If heart health is your focus, committing to a healthy lifestyle is a great place to start your improvements. A healthy diet, low in fat and cholesterol, can do wonders to keep your heart healthy and help to limit your risk of suffering from a serious cardiovascular event, like a stroke or a heart attack. It's a long road to better health, but just a few easy steps can help you get started on a low-cholesterol and low-fat diet.
Step 1
Get smart about heart-healthy foods and learn what it takes to stick to a low-cholesterol and low-fat diet. It's more than cutting out the weekly pizza or daily fast food meal. Start by doing your research on what individual foods and ingredients are lowest in fat and cholesterol.
Step 2
Stock up on healthy staples. It can be too tempting to indulge in unhealthy foods if you have them around. Clear out your pantry and load up on lots of delicious fresh fruits and vegetables, whole-grain foods and low-cholesterol proteins like tofu, beans, fish and lean, skinless chicken or turkey. Have plenty of these healthy staples on hand so that you can whip up a quick and healthy meal at any time.
Step 3
Learn about healthy cooking. It doesn't do you any good to start with healthy foods if you deep-fry them or cook them in a way that adds fat and cholesterol. Find out the best ways to cook foods to keep them healthy and learn how to broil, bake, steam and roast your food. Experiment with fresh herbs, olive and vegetable oils, vinegar, lemon juice and cooking sprays for low-fat seasonings.
Step 4
Experiment with new recipes. Invest in a few healthy cooking cookbooks, or search online for low-cholesterol and low-fat recipes. Choose a few basic recipes that use overlapping ingredients so that you don't have to spend a fortune to eat healthy.
Step 5
Create a menu. Plan a menu for the week ahead of time--breakfasts, lunches, dinner and snacks. Do your grocery shopping each week and get everything you need to accommodate your menu for the week. Having a set menu can keep you from asking "what's for dinner" and stop you from picking up the phone to order pizza.
Things You'll Need
- Lean proteins
- Whole-grain foods
- Fruits and vegetables
- Healthy cookbooks
