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Do-It-Yourself Makeover

(Family Features) - Is living healthier one of your annual New Year's resolutions that by spring has lost out to old, unhealthy habits? This year, follow these easy tips from the American Heart Association to create a do-it-yourself lifestyle "makeover" you can stick with for a lifetime.

Use These Keys to Success

Whether you need to become more physically active or improve your diet, you won't succeed long-term if you don't enjoy what you are doing or eating.

Get Moving

Regular physical activities can help reduce your risk for heart disease and stroke. They can also help you achieve and maintain a healthy body weight. Everyone is different, so pick the activity that fits your lifestyle and aim for a weight appropriate to your body type. To get started:

Take a short walk near your home, workplace or in the mall. Start with 5 to 10 minutes a day and work up to 30 minutes.
Take a dance class.
Use the stairs instead of the elevator.
Walk down the hall to talk with a co-worker rather than using the telephone or e-mail.

Eat Healthy

Adopting healthy eating habits is essential for your do-it-yourself makeover's success. By adding a dash of creativity and learning some basic principles of food selection and preparation, you can enjoy delicious, guilt-free meals.

What's a healthy eating plan? Focus on vegetables and fruits, whole grains, fat-free or low-fat dairy products, lean meat, poultry and fish. Limit saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium. Keep your eyes on serving size. Remember, calories count.

Shop Smart

To make shopping for healthy foods both easy and reliable, look for the American Heart Association's distinctive red heart with a white check mark on packages. The simple icon helps you select foods that meet the Association's criteria for being low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Products high in whole grain may also meet the Association's standard for being high in whole grains and fiber, as well as being low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

For more convenience, log onto heartcheckmark.org and create your grocery list from more than 800 certified products with a free, grocery list builder.

Visit the American Heart Association Web site at americanheart.org or call 1-800-AHA-USA1 for your free copy of the Shop Smart with Heart brochure.

Living healthier doesn't mean living with-out desserts. Try this tasty recipe from the American Heart Association.

Frozen Turtle Pie
Serves: 12

Vegetable oil spray
Chocolate Crumb Crust
36 reduced-fat chocolate-flavor vanilla wafers, coarsely crumbled by hand
3 tablespoons light stick margarine, melted
Caramel Sauce
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup fat-free evaporated milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 quart nonfat ice cream or frozen yogurt, such as vanilla or coffee flavors
2 tablespoons fat-free chocolate syrup
1/4 cup chopped, dry-roasted pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9-inch deep-dish glass pie pan with vegetable oil spray.

For crust, pulse cookies in a food processor until finely ground.

Pour in margarine, pulsing on and off until combined. Pat mixture into pie pan, spreading evenly on bottom and sides.

Bake about 10 minutes, or until dry. Cool completely on wire rack, about 30 minutes.

For caramel sauce, in a medium, heavy-bottom saucepan, stir together sugar and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, swirling pan gently once or twice, until sugar is a medium amber color or registers 300°F on a candy thermometer or instant-read thermometer. Be careful, because once caramel begins to color, it will darken very quickly. Immediately remove from heat when desired color is reached. Cool 1 minute.

Gently whisk in evaporated milk. If mixture forms a ball, or "seizes," put pan over medium heat and stir until mixture has dissolved. Remove from heat.

Stir in vanilla. Cool completely, then refrigerate in an airtight container until needed. (Refrigerated sauce will keep for up to 1 week.)

To assemble, soften ice cream at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Scoop into cooled pie shell and smooth top, mounding slightly. Using your finger, create a well for sauce by making a depression around perimeter, where ice cream meets pie crust. Freeze 30 minutes.

Soften caramel sauce, if necessary, by heating on stovetop over medium-low heat 2 to 3 minutes or in microwave at 50 percent power (medium) about 2 minutes. Drizzle caramel and chocolate sauces over ice cream, allowing sauce to pool around edge.

Sprinkle pecans over pie. Place in freezer 30 minutes to 24 hours. To serve, let pie sit 5 minutes at room temperature before slicing.

Nutrients per serving: 234 calories; 5g protein; 47g carbohydrates; 0g fiber; 4g total fat (1g saturated, 1g polyunsaturated, 2g monounsaturated); 1mg cholesterol; 126mg sodium

This recipe is reprinted with permission from "American Heart Association Low-Fat & Luscious Desserts," Copyright (c) 2000 by the American Heart Association. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc. Available from booksellers everywhere.

Shop smart.
Live well.
Look for the heart-check mark!

All products bearing the heart-check mark meet the American Heart Association's nutrition criteria per standard serving size to be:

Low in fat (less than or equal to 3 grams),
Low in saturated fat (less than or equal to 1 gram),
Low in cholesterol (less than or equal to 20 milligrams),
Moderate in sodium, with less than or equal to 480 milligrams for individual foods and
Contain at least 10 percent of the Daily Value of one or more of these naturally occurring nutrients: protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron or dietary fiber.
Seafood, game meat, meat and poultry, as well as whole-grain products, main dishes and meals must meet additional nutritional requirements.

SOURCE: American Heart Association