Here is some practical advice from Harvard researchers to help Post readers maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle.

• If you need to lose weight, set a realistic goal. A good initial goal is to lose five to ten percent of your current weight. Once you achieve that, keep aiming for another five to ten percent until you're happy with your weight.

• Exercise more. The more you work your muscles--especially with strength-training exercises--the more calories they burn even when you aren't active. If you already exercise, try to increase the duration or intensity. If you don't currently exercise, try a walking program. Get off your bus a stop early, park at the far end of the parking lot, or take a brisk walk during lunch. Gradually increase your daily walking time until you do 30 or more minutes a day.

• Tame your blood sugar. Eating foods that make your blood sugar and insulin levels shoot up and then crash may contribute to weight gain. Such foods include white bread, white rice, and other highly processed grain products. As an alternative, choose whole grains, beans, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.

• Don't be afraid of good fats. Fat in your diet helps you feel full. Good fats such as olive and canola oil can also help improve your cholesterol levels when you eat them in place of saturated fats, trans fats, or highly processed carbohydrates.

• Reach for water when you're thirsty. Drinking juice or sugared soda can add several hundred calories a day without you even realizing it.

Be Gentle to Your Joints: Housework Tips

When joints are stiff and painful from arthritis, running a household can seem like an overwhelming job. Follow these guidelines from Mayo Clinic to avoid putting excess strain on your joints:

• Ask for groceries in a paper versus a plastic bag. You can carry it between your forearm and hip to avoid straining your hands.

• Use a food processor to do your chopping. Keep a pair of scissors handy to open letters and packages instead of tearing them open with your hands.

• Place your mixing bowl on a damp cloth in the sink while you stir. The cloth will keep the bowl from slipping, and holding the spoon like a dagger takes stress off your hands.

• Insert a dishtowel in drawer or door handles to make them easier to pull open,

• Keep several sets of cleaning supplies distributed around the house so that you won't have to carry them far.

Fun Facts About Feet

• The 52 bones in your feet account for one quarter of all the bones in the body.

• Each foot is able to absorb pressures of more than one ton per square inch. Bones and ligaments of the feet spread this force and send it efficiently through the leg bones.

• There are about 250,000 sweat glands in a pair of feet, and they excrete up to a half-pint of moisture each day.

• Experts recommend taking 10,000 steps a day for health. To order a step-counter, or pedometer, call 317-634-1100. All proceeds will go to support the Neighborhood Heart Watch, a national initiative sponsored by the Post to place lifesaving defibrillators in neighborhoods across the country.

Warm Up and Stretch

Before engaging in any strenuous winter activity--from snow shoveling to lifting packages--it's important to warm up and stretch. Be sure to perform several flexibility exercises that target the primary muscles used the most during the chosen activity. Physical therapists say to wait until the afternoon to shovel; many disc injuries occur in the morning when there is increased fluid pressure in the discs of the spine.