Healthy eating tips - 1. Prepare yourself for success

To prepare yourself for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big harsh change. If you approach the changes steadily and with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.

Simplify : Instead of being unnecessarily worried with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in relations of color, variety, and freshness. This way it should be easier to choose healthy options. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more enjoyable.

Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time: Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or clever. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating to yourself or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking.  As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.

Every change you make to improve your diet matters: You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely remove foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy, and reduce the risk of cancer and disease. Don’t let your missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you make counts.