Healthy Living tips from WebMD

Maintain a healthy weight to keep cholesterol in check
Extra pounds mean higher cholesterol, so avoid adding pounds. If you’re already carrying too much weight, taking it off may stop your cholesterol level from rising.

Building a better diet
Do you know which foods to emphasize in your healthy diet and which to limit? Basic healthy-eating principles make it easy.

Healthy diet decisions: Do you know what to eat?
Mayo Clinic dietitians outline nutritional recommendations designed to promote health and help prevent disease. Use these guidelines to help plan your healthy diet.

Weight loss: 6 strategies for success
Want to tip the scales in your favor? Here are six ways to win at weight loss and keep the pounds off.

Choose cholesterol-fighting foods
What kind of diet helps you maintain or achieve healthy blood cholesterol levels? Choose high-fiber, low-fat foods, and consider some menu items that you may not have tried.

Fats: Reduce harmful ones and add healthier ones

• Cholesterol: Top five lipid-lowering foods
• Face the fats: Some types of dietary fat are better than others
• Fat grams vs. percentages: Which is more important?

Fiber: Include the soluble and insoluble kinds

• High-fiber foods
• Roughing it: Fitting more fiber into your diet

Questions about cholesterol and foods

• Butter vs. margarine: Which is better for your heart?
• Eggs: Are they good or bad for your cholesterol level?
• Noni juice: Can it lower cholesterol?

Exercise regularly to boost ‘good’ cholesterol and help manage weight
Your levels of protective “good” cholesterol rise when you exercise regularly. Besides that, physical activity helps trim away extra pounds, which are linked to high cholesterol.

 How to select a fitness program
Thinking about starting a fitness program? Want help sorting through the options? Check it out.

Ready to start a fitness program? Take these 5 steps
Reach your New Year’s fitness goals and start on the path to better health in only five simple steps.

Your fitness program: Tips for staying motivated
Do you find it difficult to stay on track with your fitness program? Learn how to stay motivated.

Stay tobacco-free to cut your risk of high cholesterol

Smokers have more “bad” and less “good” cholesterol than do nonsmokers. In addition, tobacco products damage the linings of blood vessels, making them more vulnerable to harmful cholesterol.

 Chewing tobacco: Not a risk-free alternative to cigarettes
Do smoking bans have you searching for another way to get your fix? Don’t think chewing tobacco is safe just because it doesn’t involve smoke.

Stop smoking: Kick the habit for a long and healthy life
If you want to live a longer, healthier life, don’t smoke. No matter what your age, quitting dramatically reduces your risk of disease

For additional information about heart and vascular disease and healthy living from WebMD click on this link: