Your kids pick up your habits, so to help ensure a healthy heart, make sure they’re good ones

Are your kids going to inherit your tendency toward heart disease? We’re not talking about the fact that your dad had a heart attack at age 52, or that you can’t name a relative who doesn’t have high blood pressure. We’re talking about the habits you’ve developed over the years—habits like grabbing meals and snacks on the go, sacrificing exercise to your busy schedule and turning to comfort foods in times of stress.

It doesn’t have to be this way—and that goes for you as well as your children. First, don’t blame yourself. Our society makes it easy—and often necessary—to leave the bikes and walking shoes behind when we jump behind the wheel. And when we don’t have time to cook, we can make a phone call from the car and have a pizza at the door when we get home.

Leland Eaton, M.D., a UAB cardiologist at the UAB Heart Health Center at The Kirklin Clinic at Acton Road, says that we’re victims of our own success. “We’re a highly technological, wealthy country. We’re not riding bicycles, we’re driving Hummers,” he says. With our hectic lifestyles, healthy eating habits and exercise routines fall victim to a perfect storm of convenience foods, cars and jam-packed calendars. So what can you do?

Start with substitutes. If your schedule doesn’t leave space for cooking, check out the healthier alternatives now being offered at some fast-food restaurants. Fruit and yogurt smoothies pack more protein and vitamins than bagels or sweet rolls. And veggie-laden salads are popping up on drive-through menus nationwide.

Consider cooking. Making a meal isn’t so overwhelming if you know what you’re going to prepare and you have the ingredients on hand. Dr. Eaton recommends the American Heart Association cookbook, the South Beach diet and Weight Watchers as sources of healthy meal ideas. Grocery delivery services can help ensure that you always have ingredients on hand.

Get moving. Make exercise a habit and you up the odds that your kids will follow suit—and thus develop a habit that can stick with them for life.

Forget food, at least when it comes to stress. Dr. Eaton says stressors often can lead us to unhealthy solutions such as smoking, drinking and overeating. Instead, try yoga, meditation, deep breathing or exercise. And don’t lead your children down an unhealthy path. Offer them a hug after a bad day, not a dish of ice cream.

One Step at a Time

Whether you’re newly diagnosed with heart disease or just taking steps to reduce your risk, there’s lots to do. But you’re not likely to wake up tomorrow and work out, cook three healthy, well-balanced meals from scratch, practice some stress-reduction techniques and get in bed by 10 p.m. so you can get eight hours of uninterrupted sleep before you repeat it all the next day.

Pick the bad habit you most want to change and start with small, manageable steps. Research smoking cessation, or build a shopping list so you have healthy snacks on hand. Build from your start, and once you’ve swapped one bad habit for a better one, move on to another change you’d like to make.

But get yourself started, to help both yourself and your children stay healthier. Up to 30 percent of U.S. children are overweight, and some experts predict this generation of kids will be the first to see their life expectancy decrease, thanks to weight-related health complications such as hypertension and diabetes.

That’s why it’s critical to help your children develop heart-healthy habits early. “Kids need to be programmed early not to fall into the same trap,” Dr. Eaton says. “If you are obese as a child, the odds are that you’ll be obese as an adult.”

Help your kids learn to make healthy food choices, and encourage them to be active. They don’t need a formal exercise program—any activity where they’re moving around will do. (You might remember this from your own childhood—back in the day it was called “playing outside.”)

Send a Healthy Message

Make it easy for your kids to snack on fruits, veggies, low-fat cheese and yogurt, nuts and seeds. But do keep in mind that babies and young children need more fat in their diets—your pediatrician can recommend appropriate choices.

Getting your kids trained early to make healthy choices sounds great, but what if your house is already full of chip-munching, soda-gulping teenagers? Your best bet is to set a good example, Dr. Eaton says.

“Parents have to fix their own problems first. Getting teenagers to do something can be like moving the rock of Gibraltar,” he says. “When parents start changing their lifestyle—exercising, moving toward a healthy body weight and quitting smoking—that message, by example, can help teenage kids.”

Take that first step, and your kids will follow suit.