Fun Ways to Improve Your Heart Health
Healthy Doesn't Have to Mean Boring!
Keeping your heart healthy doesn’t have to feel like a chore – it can be downright fun! Whether you’re moving your body, shaking up your meals, or inspiring your family and friends to join in, there are so many creative ways to show your heart some love. From sledding adventures to dark chocolate-dipped parties (yes, really!), we’ve rounded up easy and enjoyable ideas that make heart health a family affair. Let’s ditch the boring routines and embrace activities, snacks, and habits that make staying healthy something to look forward to. Read on for fun, heart-healthy ideas that everyone will enjoy and help keep your heart happy! ❤️
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Fun Ways to Encourage Heart Health
Check out these simple and fun ideas to get moving. Have a heart-to-heart with your friends and family about heart health and get them involved in getting active with you!
Good Times to be Had: You Won't Even Realize It's Exercise
- Turn exercise into social hour – join or set up a walking or hiking group with a buddy or small group of friends, and commit to a schedule. (Use SignUp for automatic reminders!) If you’re into people watching and prefer an air-conditioned setting, consider the mall for your walking track.
- Turn the music on (or tell Siri to) and have an impromptu dance party – as you’re going through your morning routine, when you’re cleaning the house (double the exercise!) or cooking dinner, or to celebrate when the kids get home from school. SUPER FUN TIP: If you live with roommates or family, make a house rule that anytime someone turns on the music, everyone dances for 15 minutes.
- Schedule an “Active Night” once a week – make it an adults-only or a family event, or alternate weekly to give adults an occasional break from parent duty . Go bowling or to a climbing gym, play laser tag or paintball, take a (haunted) walking tour of your city, or invite friends over for a game of flashlight tag or ghost in the graveyard.
- Walk the tightrope. Okay, not technically a tightrope, but pretty darn close. Set up a slackline in your yard – you just need the line and a couple of trees or strong poles near each other. It’s more challenging than you’d think. Invite friends or family over to go head-to-head in a competition to see who can go the farthest without falling.
- Go sledding at the nearest hill. Whether you live in snowy environments or not, this idea is a FUN-tastic one. Grab a cardboard box or a large trash can lid to use as your makeshift sled. The thrill of the slide down the hill will make you forget that running back up for another trip is actually exercise.
- Jump on a trampoline. With trampoline centers popping up all over the place, you no longer have to own a trampoline to make this happen. Go bounce your way to a healthy heart!
- Gather a group and hit the streets or trails on your bicycles. Explore outside of your neighborhood for a new adventure. PRO TIP: Many cities have websites that provide info on bike paths and trails near you.
- Go shopping to get your steps in. Park further from the entrance than you normally do, even if there are parking spots near the front. And don’t feel obligated to spend money – window shopping counts, too!
- Grab a friend or two and head to the park to toss a frisbee. Make it a game in which a player gets a point for each catch. The player throwing the frisbee must throw a catchable disc, but doesn’t have to throw it directly to the recipient. (Thus, a bit of running may be involved.) SUPER FUN TIP: Start a mini-league with more friends and play regularly!
- Start training for a Spring fun-run, 5K or half marathon. Rally a group of equally interested team mates to keep you motivated, whether it’s family, friends, co-workers or a local running Meetup group. Bonus – most entry fees for these events support local charities!
- Try your hand at the latest craze, Pickleball, a mix of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, this activity is perfect for 2 or 4 people of any age and provides a low-stress level way of getting your heart pumping!
- Organize a neighborhood scavenger hunt for family or friends. Create a list of items to find, landmarks to photograph, or silly challenges to complete (like doing ten jumping jacks at the playground or snapping a photo with a “For Sale” sign). You’ll rack up steps and laughs at the same time!
- Plan Glow-in-the-Dark Capture the Flag: Take the classic outdoor game to a whole new level by playing after dark with glow sticks and LED accessories. Divide into teams, give everyone glow bracelets or necklaces, and use glow sticks to mark the "flag" spots. It’s a heart-pumping good time that’s perfect for kids and adults alike!
- Hopscotch Revival: Bring back the schoolyard classic, but with a twist! Create an extra-large hopscotch board with sidewalk chalk or painter's tape. Add fun challenges to each square, like doing a silly dance, hopping on one foot, or singing a line from a favorite song before moving on. It’s a cardio workout disguised as nostalgia!
- Parkour in the Park: Turn your neighborhood park into a parkour course! Use benches, picnic tables, and even trees to practice jumping, climbing, and balancing. It’s like being a kid again, but with a fun heart-healthy twist. Invite friends to join you for a mini competition: Who can complete the parkour challenge the fastest (without tripping over anything, of course)?
