Tips for Re-Thinking Eating for Better Heart Health

Spring is here, making it the perfect time to find ways to re-think what we eat in order to help lead us to better heart health. It’s an issue that most of us need to pay attention to, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. for both men and women. In fact, each year there are around 610,000 people who die from heart disease, accounting for 1 in every 4 deaths. Further, each year there are around 735,000 Americans who have a heart attack. The good news is that there are things we can do to help reduce our heart disease risk, with what we eat playing an important role.

“Considering how many times per day and week that we eat, it’s important to consider our food choices,” says Dr. Nimali Fernando, a Fredericksburg, Virginia-based pediatrician who founded The Doctor Yum Project. 

“This is especially true when it comes to our children, because their bodies are developing and they are learning habits that may last a lifetime.”

According to the CDC, some of the risk factors for heart disease include diabetes, being overweight or obese, having a poor diet, being physically inactive, and using alcohol excessively. 

Improving the diet is likely to also help with the weight and diabetes issues. 

Here are some tips for helping to re-think your eating for better heart health:

·                Breakfast. Reach for whole grain toast, whole grain cereals and don’t forget a serving of vegetables and/or fruit. To get in even more servings, try a quick and healthy fruit and veggie smoothie, like the “Green Dragon Smoothie” featured on doctoryum.org.

·                Lunch. Pack a quick and healthy lunch that includes items like salads, hummus and veggies, tuna salad with wholegrain crackers or bread, or homemade low-sodium soups that you can make ahead of time and take a couple of days in a row. The “Meal Maker Machine” on doctoryum.org has a “Souper Soup recipe” that allows you to customize a soup recipe using ingredients on hand.

·                Dinner. Opt for seafood, which has heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Other good options include beans, salads with dressing, quinoa, whole grains, veggie burgers, chickpeas, lentils, and filling half of your plate with fruits and vegetables. Try to reduce processed foods, and fast food (which is often loaded with sugar and salt), high sodium foods, and unhealthy oils by cooking more at home.

·                Snacks. Skip the chips and cakes and opt for food like unsalted nuts, fruits and veggies, seeds, rice cakes, bell pepper slices, vegetables and hummus, or whole grain toast with all natural peanut butter.

·                Drinks. Leave the sugary drinks behind, and opt for water, sparkling water, plain soymilk, unsweetened coffee and tea, or water steeped with fruit.

·                Dining out. When dining out, opt for dishes that are lower in sodium and fat content, such as those that are baked, grilled, or broiled, rather than ones that are fried. Minimize the sugar intake by opting for unsweetened beverages and sticking to mostly fruits for sugar cravings. Choose seafood, fish, lean meats, vegetarian options, vegetable dishes, and beans. Portion sizes for restaurant meals tend to be oversized, so box a portion of your meal for lunch the next day.

“Heart healthy foods are all around us, it’s just a matter of opting for them over the other ones that are also available. Common barriers to eating healthy are cost, convenience and taste. By following the 3 P’s (prep, plan and prioritize) these barriers can be overcome” adds Dr. Fernando. “With some initial effort, we can all focus on eating healthier and feeding our children better. The more people make changes and stick to them, the more it will become a more natural habit.”

About The Doctor Yum Project
Founded by Dr. Nimali Fernando, The Doctor Yum Project is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to transforming the lives of families and communities by providing an understanding of the connection between food and overall health, as well as empowering them with the tools to live a healthy life. They offer a variety of community programs to help with those efforts. They are located in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and feature an instructional kitchen and teaching garden for holding classes. To learn more, visit the site at: www.doctoryum.org.

Quintessential Style : Do's and Don't of Fashion, Dressing, and Organizing Your Closet and Your Wardrobe

This book was written for me. 

Once, a friend joked, if you die, what would you come back to haunt us in? and I said, "ooh a flowy nightgown to be all scary and ethereal."

And my friend said, "No, no you have to pick something you wear when you passed on."

oh.  "Tank top and yoga pants," says I.

Always. My uniform!

Quintessential Style will teach you to become your own personal stylist by showing you the importance of wearing color, what to wear for your body shape, the do’s and don’ts of shopping, the artistry of makeup, steps to beautiful skin, and much more. 

Combine all these steps to create your personal package and communicate your authentic, one-of-a-kind style.

“When I look in some people’s overstuffed closets, I can’t help but want to say, ‘Your closet is supposed to be a river, not the Dead Sea,’ ” says Janna Beatty, an image consultant and co-author with Sharon White of Quintessential Style: Cultivate and Communicate Your Signature Look  (www.Qstylethebook.com).

By that she means clothes should flow through a closet the way water passes through a stream – there for a time, then gone. Clothes shouldn’t be held in captivity forever.

“Both women and men add tons of clothing, shoes and accessories to their closets, but they never seem to get rid of anything,” Beatty says.

Beatty and White say that an overly extensive wardrobe actually can hinder your lifestyle. Just to get dressed in the morning you may have to rummage past apparel that should have been tossed years ago.

They offer a few tips for making that closet a more inviting and organized place:

• Use it or lose it. Nothing should be in your closet that you can’t wear right now, Beatty says. That means anything that doesn’t fit, is in need of repair or is out of season shouldn’t be taking up space. If you have extra closet space, move the out-of-season clothing there. If you plan to lose weight, do the same with clothes that don’t fit.  Mostly, though, donate or toss the excess. “Be brutal in deciding what to keep and what to get rid of,” Beatty says. 
  
• Organize your collection. Once the clutter is gone, it’s time to organize what remains, White says. Dressier clothes should hang toward the back of the closet unless you wear them often. Types of garments – skirts, pants, tops – should be grouped together and organized from casual to dressy.
• Customize your closet. Builders mostly build generic closets, using standard measures for clothing racks and shelves. People then just use whatever space is there, whether it works for them or not. Beatty and White suggest that instead of working with that generic layout, you should make your closet work with your wardrobe. That could mean bringing in more storage for shoes, or deciding whether you need more or less hanging space than what’s available.

Once you’re done organizing, you aren’t really done, Beatty and White say.

“You can’t expect to stay organized if you don’t regularly tidy up,” Beatty says. “Make sure you hang clothes back up after you wear them, or put them in the hamper if they need to be washed. Put clean laundry away promptly. If you aren’t careful, your closet will be a quagmire again.”

About Janna Beatty

Janna Beatty, owner of one of Texas’ premier makeover studios, is co-author of the bookQuintessential Style: Cultivate and Communicate Your Signature Look(www.Qstylethebook.com). She has studied in New York and Paris with some of the most respected advisers in the fashion and beauty industry. A successful business owner for more than 30 years, Beatty speaks to corporations, professional organizations, and women’s groups. She also has been a guest on radio, podcasts, and television.

About Sharon White

Sharon White is an award-winning author who lives and writes in Central Texas. She has written for New York Daily News, Huffington Post, Fashion Bible and other online and print magazines. She publishes a popular lifestyle blog (qstylethebook.com) based on her book,Quintessential Style.