10 Tips on What to Avoid During the Holidays to Prevent Holiday Heart Syndrome
Heart-related deaths increase during the holidays with 33% more deaths occurring in December and January.
Avoid these 10 activities to protect your heart from holiday heart syndrome this holiday:
1. Stress
While the holidays are often happy times spent with family, it’s also a time of increased stress as you prepare for the festivities. The busyness is not going to ebb. You need to make relaxation a priority by scheduling breaks into your calendar. Use this scheduled time for whatever relaxation method works best for you… meditation, exercise, deep breathing, a nap. Don’t underestimate the importance of managing stress.
2. Sleep deprivation
Ongoing sleep deprivation is connected to increased risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. To get better sleep during and after the holidays go to bed and get up and the same time each day, stop eating three hours before bedtime, avoid fluids two hours before bedtime, and make your bedroom as dark as possible.
8 Steps to Prevent a Holiday Heart Attack
Good food, laughter, and quality time with family. A picture perfect holiday season, right? Well, that is Hollywood’s version anyway. Holidays tend to spike stress levels for many.
Finding just the right gift. Preparing for company. Long hours cooking. Then hours of clean up. Late nights socializing. Long days on the road. Hazardous travel conditions.
Holiday activities trigger a spike in cardiovascular events, such as a heart attack. There is about a 5% increase in heart-related deaths during this season according to a 2004 study published in Circulation.
Take steps this holiday season to counteract the extra stress you know lies ahead.
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Heart Health – How to Eat Heart Healthy During the Holidays
One major holiday down, one to go! So, how did you do sticking with your plan to be heart healthy and lose weight? Not so good, well don’t worry it’s not too late to redeem yourself.
Most people gain an average of 1 pound every holiday season. Now, what’s one pound? Doesn’t seem like that big of an issue, but the problem is most do not lose this extra weight. The pounds simply continue to add up year after year. It may take several years before you look at yourself and wonder “what happened?”
To prevent this (or reverse past events!), you must take steps to counteract all the extra calories that go along with the holidays. How? Increase your physical activity these next 4-6 weeks. Extra walks, longer workouts, increased intensity levels.
Adding an extra 120 minutes of activity each week (that’s less than 20 additional minutes/day), will burn an extra ~600 calories/week. That’s an extra 3600 calories burned over six weeks to compensate for the pecan pie, cookies, and alcohol. Of course, 3600 calories only goes so far. You must make wise decisions with the holiday meals, so you’re not consuming 3000-5000 calories in one day
The holidays can be a big hurdle in a weight loss and heart health plan. Holidays don’t mean you can’t enjoy the good food and desserts, but do so wisely!
Be sure to sign up for The Heart of Health and receive the FREE report Stop Wasting Money – Take Control of Your Health today at http://www.hearthealthmadeeasy.com.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
