is the season when those wonderful New Year’s resolutions may be starting to unravel. Maybe your resolution wasn’t specific enough. Resolving to “exercise more” or “lose weight” are easy ways to set yourself up for failure. Or maybe it just wasn’t realistic. After all, you can’t expect to be a completely different person on January 1 than you were on December 31. But if one of your 2022 goals is to change from an unhealthy to a healthy diet, here’s some advice: Put your heart into it. In other words, look for ways to eat that improve your heart health, not just your waistline. “The key to losing weight is to approach it not from a ‘dieting’ mindset, but from a healthy eating mentality. Healthy eating is about giving our body more nutrient dense foods and leaving room for foods that simply bring us joy,” said Sidney Smith, RDN LD, Clinical Dietitian, Bariatric Center of Kansas City. To get started on your journey toward a heart-healthy diet, it’s important to know which foods to eat more of and which foods to limit. “I recommend visiting USDA’s website myplate.gov to get an idea of what to eat and your daily caloric needs to maintain your body weight. And maintaining a healthy weight improves cardiovascular health as well,” said Kirsten Lampe, PA-C, AdventHealth Medical Group Primary Care. For many of us, one of the biggest hang-ups is the notion that eating healthy is a lot less fun than not eating healthy. The truth is, it’s an opportunity to tap into our adventurous side. “By elevating meals with elements like seasonings, healthy
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AdventHealth | Winter 2022
