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Heart disease

Retirement: New Year's resolutions for wealth, health

Nanci Hellmich
USA TODAY
Five national experts offer New Year's resolution ideas for retirees.

New Year's is nearly upon us, and that's when many people — including retirees — make resolutions. What's yours? Saving money? Getting in better shape? To help retirees come up with some creative resolutions, USA TODAY asked five leading national experts to offer their ideas. Here are their suggestions:

DallasSalisbury, 65, CEO of the Employee Benefit Research Institute: My New Year's resolutions for myself and others are the same. For every added hour, day, week, month, year that you are able:

Dallas Salisbury recommends reviewing your financial plan.

Focus on being healthy today with attitude, exercise, natural food, plenty of sleep and quality time and communication with extended family. Get the most happiness with minimal stress out of today.

Review your income and spending plan so that you are reminded of how much you can spend today, this week, this month and this year, in order to limit current and future financial stress.

Stay alert today to any person who appears to need help or assistance and place a priority taking the time to do whatever you can to make that person's day and life better.

Certified financial planner Eleanor Blayney, 63, consumer advocate for the Certified Financial Planner Board:

The first of the year is a good time to start thinking about your taxes for that year, say certified financial planner Eleanor Blayney.

My No. 1 piece of advice is to not wait until April to do your tax planning for the year ahead and beyond. You want to do it as early in the year as possible, and the reason I say that is retirement offers a lot of tax-planning opportunities.

When you are retired, you have more discretion as to when and where you get your money to live on. You may have money in pretax buckets such as 401(k)s, and you may have money in after-tax buckets such as a mutual funds, savings accounts or brokerage accounts. If you haven't yet taken Social Security, you may still have options as to when you take it.

Your ability to manage your adjusted gross income can be a very powerful tool to save you a lot of money in retirement. It can have a big impact on your tax picture.

You want to find a good tax professional or financial planning professional who can help you with this. Retirement is the sweet spot of tax planning. It can be an almost creative time from tax point of view.

Elliott Antman, president of the American Heart Association, suggests seven steps to a healthier life.

Cardiologist Elliott Antman, 64, president of the American Heart Association: Retirees should commit themselves to creating a culture of health for themselves and their families. That shifts our focus from treating diseases to doing everything we can to prevent them in the first place.

There are so many things we know that are useful for minimizing the risk of heart disease or stroke. The AHA has made it easy by providing a tool that puts a person on the road to good cardiovascular health. It can be found on the website mylifecheck.heart.org or the mobile app Heart360 Coach. It offers a list called Life's Simple 7: Get active, control cholesterol, eat better, manage blood pressure, lose weight, reduce blood sugar and stop smoking.

These are things that we all need to do, and they're especially important for retirees because after all their years of hard work, they want to enjoy their golden years without being at risk for heart disease and stroke.

We also have an obligation to the next generation to advocate to our public officials to enact laws that dismantle our current unhealthy, toxic environment and construct a heart healthy one.

Carol Ewing Garber, president of the American College of Sports Medicine, advises retirees to sit less and do intentional exercise.

Exercise scientist Carol Ewing Garber, 61, president of the American College of Sports Medicine, suggests:

Sit less. Many people spend hours a day sitting, which increases their risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. If you have those diseases already, you do worse if you spend a lot of time being sedentary. What has been found is if you get up more — even just walking around your house or apartment — you will reduce your health risks substantially.So get up and move about at least once an hour if you are watching TV or on your computer.

• Try to do some kind of intentional physical activity, such as walking. Aim to walk at least a half an hour a day at least five days a week. People who haven't been active will need to start out slowly and gradually build up to 30 minutes a day. The physical activity doesn't have to be done at one time but can be done in 10-minute increments.

Do some stretching exercise, lift hand weights and/or do some resistance exercise, such as modified push-ups against a wall. All of these physical activities are particularly important for older people because they lose muscle and strength over time, which makes it more difficult to do the activities of daily living.

Registered dietitian Vandana Sheth offers ideas for better new nutrition in 2015

Registered dietitian Vandana Sheth, 45, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics:

Enjoy regular meals and snacks to keep your energy level up throughout the day. Skipped meals can affect your energy, and you may end up overeating at the next meal to compensate for the one you missed. But watch your portions. You may not need the same amount of food as when you were younger.

Pump up your protein. Consume a variety of lean protein food choices at all your meals (beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, lean chicken, fish, eggs, cheese, etc.). Canned or frozen beans and lentils can easily supplement protein into your diet.

Enjoy a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables. Think more nutrition for fewer calories.

Don't get stuck in a rut. Substitute whole grains for refined/processed grain options. Try a new whole-grain choice every week. Have you tried quinoa? It cooks just as easily as rice and provides you with more protein. How about a whole-grain tortilla in place of a flour tortilla? Use a whole-grain bread for your sandwiches.

Stay hydrated. Water is your best choice of beverage. Make it fun by adding a squeeze of lemon or a fresh sprig of mint.

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