Your health: Protecting your heart, arteries

Heart healthy

Count on these five white knights to protect your heart, your arteries and the rest of you, says Harvard Medical School. It's never too late to start.

• Avoid tobacco. Smoke from cigarettes, cigars and pipes is as bad for the heart and arteries as it is for the lungs.

• Be active. Exercise and physical activity are about the closest things you have to magic bullets against heart disease and other chronic conditions.

• Aim for a healthy weight. Carrying extra pounds, especially around the belly, strains the heart and tips you toward diabetes.

• Enliven your diet. Add fruits and vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fat, good protein (from beans, nuts, fish and poultry) and herbs and spices.

• Drink alcohol in moderation (if at all). If you drink alcohol, limit your intake — one to two drinks a day for men, no more than one a day for women.

Making change

If you have one or more habits working against you, now is as good a time as any to set a course for better health. How? The American Heart Association recommends “cognitive behavioral strategies for promoting behavior change.” Here are some of those strategies:

• Set goals. Having specific, achievable goals is a key strategy for successful change.

• Track your progress. Track your exercise or pounds lost with a notebook, a computer, a smartphone or an invention of your own.

• Motivation. Changing a habit or behavior is easier if you have a good reason for doing it.

• Get support. Family, friends, a doctor or someone else can provide feedback and encouragement, especially when you are feeling low.

You don't need to aim for a complete transformation all at once, according to the Harvard Medical School. Small changes in diet, exercise or weight can make a big difference in your health. Setting goals you can realistically achieve, and then meeting them, can snowball into even bigger improvements.