Making heart-healthy lifestyle changes can help you feel better and improve the strength and function of your heart. It's easy to say you want to change your lifestyle, but stopping smoking, increasing exercise, and changing your diet can be a real challenge. It's difficult to make so many changes, but it helps to hear from others about how they started small and soon began to feel better.

On MyHeartDiseaseTeam, the social network and online support group for those living with heart disease, members talk about a range of personal experiences and struggles. Lifestyle changes are one of the top 10 topics most discussed.

Here are some question-and-answer threads about lifestyle changes:

• Do you think exercise is beneficial?
• Does anyone else feel like they cannot eat properly?

Here are some conversations about lifestyle changes:

• My husband has taken his health very seriously since this event and has lost 20 pounds to get him back down to his optimal weight. He used to be a couch potato but this has scared him and he just decided that he would make the lifestyle changes the doctor recommended.
• Today, I am grateful to have my symptoms under control. The lifestyle changes were not easy in the beginning, but get easier with every passing day.
• I had a mild heart attack on the night of my 49th Birthday. Talk about a wake-up call. So far, I have quit smoking and realize that I have to make several lifestyle changes.

Can you relate?

Have another topic you'd like to discuss or explore? Go to MyHeartDiseaseTeam today and start the conversation. You'll be surprised just how many others may share similar stories.

Feel free to ask a question here.