This Valentine’s Day, Love Your Own Sweet Heart!

Last week was the tenth annual celebration of National Wear RED Day created by the American Heart Association to raise awareness of the prevalence of heart disease. Celebrate Valentine’s Day this year by making some crucial lifestyle changes that will have a huge impact on your heart health. Why not make this the year you commit to loving your own sweet heart?

Here at HMR, we have been working for decades to help people lose weight and keep it off. But did you know that people who join our programs practice the very lifestyle changes that also improve many of the risk factors for heart disease? When you lose weight with HMR, you are building the lifestyle skills that will put your heart health on track, reducing your risk of heart attack and stroke.

How do we do it?

1 - Weight Management with Meal Replacements. Obesity is a major risk factor for heart disease, so taking off the pounds means reducing your risk. Use of meal replacements is the number one tool for weight loss, because they’re low in calories and portion-controlled. In fact, no study has ever shown these tools to be anything but effective in lowering body weight.

2 - Emphasis on eating fruits and veggies. Research shows that diets higher in fruits and veggies not only help people maintain a lower weight, but these foods also reduce inflammation which is thought to be a major contributor to heart disease.

3 - Physical Activity. Our clients practice achieving an average of 2,000 calories burned in physical activity per week. That’s far more than most Americans, and easily surpasses even the AHA recommendation of 30 minutes of activity a day. Being physically active dramatically reduces risk.

Changing your lifestyle can be challenging, so we have developed the most effective coaching model in the business. Our coaches are highly trained to help you problem solve even the most challenging situations, so you build your next success upon the last.

It’s important to know your risk even if you have no family history of heart disease - the first sign can be a fatal heart attack. Know your numbers - especially BMI, blood pressure, waist circumference, blood sugars, cholesterol and triglycerides. Speak with a doctor if any of these are elevated and seek appropriate treatment.

Change what you can right away. Quit smoking. Substitute your morning muffin with a healthy smoothie made with real fruit. Have a salad or veggie soup for lunch and pack healthy snacks like clementines, hummus and carrot sticks, applesauce with cinnamon or two cups of berries topped with low-fat yogurt. Take a 15 minute stroll during your lunch break, get off the train a stop earlier, or just park your car at the far side of the parking lot.

The truth is that a little goes a long way when it comes to caring for your sweet heart. Why not get started this Valentine’s Day... on social media and through our clinic programs, HMR is here to help.
 

by luv2run on 02/06/2013 | Share Story With a Friend

tags: Weight-Loss, HMR, motivation, holidays