keeping to the new standards you might set for yourselves. Making healthier choices for your meals like decreasing fatty meats and increasing vegetables is a place to start. Stick with regular meals, especially a healthy breakfast to start each day. You can reference https://www.choosemyplate.gov for nutrition guidelines, the updated version of the common food pyramid. Teaching your children how to make healthy choices early on will equip them with skills of healthy food decisions and meal preparation for their lifetime.
Meal Prep
One popular way of simplifying the decisions you make for your meals each week is to take the time to meal prep. Choose the best day for your schedule and consider the meals that you’ll be able to prepare at home or need to take on the go. Choose some healthy and easy components like brown rice, beans, and veggies to combine in different ways for your meal prep. Research some helpful recipe apps that create a customized grocery list for you based off of the selected meals.
TV/Screen Time vs Physical Activity
Of course, everyone knows that screen time is a big issue at this time with kids often choosing a game on a phone or tablet instead of running, jumping, and playing. Even as adults it can be difficult to get moving sometimes, but it is so important to incorporate into your normal routine. It can help to make simple things part of the routine, like longer dog walks or trying out new activities like yoga. It’s easier than ever to monitor how much time kids spend in different apps, so use features on your devices to keep yourself aware. Ask your physical therapists for some fun gross motor activities that gets the family activity and will support your child’s development.
Lifestyle Changes
Heart health really comes down to your overall routine and maintaining balance. If you look at your day-to-day schedule make note of the things that happen pretty normally like watching movies or ordering pizza. Think of ways you can introduce fun, new activities into your routine to replace those which don’t give you any healthy benefits. Instead of another weekend movie, you might consider taking a dance class or going for a hike.
Incorporating Everyone
One thing is for certain, if some people are not on board with major changes or even some of the smaller changes to your diet or lifestyle, it can make it more difficult for everyone. Make sure everyone in your household understands the need for healthy foods and water along with plenty of physical activity. If everyone can cooperate together, it will make it easier for everyone in the family over time.
Schedule Changes and Free Time Schedule
An easy way to get started planning some new activities with the family to promote activity and a heart healthy lifestyle is to find the time in your schedules to spend together. Take a look at work, school, appointments, and when the family can participate in some activity together. It might only be once a week to start, but it make it easier for you to plan ahead and get involved in an active way.
Start Slow and Grow
If you are looking to get heart healthy but feel like it is a hard road, don’t worry. Small changes can have a big impact long term, so just start slow and don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Remember that once you make these healthy choices more often, you’ll begin to really feel the benefit in your body - having more energy, a healthier and clearer mind, and likely a more positive attitude. Take things step by step and introduce new ideas comfortably to find the right balance for your family.
Special Olympics Healthy Athletes®
During American Heart Healthy month, we highlight an incredible program the Special Olympics has organized called the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes® initiative. The overall health and well-being of those with different abilities and the attention garnered by the healthcare community was lacking prior to the Special Olympics taking note. Their initial research showed that those with different abilities were not receiving anywhere close to the proper healthcare or attention to their health that should be received, and decided to incite change. Healthy Athletes has since 1997 provided over one million free healthcare exams for athletes as well as contributed to the healthcare community with training of over 100K professionals in the industry.
“With Healthy Athletes, Special Olympics has become the largest public health organization specifically for people with intellectual disabilities.The need for Healthy Athletes is great. Despite a mistaken belief that people with intellectual disabilities receive the same or better health care than others, they typically receive sub-standard care, or virtually no health care at all.”
Learn more about Healthy Athletes and the great work of the Special Olympics during American Heart Health month and learn more about how to help your family be happy and healthy this year!
Additional Resources:
https://riseandshine.childrensnational.org/5-tips-for-a-heart-healthy-family/
