Here are three simple things you can do today to make a positive impact on your health and improve your diet. No matter where you are in terms of a healthy lifestyle, whether you have already finely tuned your lifestyle – or if you’ve just decided you want to eat healthier.
1. Eat an apple a day.
There really was something to the old adage – “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. We now know that apples are very effective at lowering bad cholesterol. They are also an excellent source of fiber, an important part of a healthy diet. And you can use that apple as a substitute a candy bar or cookies or some other sweet snack. Besides that – apples are cheap! You can get a whole bag of apples for the price of a few candy bars.
2. Drink an extra couple glasses of water each day
The health benefits of drinking water are many, and you can also tackle a couple of unhealthy diet habits by increasing your water intake. One great strategy is to have a glass or two of water before a meal. Another great strategy is to have water with your meal instead of soda or some other sugary or sweetened beverage. Most people could benefit from drinking more water, and by substituting water for soda you’ll get the added benefit of dropping soda. See our previous post about one of the most important things you should do for a healthy lifestyle.
3. Skip that candy bar, pack of cookies, or whatever that sugary snack is that you always pick up, take with you, or buy from the vending machine. This one is super easy – use the first two suggestions above to help get you there.
By eliminating the extra calories and substituting with water and an apple (you can use carrots, celery, or some other fruit or vegetable if you want some variety) you’ll ditch the bad calories and gain some fiber and good nutrients that you wouldn’t be getting from the processed snack. If you usually have savory snacks like chips or pretzels this still applies – skip the processed stuff for a fruit or vegetable and some water.
Stick with these every day for a couple of weeks and you’ll find that you’ve incorporated a couple of new habits as part of your lifestyle. You’ll find that you’ve added some good stuff to your regular diet and dropped a few things that really don’t add more than calories to your diet.