With the proven link between diet and heart disease, we all have to think more about how we’re preparing our food and what we’re putting on our plates. SignUp is here to get you going in the right direction – we’ve got some great suggestions for fun ways to shift to healthy eating habits.
Creative Ways to Eat with Heart Health in Mind
Eating heart-healthy doesn’t mean boring, and shifting to a heart-healthy diet doesn’t have to be difficult. Make it fun! Here are some ideas to spark your imagination.
1. Kick off your healthy eating habit by researching heart-healthy alternatives of your favorite indulgent dishes and picking a date for a taste-testing potluck. Check out popular recipes for cauliflower-and-cheese (instead of mac and cheese) or host Taco Tuesday with a meat-free filling and non-fried shells. Set up a free, online SignUp to invite friends to each make a new heart-healthy dish and to join you for a deliciously good time.
2. Throw a dark chocolate-dipped party. (Yes, we said chocolate! Dark chocolate has a number of heart health benefits.) Cut up a variety of fruits like strawberries, apples, oranges, bananas and pineapples to serve with skewers and melted dark chocolate. Ask your guests to bring other foods that they think would also be yummy dipped. (This could get interesting!)
3. Engage everyone in the family in healthy menu planning. Make flashcards with heart-healthy foods and recipes and work as family to puzzle together a healthy menu for the week ahead.
4. Gather your family and friends and have a Snack Round-Up. Read all the labels on cereals and snack foods in your pantry and refrigerator and eliminate those high in starch, sugar and saturated fats. Look up healthy snacking options, store them in snack-size portions in the fridge and on a prominent shelf in your pantry.
5. Heart-Healthy Pizza Night, Anyone? Swap out traditional pizza crust for heart-friendly options like whole wheat, cauliflower, or chickpea crusts. Set up a DIY topping bar with plenty of colorful veggies, lean proteins, and low-sodium sauces. Don’t forget to sprinkle on just a bit of cheese (your heart will thank you). Bonus points for hosting a “most creative pizza” contest—may the best heart-healthy slice win!
6. Heart-Healthy Recipe Exchange: Coordinate a potluck where attendees bring and share their favorite heart-friendly dishes.
7. Throw a Berry Delicious Smoothie Bowl party. Grab your blender and set up a heart-friendly smoothie bowl station. Offer a rainbow of ingredients like leafy greens, berries, oats, seeds, and unsweetened almond milk. Provide toppings like fresh fruit, unsweetened granola, and a sprinkle of dark chocolate chips for added fun. It’s Instagram-worthy and heart-healthy!
8. Farmers’ Market Scavenger Hunt: Take the whole family to the local farmers’ market and create a list of heart-healthy goodies to find – like leafy greens, fresh fish, berries, or avocados. Once you’ve checked off your list, head home to cook up a heart-loving feast together. Make it a regular Saturday adventure!
9. Color Your Plate Challenge: Challenge everyone at the table to make their plate as colorful as possible (extra points for variety!). Think red bell peppers, orange sweet potatoes, green broccoli, purple cabbage, and yellow squash. Whoever creates the most vibrant plate earns the title of “Heart-Healthy Hero” for the week!
10. For you power-planning moms and dads, think about healthier alternatives for the foods involved in your events. Consider swapping out the hot dog eating contest or the cake walk for a home-grown vegetable contest or a carrot-eating contest at the next community or school carnival. (Can you imagine the kids trying to chomp down multiple carrots in a given amount of time, bunny ears optional?! LOL)
30+ Heart-Healthy Foods
As a first step, it’s good to learn which foods are considered heart-healthy and to start thinking about how to incorporate them into your diet. Here are some of the top foods that help keep our hearts in tip-top shape.
- Beans (Remember that old schoolyard chant? “Beans, beans... good for your heart!”)
- Beets
- Berries
- Brown rice
- Cabbage
- Citrus fruits
- Coconut oil
- Cucumbers
- Dark chocolate
- Edamame
- Fatty fish and fish oil (Salmon and tuna are particularly good.)
- Flaxseed
- Fruit (Avocado, oranges, grapefruits, cantaloupe, and papaya are some of the best.)
- Garlic
- Green tea
- Leafy green veggies (Popeye knew what he was doing!)
- Mangoes
- Nuts (Walnuts and almonds are the best.)
- Oats
- Olive oil
- Peanut butter (natural, unsweetened)
- Pomegranates
- Pumpkin seeds
- Red wine (A 4 oz. glass a day keeps high cholesterol at bay!)
- Red, yellow and orange veggies (Think sweet potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, chili peppers, squash, etc.)
