Here are 5 tips to take charge of your heart health:

1. Get your work out in. Doing 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 days in a week reduces your risk. If you start to sweat, you’re doing it right! Try doing three 10-minute sessions throughout the day as part of your routine.

2. Mind the salt. Maintaining a normal blood pressure protects your heart. Try cooking more at home and use spices and herbs like rosemary and lemon to flavor your food instead of salt.

3. Avoid or quit smoking. Smoking puts you at risk for heart disease. Try not to start smoking, and if you do, there’s a lot of support to help you quit. For help, call 800-QUIT-NOW today.

4. Skip the grease. Unhealthy fats raise your cholesterol levels and increase your risk for heart disease. Avoid fried foods and pastries like doughnuts and cookies, and opt for healthier fats like avocados, nuts and seeds.

5. Check your numbers. Visit your doctor regularly to get your blood pressure, cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels checked. Keeping your numbers within normal ranges helps to protect your heart.

The power to prevent heart disease lies in you. Exercise it.

An action plan is a simple, effective tool that can help you to set SMART health goals and stay on track with achieving them. 

SPECIFIC.  If your resolution is to work out more, what does that really mean? Make your goal more specific by choosing a work out you enjoy such as walking, running or taking the stairs.

MEASURABLE.  You want to be able to mark your progress so instead of saying "I want to walk more" say "I want to walk 10,000 steps three days a week".

ATTAINABLE.  Choose a goal that is not too difficult or too easy. If you choose to walk 20,000 steps a day when you usually walk 5,000 steps on a normal day, you’ll probably give up very quickly if you can’t keep up.

RELEVANT.  Choose a goal that is meaningful to and set by you, not by someone else. Instead of choosing to go the gym because that’s where your best friend goes to work out, decide to walk because you love to explore your surroundings and take pictures.

TIMEBOUND.  Make sure you give yourself a set time to achieve your goal, usually a week. That way, you can track incremental changes towards your goal. The more you achieve, the more you can expand your goals, and the more confident you’ll feel. Don’t choose a time far away as you’d be tempted to avoid consistency.

Use this action plan template to help document your SMART health goals.

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BCHN health educator Nana Adenu-Mensah explains how to make SMART health goals in the video below.