Title: How to Get you Heart back in Shape Word Count: 545 Summary: Dying of a painful heart attack is no ones ideal way to die. To avoid dying in such a painful way a good diet and exercise must be maintained throughout the rest of your life. Here I have listed several ways to help avoid a Heart Attack. Keywords: health,fitness,Diet,heart attacks,heart attack,heart disease,healthy living,exercise,better living Article Body: Doing what you can now will reduce the chances of having a heart attack and increase your life which should be every ones goal. Fuel for the Body: The human body needs food to fuel us thru our busy days. Our bodies turn the food we eat into energy we need to keep our body functioning properly. Fried and fatty foods are bad for the body and gum up the works. These types of foods help build blockage in the arteries that deliver the vital supply of blood to and from the heart, and when one of them clogs you have a heart attack. Try switching your diet to broiled fish and chicken, with lots of steamed or raw vegetables. These foods are full of needed nutrients and will help keep your arteries clean and your heart strong. Keeping the Body Strong: It is not enough just to put good fuel in the body you must also take good care of the body. It is important to workout at least 3 to 4 hours a week. Working out means breaking a sweat and raising your pulse rate, the way to figure out what your working out heart rate should be is simple subtract your age from 220. This means a 35 year old should raise their heart rate to 185 for a workout to be most effective. If you find that you can not hold a normal conversation during your workout you are pushing too fast and should slow down, huffing and puffing means your body is not getting enough oxygen, as you work out more you will find yourself able to push harder and faster. Tog et a good workout you do not need to join an expensive gym. Gyms offer aerobics classes weight training and bikes and treadmills for cardio workouts, but you can get just the same workout with a workout DVD and a fast paced walk two or three times a week. Screwing up the Works: Smoking, drinking and getting high, does nothing good for the body. Medical scientists are studying what if any are the benefits of Marijuana, but one thing they have already agreed on is that smoking Marijuana is worse for you because of the smoke then any benefits that the drug may offer. Smoking puts a chemical into the body that makes blood clotting more common then in someone who does not smoke, add that to poor eating habits and you have an environment that is good for a heart attack. Then take into account that some drugs like cocaine make your heart race for long periods of time. This weakens and shortens the life span of your heart and after long term use can leave you stuck in bed hooked up to machines or stuck in a wheelchair. Drinking Alcohol may be the worst of them all it not only raises the chance of heart disease it hardens your arteries and kills your liver and even your kidneys. If you want to live long enough to enjoy your golden years you have to start doing something about it now. Many people will say that 60 yeas ago people ate much worse then we do now, but my reply would be that those people also did more physical labor then we do today.