The heart is the organ that can be compared to an engine, it keeps us running and makes sure that every other part of our body functions properly, so of course we want our heart to be as healthy as possible. Today, I am ready to share with everyone some steps to a healthy heart. These will include healthy living tips on daily wellness, diet, and general fitness that you will want to start including in your day-to-day activities. Remembering these steps to a healthy heart will make sure that your ticker keeps on ticking, so let’s get to it right away, every minute is precious after all.

WELLNESS

Make it a habit to schedule regular or annual checkups. Knowing how your health is doing is important.

Sleep eight hours a night – I cannot stress getting enough sleep if you want a healthy heart. Wherever you will go, this will always be one of the top steps to a healthy heart and that should tell you a lot from the onset. Make sure that part of your healthy living plans always puts a full night’s rest into account because otherwise you will be putting unnecessary strain on your ticker.

Make sure not to ignore stress – Stress is a heart killer, the worst part is people tend to ignore it and shrug it off almost on a daily basis. DO NOT DO THAT. Stress is a gateway to a lot of sicknesses. So among all these steps to a healthy heart, keep this one in mind. Reading about tips on how to deal with stress could be a game changer for you.

Don’t smoke – This is no joke, smoking does a lot of terrible things to your body and your heart cannot take the extra hits of cigarettes. The anti smoking campaigns should have reached you by now, a friend or family member could have been affected by smoking, if you don’t know how bad smoking is for you yet, I’m not sure you ever will. However if you are a smoker, please put the cigarette down and start working on the steps to a healthy heart and get on the healthy living train sooner than later, you’ll need all the help you can get in order to recover from being a smoker.

Go for regular check ups – You cannot discount how useful a regular check up is for you, it will tell you what you need to do, how you are doing and so forth. As the saying goes: The enemy that you do know is better than the enemy that you do not. This is doubly true for your health, you want to know and prevent any sickness from coming before they reach your body and as one of the steps to a healthy heart, this is one of the easier ones to do, after all, you just need to pick a time and go meet your doctor, that’s pretty much it.

DIET

Whether you are a vegan or not, make sure to keep a balanced meal. Remember, anything too much or too little is not good!

Eat a balanced meal – One would assume that healthy living meals are perfect for you at all times, but remember that a balanced meal is key to your steps to a healthy heart. Check with a nutritionist what type of balance your body needs and have fun with the recipes, remember that eating fresh is always a good idea. Additionally if you aren’t restricted by a vegan or vegetarian diet, make sure you get a lot of fish in your diet, especially fatty fish that is loaded with omega 3 vitamins, this is the good stuff for your heart.

Eat more vegetables – Vegans and vegetarians have this step down, eating a lot of vegetables has always been good for you and of course it is one of the steps to a healthy heart. Healthy living will definitely help you get a stronger and healthier heart in the long run, all it takes is adding some more delicious vegetables to your diet and that shouldn’t be too hard at all.

Go with wholegrain – As healthy living goes, wholegrain is always on the list and for good reason. Wholegrain is full of nutrients and is a wonderful source of fiber, making sure that it has a place among the steps to a healthy heart, everyone needs better nutrients and fiber, it regulates the body and makes it grow properly.

FITNESS

Include a cardio workout in your habit.

Aerobic exercise – There are no two ways about this one, exercise is a must as one of the steps to a healthy heart, it shouldn’t take an expert to explain why. The body needs to get rid of the calories you have gathered from meals and you need to burn off that fat. Fat tends to envelope the heart and the more fat there is, the harder it is for the heart to beat. So in order to maximize your healthy living plans and a strong, healthy heart, make sure you get a good cardio workout in, to really get that ticker into prime shape.

Stretch it out – Stretching is a wonderful way to get a workout, and one step further is perhaps yoga in my opinion. The stretching of the entire body is a great thing and yoga really achieves that with each session. It also helps that the body stay away from stress via meditation which is really another add on to helping the heart out. Pair it off with healthy living meals and your heart should just about be ready for anything you need it to be up against.

Interval training – There is research that maximizing your heart rate while working out is the ideal way of exercising the heart. The heart is a muscle, there is no question about it and like any muscle it can be trained to be stronger through vigorous and daily training. So the idea is to get your maximum beats per minute, monitored with a heart rate monitor of course, in order to really workout your heart muscle, rest and repeat, thus the interval training. This is one of the more exciting steps to a healthy heart as there are a lot of exercises that can be done interval style. I like doing it while running or even using a jump rope, the challenge is there plus the way it makes your heart rate go zoom is just amazing.

There you have it my friends, 10 powerful steps to a healthy heart, I really suggest trying several of them if not all of them together. As mentioned before the heart is a muscle, and like any other muscle it needs to get stronger and develop properly in order to work well with the rest of the body. For it to really grow, your heart will need all the help you can give it, so make sure you take the time to work it out and push it to the limit while making sure not to overdo it, a difficult rope walk for sure but it will all be worth it. Stay healthy!