Have High Cholesterol? Consider a Little TLC

Do you have high cholesterol?  Then consider giving yourself a little TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes). TLC includes three areas of focus to help you decrease your LDL cholesterol-Diet, Weight Management and Physical Activity.

TLC Diet - consists of a low-saturated fat and low cholesterol diet with no more than 7% of calories coming from saturated fat and less than 200 mg of cholesterol daily. 

Weight Management - Lose weight if you are overweight.  A good first goal to set is looking at losing 10% of your current body weight. 

Physical Activity - shoot for at least 30 minutes of physical activity on most days of the week.

To learn more about Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes, visit the following website:

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/chol/chol_tlc.pdf

Keep Your Child's Back Healthy!

When choosing a back pack, make sure you follow these steps from Backpack Safety America:

1. Choose the correct size.  This is the most important step in the process.
2. Don't overload-the weight of the pack should be no more than 15% of your child's body weight.  Be sure to pack only what is necessary.
3. Use proper lifting techniques. (see website for proper lifting techniques)
4. Wear properly-be sure to use two shoulder straps.

For more information, please visit http://www.backpacksafe.com

Switch It Up!

When you do the same exercise over and over, your body adjusts to it.  To continue to benefit from your exercise routine, switch it up every 4-6 weeks.  For example if you walk daily, try adding an incline or bumping up the speed for a few minutes-do a little interval training.  The goal is to confuse your muscles so they don't know what to expect at the workout.  As for strength, doing several different resistance exercises such as Yoga, Pilates, weights or bands helps to continuously challenge (confuse) your muscles through a variety of different exercise methods.

Pound the Pavement for Strong Bones

Get out there and start walking.  Weight bearing exercise helps to stress the bones and stimulate new bone growth.  Not interested in walking? Here are some other great weight-bearing activities that can help build bone as well:

• Aerobics
• Dancing-Zumba, ballroom, salsa, etc.
• Jogging 
• Jumping Jacks
• Jump Rope
• Tennis
• Stair Climbing
• Hiking