I spend a lot of time making sure that my family lives a pretty healthy lifestyle.  We try to eat right, sleep well, and get lots of exercise and fresh air.

Because of this I am frequently asked, “How do I make the change to healthy eating and stick with it?”  My answer is pretty basic and has two parts. First, stop trying to NOT eat things.

You’ve probably heard this before, but in case you haven’t, it goes like this: I want you to stop thinking about things and clear your mind.  Now, whatever you do, do NOT think of an elephant.  Do NOT think of its big long trunk.  Do NOT think of its grey color.  Do NOT think of its big ears. So of course, what do you immediately think about? … an elephant.

A lot of people experience the same things when they try to switch to healthier eating.  They say…

“I”m not going to drink soda.”

“I’m not going to eat ice cream.”

“I’m not going to McDonalds for french fries.”

And then they constantly think about those thing til they give in to a weak moment and eat them (usually to excess).

So if you’re wanting to make a switch to healthier eating, I want you to do the opposite.  Don’t worry about stopping any of your current eating or drinking  habits.  Instead I want you to start some new habits.

The most important thing is to start drinking water.  You should have 1/2 oz of water for every pound you weigh.    This means a 150 pound person should drink 75 oz of water daily. Get that in every day – even if you have to have one of your kids bring it to you.  If you can drink that and still have room for your favorite brand of soda, then drink the soda.  But don’t drink the soda if you don’t drink your water.

You also need to start eating fruits and vegetables in a variety of colors (you can find a infographic of this here).  Spend the first week eating a red fruit or vegetable every day.  Then the next week have a red and orange fruit or vegetable every day.  Then the third week add in green.  Continue with that until you’re doing all seven colors every day.  If you can manage that you are well on your way to a much healthier lifestyle.  Here is a list of fruits and veggies by color that I put together.  If you see something missing, let  me know and I’ll add it.  And don’t make it all fruit – you need to eat vegetables too.  Soon you may enjoy your fruits and veggies so much that you find yourself eating parsley straight out of the garden.

The second piece of advice that I give to people who are trying to start a healthy lifestyle is this: you need a plan for eating junk food.

For example, if you have a potato chip habit, stop buying the big bags and start purchasing the single serving bags.  Have a plan for how often you can eat it and when.

If ice cream is your weakness, when can you have it?  And how much? (you don’t want to eat so much that you feel sick.)

If you go to a party, what’s your normal weakness?  Have a plan for it.

Junk food happens.  In our culture, we are surrounded by it.  You need to have a plan for how often you can consume it.  Once a day? week? month?  How often will depend on your goals.  You can celebrate events with junk food, but you need to make splurges the exception and not the rule.   You need a plan.

For me, chocolate is my weakness.  So I have a bag of dark chocolate (less sugar) pieces that are individually wrapped.  Not an entire bar of dark chocolate.  I’m allowed to have one piece of chocolate each day.  That’s it.  There are days when I want to eat that piece all morning, but I usually put it off til after lunch which is my “low point”.  Then there are days when I forget to eat it.   But under no circumstances do I allow myself two pieces.  Just one.  And actually, I hear it calling my name. LOL

That’s my plan.  We eat healthy, but I don’t try to remove all “bad” food from our diets all the time.  I believe that’s a recipe for failure.  As a mom, I don’t want to set my family up to sneak food and consume large quantities of bad food when I’m not around.  So we have ice cream periodically.  But not every night.

We have a plan.

I think making the change to healthy eating can really be that simple.  First, don’t worry about NOT eating stuff and start eating the stuff you should.  Second, have a plan for when you can eat the “bad stuff”.

If you’re wanting to start a more healthy lifestyle, I hope that gives you a place to start.   You can do this. One glass of water and one fruit/veggie color at a time.

Some of you may think that I’m making things too simple.  You can always make things more complicated, but I think that’s for people who have been drinking their water and eating fruits and vegetables for months.  But if you’re not there yet, and you really want to make a change and stick with it, I recommend concentrating on these two things for the first few months.  Once you’ve made that a habit, then you can get more complicated.

Fruits and Vegetables by color Infographic