Keeping your heart healthy by staying L.E.A.N. does not mean being skinny. It is an acronym for lifestyle, exercise, attitude, and nutrition. Are you living a healthy lifestyle? Managing stress, loving relationships, and good sleep are ways that we can help the heart through lifestyle. How do you move? The body was designed for movement and finding ways to incorporate it into your day will certainly improve your heart health. The three types of exercise that you should incorporate are cardio, strength, and stretching for flexibility. Getting at least 20 minutes per day 5 days a week is recommended to maintain an active lifestyle. If you work at a desk and sit all day, get up every hour and find some movement for at least 3 minutes. How do you think? Are you an optimist or pessimist? Are you able to express you feelings? How you think influences your health. A positive attitude, communicating feelings effectively, and finding ways to release anxiety and depression are necessary for a healthy heart. Finally, nutrition...how do you eat? Adopting a diet that is rich in green and yellow light foods and free of those red light foods will set you up for success. The typical American diet is rich in excess sodium, refined grains, unhealthy fats, and added sugar. That is a recipe for heart disease and the reason why there are over 650,000 deaths per year. 1 in 4 deaths by heart disease. Good news is that we have control. If you would like information on how you can reduce your risk of heart disease through lifestyle, exercise, attitude, or nutrition please reach out to us at buildingastrongeryou@gmail.com. Also a great read is UnDo It! How simple lifestyle changes can reverse most chronic diseases by Dr. Dean Ornish.