• You come first: eat breakfast as soon as you get up. Your body is working at a different energy level when you wake up.
• Keep a strict meal schedule. teach your body to feel hungry at a certain time each day.
• Eat fruit as a snack: make a habit to eat them every day, you need the antioxidants.
• Be organized: assigned a time for grocery shopping
• Prepare a quick nutritious meal: don’t buy ready-t0-eat, you’ll be healthier.
• Eat sensibly: parties, social gatherings should not be an excuse to overeat.
• Going to the movies? Make sure you don’t eat, no good options, extremely unhealthy.
• Exercise: do want you want, just keep on moving, dance, jump with music, etc.
• Plan meals the night before, you won’t regret what you eat.
• Keep 2-weeks of recipes for quick meals.
• Always have frozen fruits and vegetables in your freezer, in addition to fresh ones.
• Avoid eating because someone else is eating, keep your schedule apart.
• Don’t eat on impulse, if you do it, keep track of the times, you must change.
• Lazy to cook? Share meals with a friend that eats healthy, or cook for 2-3 days.
• Eat fish twice a week: you’ll have a healthy heart.
• Eat a wholesome meal, not a sandwich.
• When planning a meal: think of vegetables first.
• You ate too much? Don’t regret it, just think how you will fix it and stick to it.
• Think of food only at mealtimes.
• Never push anybody to eat more, especially children.
• If you drink alcohol: eat first.
• Dessert, sweets, chocolate, regular sodas, bottled juice may lead you to diabetes.
• Don’t skip meals: train your body to meet its needs.
• Train your body to spend more calories: do exercise.
• Eat all colors of vegetables/fruits: each has a different nutrient to enhance your health.
• If you are overweight or obese: consult a dietitian, avoid increasing more weight.
• Eat to perform: don’t skip lunch.
• Sleep deprivation may push you to eat more, sleep at least 7 to 8 hrs daily.
• Drinking sodas often takes away the calcium from your bones.
• Wondering why your belly is showing bigger? Alcohol is metabolized to fat.
• Eat beans, lentils, lima beans, dry peas, garbanzo beans: great nutrition.
• Eat at least one citrus fruit each day, i.e., orange, grapefruit, clementines.
• Salad? Eat a variety of veggies: beets, radicchio, avocado, asparagus, red pepper, etc.
• Soups can be a meal: veggies, beans and noodle, quinoa with chicken, etc.
• The more red meats you eat the higher your risk of cancer.
• Variety is the key to good nutrition.
• Drink water: you need it for the thousands of chemical reactions in your body.
• Feeling down? Try an activity other than eating.
• Feeling happy? Celebrate with a fun activity.
• Grocery shopping: make a list, stick to it.
• Celebrations: offer plenty of vegetable and fruit dishes, limit meats and heavy desserts.

It is known that a lifestyle with lack of physical activity, overweight, high fat intake and smoking is conducive to heart disease. In addition, your risks are increased if you suffer hypertension, you are a 45 year- old male, or 55 year-old female, or older. Having a first-degree relative with history of coronary heart disease (CHD) will also add to your chances of getting heart disease.

To find out more about your risks of heart disease log on the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at www.nhlbisupport.com/chd1 and The American Heart Association at http://www.americanheart.org/ What do you do if you just realized that you are at risk? First, do not get anxious, just get thoughtful. You must start a plan that will reduce your risks. The point to start is a medical check-up to find out what your numbers are.

Ask your doctor to test your serum lipids: total cholesterol, LDL (low density lipoprotein), HDL (high density lipoprotein), triglycerides. According to the results, your physician will advise you in regard to exercise, medications if needed, weight control, etc. Then, you need a definite action plan. There are several areas in which you will need to work. Be realistic as much as possible.

Reducing risk through exercise

If doing exercise 5 times a week is not possible, set your goals at 3 days. Going to a gym can be expensive, you may opt for something inexpensive: walking. Buying a used treadmill to exercise at home is another possibility. Place the treadmill in front of the TV or do some reading. For instance watch your favorite program while you do 30 minutes of exercise. Do what is feasible, do what you like, start with a small amount of time and increase it gradually.

If your risk is serious, make sure you follow your doctor’s recommendation regarding type and amount of exercise. If you can afford a fitness trainer and have the time, it will be of great benefit to set a schedule for your work out. Set your fitness goals and have a plan. Whatever you decide to do, remember one thing, you should not stop this routine.

The most important part of reducing your risk of heart disease is a healthy lifestyle. Lack of physical activity is not healthy. People usually have excuses for their actions saying, “I do a lot of walking in my work”. Try to find solutions that will make you healthier, not excuses.

