If you’re thinking of changing to a vegetarian diet, how do you start? Do you just start shopping in the produce aisle of the grocery store? You might have some anxiety attached to this change as well, and this is understandable.

Try to think of this as adding to your dietary habits, rather than a drastic change. If your diet has consistently included red meat, perhaps you can start substituting other foods for the red meat. Or eliminate the most processed and high-fat meats first, such as bacon and hamburgers. Certainly try to eliminate fast food burgers, which have such a high fat and sodium content. If you think you’ll miss the taste of bacon in the morning, try substituting a turkey or vegetable-based bacon substitute. It won’t be the same, but you won’t be giving up the foods you’re used to all at once.

If you’ve had a health scare and feel the need to change everything at once, make sure you include a lot of variety in the foods you buy as you begin to discover new flavors and textures that you’ll like to replace the ones you’re used to eating. If you don’t need to make a dramatic change all at once, you’ll have a much greater chance of long-term success if you take it slow.

Reduce the amount of red meat that you eat on a weekly basis, even if it means substituting pasta with marinara sauce for meat just one night a week. Increase the amounts of fruits and vegetables you eat. Start with raw vegetables at night before dinner so you’re not so hungry when you get to the main meal. Start reversing the proportions of meat and vegetables and make meat a side dish, with vegetables and grains your main course.

We’re creatures of habit and resistant to change. This is why so many diets fail, because we make drastic changes to facilitate dramatic results, quickly. This is a decision and a change you want to make for a lifetime. Make it a natural and gradual change and you can look forward to many more years of healthy living.

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How To Keep Your Child From Becoming Obese – Work At It

If you want to know how to keep your child from becoming obese, the best thing you can do is to lead by example. Teach them from an early age the importance of eating right and getting plenty of daily physical activity.

We are creatures that can be taught many things. Many of the things we like or dislike are actually just habits. If you teach your kids to like fruits, vegetables and to lead a healthy active lifestyle, they will. Of course, they will make their own decisions as they get older but that early training will set the stage for life long good habits.

One of the worst things you can do is to be a hypocrite. This is true not only with diet and exercise issues but with your overall lifestyle too. For example, if you are a smoker, it is ok to tell your kids they shouldn’t smoke, but if you don’t want to seem like a hypocrite you shouldn’t just ‘order’ them not to smoke (which doesn’t work anyway) it’s much better to talk to them honestly about the dangers of cigarettes and how you wish you had never started, etc.

lead by example, always. It’s also helpful to workout with your kids. From a young age include them in the activities that lead to a healthy lifestyle. Go to the gym together, take a workout or fitness class together, take martial arts or boxing classes together, go for a swim or play basketball together. Just get in the habit of spending time getting some exercise together.

You can also include them in the food planning. When they are old enough go through cook books with them and ask them to help you find new recipes to try. Let them come with you to the grocery store and teach them how to buy fruits and vegetables.

Go to farmers markets or health food and organic stores with your kids. The earlier you start these habits with your kids the more ingrained it will become (it’s also a wonderful way for you all to spend time together).

Many of these ideas can help you set your kids on a path that will be the foundation for a life time of better lifestyle choices… and it can be fun too.

Always encourage your kids to try new things, to try things that are healthy and good for them. Sometimes parents inadvertently blow off their kids and their ideas without really meaning too. For example, if your kid is kind of a clutz and they come to you and tell you they want to take martial arts lesson, don’t laugh and remind them that they are a clutz, instead encourage them to give it a try.

You may think that you are protecting them from being hurt emotional, but you can’t go through life that way. You won’t always be there and they may just be good at it. Even if they’re not, you can still help them find something that will work for them.

It’s easy to learn how to keep your child from becoming obese, the best way to do that is to be proactive and teach them good habits from the start.

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There are all kinds of habits that people have. Some of them are good, some not-so good. For example, most would agree that smoking is not a good habit. Perhaps the trickiest habit of all is not eating healthy. See, while somebody can quit smoking, nobody can quit eating.

The very nature of our lives requires us to eat, and it’s virtually impossible to completely avoid foods we shouldn’t be eating. This can make it very difficult to not only start the healthy eating habit, but to stick to it. At the same time, you should be careful that you don’t get too obsessed with any one particular diet; life is too short to not enjoy the occasional treat. that being said, it really is possible to to develop better eating habits when you are prepared.

The more planning ahead you can do, the better. Have you ever gone to the grocery store swearing you’re going to eat healthy, and then you buy all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables? Then you add fish, chicken breasts, dried beans and other healthy fare, too. You feel great as you load up your grocery cart. But…then…by the end of the week you find that you are throwing a lot of that food away. So, what happened?

Chances are you didn’t plan very well. If you are used to eating ready made frozen dinners, or going to your local fast food joint to eat, then you are accustomed to the convenience those foods bring. While they won’t give you very much nutrition, they certainly don’t require a lot of planning. So, once you get all of the healthy food home, you either don’t know what to do with it, or you don’t have the time.

Your solution to developing the healthy eating habit is to plan ahead. Let’s say you’re not very good at cooking because you haven’t done it very much, then start with some very simple recipes that incorporate healthy ingredients. If you are already good at cooking, but usually make unhealthy meals, then you can start by replacing one or two ingredients in your favorite dishes.

The next thing you can do is plan ahead your menu for the week. This will take a bit more time up front, but will save you time in the long run. Another way to save time when cooking is to get the whole family involved. Don’t be surprised if there is complaining at first. After all, everybody is going through changes, and there will be a learning curve. Stick with it, though, and the healthy eating habit will soon become second nature.

Above all, be realistic about what you will and won’t do. It takes time to get rid of unhealthy habits, but you will have a much better chance of success if you make small changes that everybody can stick to. Every little change you can make towards healthier eating habits counts. It will take some getting used to, no question, but it will be worth it.

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