Choosing health food and health drinks, exercising several times a week, cutting out bad habits: these are all things we know we need to do get healthy, but we put them off like a to-do list we don’t want to face.  Sometimes, living a healthier lifestyle means changing just about everything in our daily routine, and there’s no way that’s going to be fun or easy, right?  

The truth is if it were easy to do a complete 180 and change bad behaviors overnight, people would do it all the time.  Health food stores would be more popular than fast-food drive-throughs, and everyone would have a personal gym in their homes.  One of the biggest impediments to making the right choices is the idea that we have to make only right choices, all the time.  It’s too overwhelming to contemplate, so we hold on to the bad habits, turning our noses up at health food and promising to start exercising, “tomorrow.”

But, what if a person takes a more realistic approach to lifestyle changes?  What if we only changed one thing at a time, making it a comfortable part of the daily routine before moving on to the next change?  Making one little alteration in one’s daily activity doesn’t seem nearly as oppressive as trying to undo every bad habit all at once.

Start With Health Drinks and Snacks

Snacking is a downfall for many when it comes to getting weight and/or health issues under control.  While it may be a good idea to cut out snacking entirely, another option is to replace those snacks with “health food”.  It is even easier to replace beverages with natural health drinks.  You still get the satisfaction of snacking or sipping something tasty, while putting less bad stuff and more good nutrients into your body.  As time goes on, you can gradually replace all of your snacks and drinks with healthier options.  Again, it’s not about changing everything at once but rather making a few small, realistic changes that have a cumulative effect.

A great way to lower sugar and carbohydrate intake is to replace your beverages.  Start small.  Instead of replacing meals with vitamin “shakes,” try just switching out a daily soda for a cup of anti-oxidant rich green tea.  Don’t get fooled into buying “vitamin enhanced” waters, though, as they often contain high levels of sweeteners and various chemicals.  Instead, look for herbal teas or natural health drinks that include benefits like complex carbohydrates, chlorophyll, and live enzymes.

Add Health Food to Existing Meals

Another small change that can make a big difference is to exchange one side dish with a healthier option.  If you would normally serve up some prepackaged, processed mac and cheese with your evening meal, for example, start by replacing it with some steamed vegetables.  Everything else on the plate can stay just as it was, for now, while you use the opportunity to cut out a negative influence and add in a positive one.

Over time, you may find that you’re ready to completely replace an entire meal a week with something far healthier.  Try broiling instead of frying, veggies instead of boxed side dishes, and alkaline foods instead of acidic ones.  Enhance the experience further by serving your health food with tasty and nutritional health drinks.  You may find that you actually start looking forward to this healthy meal and want to put together better options more than once a week.

Remember, the whole point of this approach is to make small changes that can add up to an overall healthier lifestyle.  Replace one bad habit at a time with something better and see how the addition of health food and health drinks affects your energy levels and fitness, leading you to WANT to make more changes.

Author-Cliff Smith helps you find smart, convenient health food products not sold in retail stores.  Look for natural health drinks with live enzymes, chlorophyll and concentrated antioxidants while avoiding sugar, artificial sweeteners, isolated vitamins and other chemical isolates.

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