Eating healthier gradually

Try to imagine a life that includes healthy food that you’d really enjoy — but allows for other indulgences too. For some, that might mean you want a bagel and fruit for breakfast, then some healthier stuff for lunch and dinner (protein, veggies, quinoa or brown rice), maybe carrots and hummus for a snack, some green tea later in the afternoon, and finally a martini after dinner. That’s not 100 percent healthy, but it’s pretty great, and it’s a picture you’d enjoy perhaps.

For others, you might want a sweet in the afternoon, or your tall latte in the morning, or French fries at dinner with friends a few times a week. Those are all allowable in a healthy lifestyle, if most of the other things you eat are healthy. You want a picture of a healthy life that seems enjoyable to you.

Next, pick one small healthy change and stick with it for a week. Get some accountability, put a reminder on your fridge, plan ahead of time, do whatever it takes to make that small healthy change happen. If you are successful, pick another small change the next week, and repeat that every week you were successful.

What kind of small healthy changes can you pick each week? The list can be endless, but here are some examples:

• Eat a vegetable at dinner every day.
• Eat a vegetable at lunch every day.
• Eat a fruit for an afternoon snack.
• Have a fruit with breakfast.
• Cut back one alcoholic drink at night.
• Don’t eat after 8 p.m.
• Cut back on the sugar you add to your coffee to a minimal amount.
• Have a whole grain (quinoa, brown rice, etc.) with dinner instead of a white starch.
• Have hummus or raw nuts instead of those chips you eat for a snack.
• Have berries instead of the sweets you eat for a snack.
• Learn three new recipes this week (cook one night, then eat the leftovers the next, repeat).
• Eat at home most nights this week.
• Have yogurt with fruit or a scramble with veggies for breakfast.

You get the picture. If you don’t like these changes, come up with some of your own. If these seem too hard, make them easier.

One small change at a time means a dozen over a few months. That adds up to some amazing change over time, and it’s change that’s likely to last much longer.
This way is super easy and you will soon feel so much better.