Weight control

If your weight is in the healthy range, congratulations! This is a rare asset these days. However, if you are overweight or obese (check your BMI) you must act soon. The more you postpone taking care of your weight, the heavier you will find yourself soon. Why? Because you will continue eating the same way as you did before. Unfortunately, eating out, not having time to cook, aging, social gatherings, etc. will lead you to weight gain.

Consult a Registered Dietitian to have an individualized meal plan. This plan must consider your taste preferences, control amount and type of fats, help you reduce weight and serum lipids, and train you in other important areas of heart disease prevention.

Controlling what you eat is not the only way to lower your weight. Fortunately, we have exercise to help us burn some fat and keep us healthy. Lack of exercise is considered a health risk. Exercise makes your body function better. It decreases body fat, bad cholesterol, and increases good cholesterol. Exercise lowers cholesterol, helps you relax and sleep better. For people with diabetes, it helps keep blood sugar under control. In addition to the many physical advantages, exercise boosts your self-esteem, mood and self- confidence.

Most people have good intentions to exercise when trying to lose weight. However, they rapidly abandon the exercise routine because of a lack of commitment. Some people are not physically oriented and will easily find excuses to avoid exercise. Others are born to love sports, dancing, or any other physical activity.

Like other things in life, exercise requires some planning. You need time to shower, doing the actual exercise, and if you go to a gym, you will need to consider driving time. Because of this, you must plan your exercise time carefully and include it in your agenda. Not only that, you must respect that time allocation as you do with the time you reserve for going to a theater. If you are planning to do your exercise 3 times a week, try to set your schedule on the same days and at the same time. For instance, walking Monday/Wednesday/Friday for  30 minutes at a scheduled time. This will make it easier to establish a basic routine.

If in addition you want to exercise more days it will be an accomplishment that will definitely improve your health. If you miss one day occasionally don’t worry. When on a trip, you may miss a few days. The most important, though, is to go back to your routine as soon as possible, so it is part of your lifestyle.

One significant aspect of exercise is to observe the benefits it does to your body. Keep a record on how you feel, sleep, and your mood whenever you exercise. Does it make you feel better and more relaxed? Do you notice yourself more apt to tolerate stress and frustrations? How do you feel when you don’t exercise? Is stress building up? Is it difficult to fall sleep? Try exercise before you think on taking a pill to calm you down, or before you decide to eat “comfort foods”. Give your body a chance to remain healthy by using your intelligence and common sense. And remember, it helps you control your weight.

On the practical side let us use an example to illustrate how exercise helps you lose weight. Suppose you must lose 10 pounds. You will need to subtract 500 calories from your daily intake to lose 1 pound weekly. If you do an exercise that uses up 200 calories for a half hour daily, you will only need to subtract 300 calories from your daily intake. This is a much healthier approach to weight loss than just relying on calorie restriction. You will be able to enjoy more foods in the form of a snack or bigger portions, or use those calories for a small dessert. To get information on many aspects of exercise log on the American Council on Exercise at www.acefitness.com and the American College of Sports Medicine at www.acsm.org.

There is an established way to assess if your weight is healthy, or the degree of overweight and obesity: the Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI is calculated doing a simple operation: dividing your weight by your height. The units to use are Kilograms and meters.

BMI: Weight (Kilograms)
Height (meters squared)

BMI Classification of overweight and obesity
BMI (Kg./M2) Weight classification
Risk of medical problems related to overweight

What is a Registered Dietitian and where do I find one?

A Registered Dietitian is a professional who has earned a Bachelor of Science degree from an accredited university. After successfully completing the science and nutrition curriculum in four years of undergraduate work, she/he must enter a one-year internship in a clinical setting, such as a hospital, accredited by the American Dietetic Association (ADA). The internship is a rigorous training in the nutritional management of different medical conditions, diseases, surgery and so on. It also includes other vital aspects such as food safety and food management.

Once this training is complete, the dietitian is eligible to sit for the registration test with the ADA Commission on Dietetic Registration. After passing this test, a dietitian becomes a Registered Dietitian (R.D.). Then, according to the location of practice, a license may be required. This is important because licensed dietitians go through a strict legal and professional scrutiny before a license is issued. Once obtained, the dietitian becomes a R.D., L.D. (licensed dietitian).

This is the professional you must consult for all your nutrition problems and concerns. Most probably you can find a Registered Dietitian in your area. For a referral call the American Dietetic Association at 800-877-1600 or log on to www.eatright.org