Do you consider your eating habits healthy? Not really? Then you are ready to start a healthy eating plan. And eating habits can be hard to change. Since you recognize that your eating habits now are not too healthy you have taken the first step. You have acknowledged to yourself that you need to change, not only for weight control but also to obtain and keep a body more disease free.

Yet you like those unhealthy foods. They taste good and often are quick and easy to prepare. And they give you a feeling of comfort. Unhealthy foods and healthy foods become a conflict in your mind. And you realize that changing to a healthy diet will be difficult. At the same time you also realize that to gain a healthy lifestyle you need to change.

It is you, your body and your health, and you must decide that you are going to change to healthy eating, and stick to it until healthy eating becomes habit.

A few tips may help ease the change.

#1: Especially if you think and plan major changes are needed for your diet is too log eating, and snacking, habits for a week, then take that list to your family doctor and get his advice. That advice can help you avoid getting into changes that can harm your health, and ease your change to a healthy diet. Your doctor can offer a diet specifically good for you.

#2: Start by getting unhealthy foods out of your house. Remove all foods that do not fit into a healthy diet. Yes this can be hard to do, so it may be easier to remove one or two at a time, but only if you can maintain the effort until all are gone. If you cannot maintain that effort then get rid of all unhealthy foods at once. Yes, tension, anxieties, worry, and just plain hunger, prompt the desire for a snack. Then it is best to replace those junk foods with an apple, an orange, a banana, or other fresh fruits, and fresh vegetables such as raw carrots, celery, radishes, and so on. Replace soda pop with water and fruit juices. Snack on these. And if you must have a sweet then you may try low fat yogurt, or chocolate chips ordinarily used for cooking to give you a sugar fix without ruining your healthy diet.

Also a great help is to learn about foods, learn the healthy ones, and how they work in the body. Like many people you likely understand that fruits, vegetables, and low-fat foods are good diet foods, but you can re-enforce your healthy diet by understanding why such foods are good, and what the benefits are from them. Learn about nutrients. Thus when you understand how nutrients, how good foods, work in the body, you are likely to make better choices of food. Knowledge is power, and the right knowledge can lead you to a healthier body!

#3: Important also is to consider your meal schedules. When you eat in a hurry and at odd times of day, you probably eat foods that are unhealthy, such as fast foods. Change that by planning ahead! Replace a fast food lunch with a brown bag complete with healthy fresh vegetables and fruit. Do a similar thing for healthy meals in the evening. If you are strapped for time then cook ahead at home with healthy dinners.

#4: You can start with small steps. Replacing one soda a day with a glass of water, can reduce the day's calorie intake. Cut fast food every day for lunch by half. When you start with small steps, you are not cutting out all of the unhealthy foods you have grown to love, allowing you to learn to love healthy foods. But you must carry through with your plan for healthy eating, otherwise all your effort will be lost. Persist until your eating is all healthy.

#5: If necessary force your self to say "no" to unhealthy foods wherever they are encountered.

Don't forget seeing your doctor for it may turn out that you may not need to replace that many foods in your present diet. Some may need reduction of how much you eat, and in those cases you will still be eating that food you love.

You can do it.

Eat healthy!