- Seeds (chia, flax, hemp)
- Soy milk
- Spinach
- Sweet peppers
- Tofu
- Whole grains
- Yogurt (low-fat or fat-free)
Heart-healthy doesn’t have to mean bland. Spice it up! Here is one of our favorite sites – Low Carb Africa – that provides healthy, easy-to-make, DELICIOUS foods that will motivate you to stay on track.
There are tons of ways to improve your and your kiddos' health – small changes, big impact! Make the changes together as a family. Get tips and ideas here for healthy hearts.
Engaging Ideas to Get Your Kids Moving
1. Embrace routine. Kids need routine – make exercise (with a twist of fun) one of yours. Start or end each day with a healthy family competition, but brainstorm new goals every week to keep it interesting. This week, challenge the kids to see who can do the most pushups (winner gets to pick dinner or the weekend movie) and next week see who can wall-sit for the longest to get out of chores for a day.
2. Family game night. We’re not talking board games – think “movement”. Freeze dance, Twister, musical chairs, and Mother/Father Says (unless your name is Simon) are some great indoor options as well as dance-challenge and kinetic video games. Or take it outdoors for a game of HORSE, hide-and-seek, Double Dutch jump rope, or Red Light Green Light. Consider inviting the neighborhood crew over for a game of tag, Duck Duck Goose or Red Rover. By participating with your kids, you're modeling active fun.
3. Walk or bike to school. Gather a gaggle of neighborhood kids and chaperone walking or biking them to elementary and/or middle school. Once you’re confident the route is safe and your children can consistently follow traffic rules, consider letting them get themselves to and from school using their own human power. If your routes aren’t safe, consult the National Center for Safe Routes to School to learn how your community and school can partner for improvements.
4. Seasonal fun. Head outside to have a snowball fight in the winter, to chase frogs in the spring, and to catch fireflies in the summer. (Just be sure to let them go afterward!) Whether you’re a country folk or a city dweller, you can find all of these things nearby.
5. Learn to juggle. Start off with scarves and work your way up to bean bags or rings, then to juggling pins or real juggling balls. Once you and your kids have mastered the skill part, try to come up with new, fun things to juggle – like bananas or toilet paper,
6. Ninja warrior course. Turn your backyard into an obstacle course – you don’t have to be a master woodworker to create something fun. Use boxes to create a tunnel, turn pool noodles into hurdles, set up a slack line, use hula hoops for ring jumps – Pinterest has a TON of great ideas! PRO TIP: Make construction of the obstacle course fun time with the family, too, and the kids will appreciate it so much more.
7. Neighborhood challenge. Once a month, host a neighborhood challenge at the local park or playground to see who can jump rope or hula hoop for the longest period of uninterrupted time. Buy a $5 gift card and make a winner’s trophy to get passed on when someone new wins. Encourage participants to practice regularly so they can take home the trophy at the next challenge. Use SignUp to organize and invite participants!
Activities to Entice Your Kids to Eat Smarter
1. Play Name That Food. Cut up a bunch of different fruits and have a blindfolded taste test with the kids. The following week, use a variety of vegetables instead of fruit. The following week, taste test a variety of nuts (check for food allergies first!). Play this game regularly as a great way to try out new heart-healthy foods to incorporate into your regular diet.
2. Let the kids help with dinner. Plan a simple, heart-healthy meal as a family and then let the kids help prep and cook dinner. Talk about the different foods you’re eating and how you’re cooking them (and how they benefit your heart).
3. Produce Challenge. Make a list of all fruits and veggies with the kiddos. Then make it your goal to try them ALL. Create a visual graph to hang on the fridge so everyone can keep track, and turn it into a fun learning experience for the whole family! What does everyone love? What do they hate? What new dishes can you invent? What are all the things you can dip fruit in?
4. Grow a veggie & beans garden. Whether it’s outside or in potted plants, create a garden and teach the kids how to take care of the plants. Beans, tomatoes, lettuce, peas and peppers are some easy-to-grow options you can start with. Discuss how these foods grow, the importance of these foods in a healthy diet, and where all of our food comes from.
5. Food Art Fun: Use fruits, veggies, and whole grains to create a fun plate of food art (like smiley faces, animals, or scenes) to encourage creativity while also eating healthy. The more imaginative, the better!
6. Healthy Snack Relay Race: Set up a relay race where each kid has to run to different stations with healthy snacks like apple slices, carrots, hummus, and whole-grain crackers. They have to gather one of each healthy snack to make a balanced snack plate for themselves at the end of the race.
7. Food Pairing Game: Have a selection of heart-healthy foods (like berries, nuts, yogurt, and leafy greens) and ask the kids to match them up with what they think tastes best together. Afterward, explain why certain food combinations are good for your heart, like yogurt and fruit for fiber and antioxidants.
No matter how you decide to teach your kids to live a heart-healthy life, be sure to participate – kids learn best by example!
