National Cholesterol Month

October is National Cholesterol Month which is all about raising the awareness and importance of maintaining a healthy cholesterol level. During October Heart UK will be sharing on their website and social media how 'Small changes can make a big difference' to your cholesterol levels and heart health through your habits, diet and exercise.  

Week 1 - Habits

We all have habits we'd like to change - whether it's wanting to stop snacking on sugary treats between meals or trying to be more active instead of sitting in front of the TV. But making these small changes to our habits can make a big difference to our cholesterol levels and general health. For National Cholesterol Month Heart UK have created a downloadable habit tracker (ncm-habit-tracker.pdf (heartuk.org.uk) ) to help identify a habit you would like to start or stop. Start off with one habit you'd like to change and fill out the tracker to help you stick with it.  

Week 2 - Diet

Health eating can make a huge difference to your cholesterol levels and your heart health, whether your cholesterol has crept up over the years or you have a genetic condition. Heart UK have created an online diet checklist ( Online Diet Checklist ) to help you to assess the quality of your diet with regard to lowering your cholesterol. There are 16 questions and you should answer with either yes or no to each question - it should only take you about 10 minutes to complete the questions. Your results will show you where improvements to your diet can be made to help lower your cholesterol.  Food tracking short-term can also be a healthy way to find patterns in your diet so you can make much-needed changes. Heart UK have created a meal tracker for National Cholesterol Month (Meal Tracker ) to help identify small changes you can make to your diet to help lower your cholesterol, like earing 3 portions of wholegrains each day and eating 2 portions of fish each week.  

Week 3 - Exercise

Being active is a major part of looking after your cholesterol levels and keeping your heart healthy. Adults should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of intense activity every week - if you can do more that's even better. For National Cholesterol Month Heart UK have created an Exercise Planner ( Exercise Planner ) to help you plan how you can get more activity into your day. Exercise planners have many benefits. They can motivate you and make the whole endeavour of getting regular exercise so much easier. A good plan keeps you going and makes you more proficient at building healthy habits. There are lots of ways to be active. You don't have to use a gym or join the local football team if it's not your cup of tea. Instead, see where you can fit extra bursts of activity into your day. Find things that you enjoy doing so that you're more likely to stick with them in the long term. Make them part of your routine and form new healthy habits. You can also visit NHS ONE YOU . They have lots of ideas and support for getting active, including a free app, ways to get fit for free at home, and Couch to 5K - a plan to take you from total beginner to running 5K in 9 weeks.  

Week 4 - Reflection

Small changes can make a big difference. Making small changes to your diet, and increasing the amount of activity and exercise you do, all add up to make a big difference to help improve your cholesterol levels and overall heart health. Focus on making one or two small changes at a time, and once you're happy you've been successful in maintaing the changes, pick another one or two to focus on, and continue to repeat. It is much easier to make changes this way rather than trying to do everything at once.   For more information or how to get involved visit National Cholesterol Month (heartuk.org.uk)