Taking care of your heart’s health can feel really personal, but if you have a family, it’s a goal you can all work on together. That can make it easier to focus on healthy habits, because everyone will be doing the same thing to take good care of themselves for the long term. For example, you may all try to eat healthily and get exercise together, get enough sleep, and reduce your stress levels through play and laughter. There’s a lot you and your loved ones can do to protect yourselves.
Plan and Cook Healthy Meals
Ian Weisberg and others in the medical community understand the importance of heart health, and how valuable it is to make that something your entire family focuses on. One of the ways you can do that is by planning meals and cooking them together. Depending on the ages of your children, whether you have elderly relatives living with you, or other aspects of your family dynamics, there may be people who can’t help as much, but you can still find ways to include them.
Make Sure to Prioritize Movement
Getting moving is another way to make heart health a good goal for your family. When you prioritize exercise in ways that are fun and enjoyable, everyone gets moving without it feeling like a chore. Dancing around the living room with your kids while cleaning up, for example, or taking walks after dinner, are easy ways to get more activity into your day without feeling like you have to spend hours in the gym or go running before you start your workday.
Have a Set Bedtime for Everyone
Medical professionals such as Dr. Ian Weisberg also understands how important sleep is when it comes to heart health. Because of that, you should set a bedtime for everyone, not just your children. Getting enough sleep is extremely important to healthy functioning, and that includes how well your heart works, too. If you’re consistently not getting good, restful sleep, you may need to make some changes to get to bed earlier or stay asleep longer.
That can be difficult if there’s a lot of people in your household, you work odd hours, or you have a medical condition or other concern that keeps you from sleeping well. Talking to your doctor may give you some good ideas for things you can do to improve your quality of sleep, though, which can help make your heart healthier over time. While sleeping isn’t the only thing that matters, it’s an area where a lot of people often miss what they really need for their health.
Get Regular Checkups for Your Heart
Regular checkups for the whole family is another way to work on your goals together. When you normalize regular checkups for both children and adults in your family, you also show your kids that doctors aren’t scary and that taking care of themselves is important. Then, you raise children that have a better chance of taking their heart health seriously.