With the holiday upon us, we become reflective of what is important to us. Most notably, we have the tradition to set New Year Resolutions and coming in at #1, are the weight-related resolutions. This might not come as a surprise since we probably know a friend or family member who has over the years shared the same ambitious goal. Making the transition to better eating habits and a more active physical routine is nothing you should plunge into. In fact, it is my recommendation that you start step-by-step so your body can naturally configure its needs vs. wants. This requires training as does every practice. It is the same when I begin to train a new client, I can tell what level to start them off and gradually I introduce them to tougher workouts because I know they will adapt to their new limits. Use the following tips to slowly transition into a better lifestyle and continue building better habits.
Replace your diary milk with almond milk. My wife introduced me to the benefits of almond milk. Another of her reasons was that she didn’t trust the large mills who processed the cow milk (high in saturated fat and calories) and wasn’t sure of the animal welfare. The taste was not bad, it was just a matter of getting used to a more natural pure flavor and texture. It is now a norm and we use almond milk for mashed potatoes and baking and it is just as delicious.
Keep infused water in your refrigerator. This is simple and an extremely benefit habit. It 
hydrates and gives your skin a glow, has tons of vitamin C, boosts energy, helps digestions and weight-loss. We all drink water anyway, might as well add some lemon and mint leaves.
Get rid of the sugary drinks. Diet soda is still soda. The multi-billion dollar corporation has done a great job making you think you’re healthier for it. Smoking 5 packs of cigarettes to one pack a day is still smoking. Throwing out this crappy drink is an excellent goal. Replacing it with sparking/fizzy water will still give you the pleasure.
Add orange juice to your grocery list. It is not only delicious but, it helps protect your body from free radicals. We all need plenty Vitamin C! Make sure you buy with added Calcium and those that say, “Not From Concentrate”.
Keep some healthy snacks on the top shelf. Instinctively, you reach for what’s first in sight on counters or refrigerator so, place some prewashed berries, cut raw veggies, chopped pineapple all in plain slight. I love having some hard boiled eggs for an easy grab-and-peel protein as well.
Slowly but, surely you will become used to doing a few of these tricks and you can move forward with replacing more things with healthy alternatives.
