It’s great that you want to improve your heart health. Don’t think that you have to make big changes to have an effect on your heart health, though. Even small, basic steps can have dramatic effects.

One of the biggest drops in heart disease risk occurs when you go from living a sedentary lifestyle to being active for as little as one hour a week. Obviously, the more active you are, the better. But just one full hour of activity over the course of a week makes a difference.

Health professionals at Mayo Clinic have developed the Mayo Clinic Healthy Heart Plan. The entire plan is contained in the book “Mayo Clinic Healthy Heart for Life!” But one of the key messages is that even little steps may make a big difference.

Some of these steps for getting started are included in the “Eat 5, Move 10, Sleep 8” section of the book, which describes a two-week quick start to the Mayo Clinic Healthy Heart Plan.

To read a summary of the “Eat 5, Move 10, Sleep 8” strategy or the remainder of this blog post, visit the Mayo Clinic website.