Make move toward a healthier lifestyle

Dear Readers: What is one thing that is so good for us, yet many of us are often too busy to do? If you guessed exercise, then you are right! Adding as little as 30 minutes of some kind of exercise to your daily routine will start you on the road to staying healthy and feeling good. But, how do you find the time?

The easiest way is to walk. Try walking instead of driving when you can — short distances add up. Walk up stairs instead of taking the elevator. Park your car farther away so that you will have a greater distance to walk.

And get a dog to walk with if you don’t have one! You can’t ignore a dog that desperately needs to explore the neighborhood and visit every tree, fire hydrant and mailbox.

Buy a pedometer. These handy little gadgets fit on your waistband and help to calculate how many steps you’ve taken in a day — aim for 10,000. Remember, if you walk one mile every day for 30 days and don’t eat any more than you should, you could burn up to 1 pound of fat. A single pound a month can add up to 12 pounds lost in a year!

Get moving, get going and get fit to stay healthy. Heloise

Dear Heloise:: My husband loves to cook with me, and he came up with the idea of using bar mops (we call them shop towels — Heloise).

Bar mops are small, cotton towels used, as the name suggests, by bartenders. We buy them in discount stores in packs of six (very cheap) and buy several packs for our home and boat.

We keep a stack by the kitchen sink every day, and when used, drop them in the laundry room to be washed with a load of towels. Better than paper towels and napkins — and it reduces refuse in landfills! Kay & Gene Thompson, Palm City, Fla.

An eco-friendly hint that I use myself and also learned from my husband, David. Those towels are super for all kinds of cleanups. Heloise

Dear Heloise: I thought I’d send this hint that has been helpful to me. My mother is 82 and needs a lot of help. She doesn’t want me to hover over her, so I went to the hardware store and purchased a wireless doorbell. I put the ringer portion on a beaded chain that she can hang on her bedpost or wear as a necklace.

I keep the bell with me so if I’m working in the kitchen, watching TV, out in the yard, etc., I’m only a ding-dong away. This works well for us! Patricia Derden, via e-mail

Dear Heloise: If the butter comes right out of the fridge and is too cold to spread, use a cheese grater and grate a mound of butter onto the bread. Now the butter spreads smoothly, and my son is happy and soon on his way to school. Linda Mullin, Rutland, Vt.

XSend a money-saving or timesaving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, or you can fax it to (210) HELOISE or e-mail it to Heloise@Heloise.com.

King Features Syndicate