03 Jan Healthy eating tips for 2011: Part I

One of the top New Year’s Resolutions people make each year is to eat better. That goal will be a lot easier to accomplish if you know some simple tips. Today, Part I of Healthy eating tips for 2011 offers five tips to eat better this year.
1. Choose bright colors, plus brown whole grains – When you go shopping, look for brightly colored fruits and vegetables and always pick brown whole grain bread and rice over the white stuff.
2. Best defense is a good offense – Know what your diet weaknesses are plan ahead to defend against them. If you can’t handle having soda pop and/or junk food in the house because you’ll break down and snack on it, don’t buy it.
If you run to the fast-food drive thru when you don’t have meals ready at home, plan ahead and have healthy choices available in advance. Have your refrigerator and cupboard stocked with healthy food at the beginning of the week.
Do fit activities instead of basing social plans around a big meal at a restaurant.
3. Take it one at a time – If you have multiple bad eating habits, don’t expect to fix them all at once. Take one at a time, such as cutting out soda pop, and then try to add other big changes one at a time.
4. Control your diet – Eat smaller meals rather than one or two big feasts. Eat an apple or other healthy snack one hour before you sit down at dinner to help curb your appetite.
5. Be forgiving of yourself – Don’t beat yourself up too badly if you slip up on your diet once or twice, or miss a workout or two. Just try to compensate by getting back on the healthy diet as soon as you can.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com