ietis a great way to improve your health and your life.The key to changing your diet, of course, is to change it inways that you can live with for a lifetime. The reason that mostdiet and lifestyle changes fail is that they are too difficultto follow once the initial excitement has worn off. The key isto make small changes, simple changes, that you can follow forthe rest of your life.Where you start your healthy eating plan depends in great parton your particular goals. For many people, a healthy eatingprogram can be as simple as eating more fruits and vegetables.For others, a healthy eating plan will require a radical changein the way they shop, cook, and eat.Since healthy eating means so many different things to differentpeople, it is impossible to come up with a single healthy eatingguide that will be right for everyone. The runner toning up fora marathon will have...

... different nutritional needs than the factorworker who wants to lose 20 pounds.No matter what the goal, however, it is important to eat avariety of foods, and to make smart choices when shopping, whencooking and when eating. Eating out can present specialchallenges, and it is important to familiarize yourself with theingredients of the foods you order in your favorite restaurant.Making healthy food choices means eating more of the good foods- like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, etc., and less of thebad foods, like salt, sugar and fats.Starting by eating more high nutrition, low calorie foods is agood place to start. Luckily, the produce section of the localgrocery store likely contains hundreds of different examples ofsuch foods. Fruits and vegetables are almost always low incalories and fat, and they are generally very nutritious as well.Since variety is so important to a healthy diet, it is a goodidea to try out a sampling of different fruits and vegetables onyour first healthy eating shopping trip. Start with some of thefruits and vegetables you have always wanted to try but nevergotten around to. For instance, many people have never tastedasparagus, spinach or Brussels sprouts. While some love thesefoods and others hate them, you will never know unless you trythem for yourself.This kind of foraging is a great way to introduce yourself tofoods you have never tried before. It is a great way to try newthings, and you just might discover a new favorite food whileyou're at it.Experimenting with cooking all these exotic fruits andvegetables is another great idea. There are a ton of healthycooking recipes and cookbooks on the market, and a new cookbookcan be a great motivator for healthy eating.It is important to remember that making your diet healthier doesnot necessarily mean making a radical change. Simple changes,like trimming the excess fat off of a steak, or substitutingnonfat yogurt for sour cream on your baked potato, can go a longway toward enjoying a healthier lifestyle.As a matter of fact, in the long run the simplest and easiest tofollow changes are the ones that matter most. That is becausemaking easy changes means that you will be able to stick withthem for the long run. Healthy eating is a marathon, not asprint....