your heart health
Making Heart Health a Habit Submitted by the American Heart Association
H
appy New Year! Now that the holidays are behind us, we can make a fresh start with the new year to become healthier. But of course most of us start out strong, but our motivation runs out after a few weeks. Here are some tips for making habits that will become lifestyle changes to improve your heart health. Learn to form healthy habits by replacing the bad ones. Substituting healthy habits for unhealthy ones rewards you with more stamina, better quality of life – and a healthier you. That is easier said than done, of course, but some simple tips can help you tackle even the most indulgent and hardest-to-kick habits. Rani Whitfield, M.D., a Baton Rouge, La., family practitioner and American Heart Association volunteer, is on a mission to help people change their unhealthy habits. “An unhealthy habit is easy to develop and hard to live with; a healthy habit is harder to develop but easier to live with,” said Whitfield,
who has earned the nickname “The Hip Hop Doc” through his work getting young people to make healthier choices. Regardless of your age, you can benefit from Whitfield’s simple habit-changing tips. First, he says, know that it takes 60 to 90 days to create a new habit. You have to keep after it. If you forget sometimes, or if at first you don’t figure how to make it work with your schedule, keep after it.
I knew I was ready to lose weight
when I couldn’t buckle my seatbelt. Susan knew she was ready to lose weight when she had trouble buckling her seatbelt — preventing her from enjoying one of the things she loves most — her Corvette. Now, after weight loss surgery, Susan is nearly 100 pounds lighter and enjoying life — and her Corvette. When you’re ready to lose weight, we have surgical and non-surgical weight loss programs to help you.
www.osfsaintfrancis.org/weightloss
Page 26 — Healthy Cells Magazine — Peoria — January 2012