What Can I Do to Help Myself?
If you are recovering from a heart event, it is important to make sure you are doing everything that you can to keep yourself healthy. While this includes following your doctor's orders to take your medication and maintain a healthy diet and exercise regimen, it is also important to keep a positive attitude, which can involve techniques such as participating in music therapy and getting together with family and friends.
The information contained here on the Hearts in Harmony® website offers an excellent resource for you to learn more about what you can be doing to keep yourself healthy. However, before you begin any of the activities listed on this website, you should first discuss your condition with your doctor.
Developing Smart Habits
The key to keeping your heart healthy is making the new habits your doctor recommended part of your daily routine, whether it's drug adherence, eating right or staying active. One theory, which many self-help programs use, is that it takes 21 days to create a new habit, after which it may be harder to go back to your old routine.4
Give yourself an even better chance for success and be consistent for 30 days to make sure your new routine becomes a habit. If you falter, don't give up.
A Series of Short-Term Goals Leads to Long-Term Success
Some of your doctor's recommendations may seem overwhelming, but setting small goals that lead up to the larger one is a great way to get started.5
For example, your doctor may have recommended that you lose weight, let's say 40 pounds. You may be discouraged before you even begin. Start by thinking of the overall goal in smaller terms, such as losing that first five pounds, or shedding one to two pounds a week. Then, set actionable goals to help you reach it. Of course, you should never start a new exercise or diet program – or change an existing one – without consulting your doctor.
Some small, actionable goals are6,7,8,9:
- Skip second helpings of pasta, potatoes and rice
- Drink water or seltzer instead of regular soda
- Make food portions smaller than your fist
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator
- Park further away from a store's door and walk there
- Take a walk after dinner or during lunch time at work
- Get up and grab yourself a drink rather than ask someone to get it for you
Don't fall into the trap of starting all the small goals all at once. Once you make one or two a habit, move on to the next one, adding one per week. Track your progress so you can see how you are doing and before you know it, you may be closer to reaching the big goals!
As you work through your goals, don't forget to reward yourself by finding time for your favorite activities such as seeing a movie, going to or participating in a sporting event and spending time with family and friends. The work you did to achieve a small goal should be recognized and a reward will help you stick to your plan and reach your big goals.10
Be S.M.A.R.T.
It is important to write down your goals to make them more tangible and real. One system for writing goals that may help you succeed is to make them S.M.A.R.T., which stands for Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Realistic and Timely.10,11 Here is how it works:
- Specific:
- You have a better chance of reaching a specific goal than a general one.
- A general goal is: "Lose weight." But a specific goal is: "Have dessert no more than once a week."
- Measurable:
- In order to see how well you're doing, you need to put a number to your goal. How many times? How often?
- In the above goal, only having dessert "once a week" makes it measurable.
- Appropriate:
- A goal should be challenging, but reachable. You will make more progress if it is challenging and you will feel more satisfaction once you have reached it.
- If having dessert only once a week is too easy, be more aggressive and commit to only having dessert twice a month.
- Realistic:
- When you set your goals, you are the only one that can achieve them. Do you believe that the benefit is worth the sacrifice? Are you willing to put in the work? If you believe you can accomplish it, then your goal is probably realistic.
- Only having dessert twice a month is tough, but realistic. Although you may be tempted to bend the rules now and then, writing down your goals helps you commit to sticking to them.
- Timely:
- In order to track your success, every goal needs a timeframe. As mentioned before, doing something for 30 days helps to make it a habit, so use that timeframe as a guide.
Don't forget to share your goals with friends and family. Making your goals public firms up your commitment to reaching them and your family and friends support can help you to motivate yourself.10
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