Small steps to be healthy

Working for the AHA, I get the opportunity to attend presentations from amazing doctors, scientists and researchers. Most recently, I helped put together a "Lunch & Learn" for the employees of one of our Heart Walk sponsors. We had one of our volunteer docs, a cardiologist, come and speak to the group about small things they should do to be healthy. I found his presentation to be extremely knowledgeable, practical and funny.

Here are the main action items I took from his presentation that we should each be doing:

• Eat 6-8 dark chocolate covered nuts each day (antioxidants) 
• He called these our natural pills
• Eat 6-8 regular nuts each day
• Consume 2 tablespoons of olive oil per day
• Eat 2 fistfuls of vegetables a day
• Eat 1 fistful of fruit per day
• Eat an oily fish once a week
• Allow yourself no more than 180 minutes sitting down at one time - Get up and walk! Exercise boosts your health exponentially but sitting for longer than 180 minutes at a time, cuts the benefits of your exercise in half)
• Get 7 hours of sleep (Less than 6 hours of sleep and more than 9 hours increases risk of diabetes and cancer)
• The fitter you get (at any age), the younger you get biologically
• Meditate twice a day for 20 minutes each
• The best meds you'll ever get:
• 
• Meditation
• Exercise
• Diet
• Sleep

If you can't do all of the things right now, he suggested that you choose one or two to work on.

I found these steps to be simple, manageable and he had the scientific research to back each up.