Whether you had a heart attack, a bypass surgery, having trouble clearing a flight of stairs or simply have dangerously high cholesterol, there are easy things you can do to get yourself healthier. Much, much healthier.

  1. Watch out for sodium. Most likely your arteries are clogged, your cholesterol is high or some such thing. Sodium contributes to that, massively. You can probably find sodium-free or law sodium replacements for most of the foods that you eat. Case and point, you can get salt-free turkey at pretty much any deli of any supermarket.
  2. Packaged food. Most packaged food contains massive amounts of sodium. Why? Because it allows the food to stay fresher, longer. As an extension to that, it can stay longer on supermarket shelves. Unfortunately, you’ll have to cut it all out. One of the biggest culprits – pretty much every soup sold in the supermarket. So forget Campbell’s, cook your own.
  3. What to eat at fast food restaurants? Contrary to popular opinion, there is some healthy food at the fast food joints. Case and point: Asian Salad at both McDonalds and Jack in the Box. Or Skinless Chicken Breast meal at El Pollo Loco. Or, when at a Subway or any other sandwich shop, ask them to give you wheat bread, forget the cheese, mayo and oils.
  4. Healthy Dining Finder. If you are really in a bind, just hit up the Healthy Dining Finder, enter the zip code and you are in. You’ll be surprised to see how many restaurants offer a somewhat healthy diet.
  5. Cut out the mayo. So the mayo may not be the biggest contributor to your problems but it’s the canary in the mine. Just so that we are on the same page, one mayo packet from a typical fast food joint contains 11 grams of fat and 100 calories (99 of them from fat). And who only gets a single packet? Check out the caloric ratio pyramid for mayo and you’ll see what I mean. So, if you are eating this, you are probably eating other junk as well. Try dropping mayo for just a month and as long as nothing else in your diet changes, you’ll see the dramatic difference in your weight. Go crazy on mustard instead.
  6. Say bye-bye to stressful people in your life. One of the least understood causes of cholesterol and heart problems is stress and yet practically all health care providers, from doctors to nurses, agree, just based on observation, that it’s a major cause. So this is a no brainer – just do it, you’ll be happier for it.
  7. Exercise. Much has been written on this subject over and over again. The only thing I’ll add is that you do not need to run out and get a fitness club membership. Instead, make it a habit to walk about half an hour every day. It’s easy to get started. For instance, instead of driving to lunch, walk there.  Better yet, drive there with coworkers and then walk back on your own with an iPod in tow.
  8. New diet. High cholesterol is likely to cause you some problems, maybe even kill you. That’s not enough motivation? And when I say diet, I don’t mean eat less, I mean eat differently. Dean Ornish, an accomplished researcher in the field of heart disease, has several books on this topic. My favorite is Reversing Heart Disease. It’s almost 20 years old, but really full of information that makes sense today as well. A lot of what he says about food just makes sense. He also spends a lot of ink talking about stress reduction – he does it with yoga and meditation – which is not my bag, baby, but you get the point. The coolest thing about the book are the recipes for healthy meals, which take up good third of it. The bottom line about Ornish’s recommendations: eat as much of vegetables, fruits and grains as you want to. Gorge yourself on strawberries and cherries, if you like them. With the dairy products, moderation should be used. With meats, fish and fowl, avoid as much as you can, if you can’t give them up. And forget about anything commercially prepared (yeah, Campbell soup, I am looking at you), that has more than 2 grams of fat per serving. Try and avoid anything with high-fructose syrup and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to lower your sugar intake too. I know this sounds daunting, but try this: buy yourself a ton of your favorite fruits (like cherries and mangoes) and whenever you are hungry just eat them. Give it a week and see how it feels.
  9. Educate yourself. There ain’t no substitute for knowledge. Don’t walk around carrying ignorance like it’s a badge of honor – it does no one any good.
  10. Medication. Yes, if all else fails, there is always Lipitor. But without other life changes, Lipitor is always fighting an uphill battle. As your doctor will tell you, the medication always works best in conjunction with other life changes.