Avoiding unhealthy foods is a crucial part of the recovery period after a heart attack. It takes discipline to avoid unhealthy foods that are high in fat or salt. However, the health rewards from a healthy diet will be worth the effort. After a heart attack, a serious lifestyle change in required.
Choose Healthy Foods
Step 1
If you suffer a heart attack, make a promise to yourself to avoid unhealthy foods that will further jeopardize your health. Ask the doctor for a list of healthy foods. Then get a garbage bag and go through the kitchen and throw out all high-fat and high-salt foods.
Step 2
Start a journal to write about goals to eat a healthy diet. Write down your feelings and fears about the heart attack, and then make a list of the things you will do to ensure you avoid future heart attacks.
Step 3
Add more fruits, vegetables, grains and beans to the diet and lessen the amount of meat. This lower-fat diet will improve health and gradually lower cholesterol levels.
Step 4
Decrease salt intake. Learn to cook using spices to replace salt. Look at all food labels before purchasing them to ensure they do not have high levels of sodium. Talk to your doctor to find out what level of sodium--salt--he will allow in the diet after a heart attack. According to the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, "healthy adults should limit sodium intake to 2,300 mg per day, while individuals with high blood pressure should consume no more than 1,500 mg per day. "
Step 5
According to Healthination, when trying to lower cholesterol after a heart attack, some foods to avoid include: "liver and organ meats, egg yolks, full-fat dairy products, such as milks, cheeses, sour cream, and ice cream, butter and lard, sausages, hot dogs, bologna, and salami, untrimmed red meats, fried foods, and goose and duck."
Step 6
The NIH advises: "Do not eat foods that contain the word "hydrogenated" on the label. They are loaded with saturated fats or trans fats. Limit how much fried foods, processed foods and commercially prepared baked goods you eat. Pay attention to how foods are prepared. Healthy ways to cook fish, chicken and lean meats are broiling, grilling, poaching and baking."
Step 7
Stay out of fast-food restaurants. Fast foods typically have excessive salt and fat. Foods such as fast food french fries, hamburgers, milk shakes and tacos are full of chemicals and unnatural ingredients.
Step 8
Make a list of rewards to enjoy when a healthier diet has been achieved. Start with small rewards; then use more significant rewards as time goes by and a healthier diet has been maintained for longer periods.
Tips and Warnings
- Start gradually to improve the quality of the diet. Avoid people who may encourage you to partake in fast foods or other unhealthy foods.
