1. Create small measurable goals: plan your breakfast out! What are you going to eat? Make sure you have all the ingredients necessary on hand. Whether it’s a healthy, low sugar smoothie in the am or eating an organic omelet with fresh veggies and feta cheese, it’s essential to plan out your meals. Plan where you are going to eat: note ahead of time the restaurants where you can get healthy meals: grilled wild-caught fish, dark green salads with dressings made from olive oil vs. “vegetable” oil, vegetable dishes sautéed in olive oil or butter. Fill up your water bottles the night before so you have them ready to roll in the am as you run out the door.

2. Keep a food and exercise journal! Studies have shown that people who keep food diaries are more likely to be successful at loosing weight. These studies have also shown that people who have kept a food diary for at least 6 days a week lost TWICE AS MUCH WEIGHT than those who kept a food diary one day or less a week! Not only is keeping a food journal important for helping you loose weight, but it will be important as you choose foods, to be able to look back and see what foods you ate that made you feel sick, bloated or gave you some type of reaction, etc.

3. Squeeze out the processed food and fill in with fresh foods! Listen, we all are on time crunches, but I bet ya, that if you were to keep nutritious foods in your fridge, you could throw together a fabulous meal for your family in the same amount of time it took you to check in at your favorite restaurant, wait to order, wait for the food to be served and eat, pay the check and then drive home. Ready-made processed foods just cannot compete with the nutrition that fresh food delivers!

4. Try new foods! Don’t wait until you are sick and tired of that same old baked fish and steamed veggies to jump of the eating healthy bandwagon!! Pair fresh veggies with different herbs and spices for new flavors and styles of good!! There is a PLETHORA of ways to create gorgeous fresh meals that will make a party in your mouth!

5. Team up with a friend who is trying to eat healthy as well! This will give you accountability, encouragement and a buddy to bounce new recipes off of!! Now the opposite of this is to stay away from friends and/or family that will try to purposely derail you from your eating healthy journey. If you cannot avoid these types of people in your life, then stay strong! Stand firm in your journey of eating healthy, knowing and visualizing the energy, vibrancy and incredible way you will feel as you continue to eat better and take care of yourself!!

6. Keep tempting foods that trigger you to overeat out of the house!! I don’t buy ice-cream! I don’t buy Twizzlers for the house, I don’t buy jars of queso because, girl, I’ll bury my face in that and eat it until it is GONE!

7. Don’t let one set-back throw you completely off track!! PLEASE!! We all will have a meal or snack at sometime that isn’t the #1 most healthy meal/snack to eat. THAT IS OKAY!! Make a decision that your next meal will be back on track and healthy again!! So many people use one meal as an excuse to completely get derailed, but don’t let that be you!! You can do this! You can take control and make the next meal a good one again and be right back on track!

What you eat 80-90% of the time really counts, so don’t let an attitude of perfectionism get the best of you!!