Heart Health - February 2024
Take Small Steps Through SMART Goals
The SMART acronym stands for: S – Specific: What actions will you take? M – Measurable: How much? How many? A – Achievable: Is this something you can do? R – Relevant: How does this align with your larger goal? T – Time-bound: What is your time frame?
The intent of a SMART goal is to help your breakdown and achieve larger goals through small doable steps.
Pick One to Start
- Try to get 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Here are some tips:
- Practice meditation to relax the mind.
- Talk to a friend or someone you trust.
- Aim for at least 150 minutes of physical activity each week. The timeframe can be broken down into small sections each day. Here are some tips to try to increase activity:
- Set a time on your calendar to be active each day, just like a meeting.
- Make your social time active and encourage others to join.
- Get an accountability partner.
- If eating for heart health is a goal, try these tips:
- Eat Whole foods more often to reduce sodium intake. These are foods that don’t come from a package or wrapper (fruits and vegetables).
- When reading nutrition labels (back of packages), look for foods with 1g or less of saturated fats per serving size and less than .5g of trans fat per serving size.