If you are like most people, one of your New Year’s resolutions was to eat healthier and get in better shape. This can be a daunting task if you have never worked out or put any thought into what you eat. Well, it’s been 3 weeks. Have you made any progress? I hope so, but if not, you should keep reading.

Eating healthier meals with less snacking are the most critical aspects of losing weight. The most important lift is not in the gym. It’s what you lift with your fork. You can have a great workout and negate it with a trip through the drive thru. Now let’s talk about progress. You will need short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals. I would set mini-goals weekly to keep you honest, monthly intermediate goals, and quarterly long-term goals. Yearly goals rarely work because if you had the urge to cheat, you could easily rationalize it and tell yourself "I have 364 more days to make up this apple pie a la mode with drizzled caramel sauce."

There are three main meals a day. Multiply that by 7 and you have 21 meals a week. Let’s just say in 2012 you had McDonald’s for 3 meals a day, 7 days a week (I KNOW none of my readers are doing this, but let’s just say…). If you had a kale, spinach, and avocado salad with a grilled chicken breast and drank iced green tea to wash it down once a week, would you be making progress? Of course you would. You just substituted one unhealthy meal for a nutritious one. What if you substituted one of those nutritious meals a day? You would make tremendous progress towards your goals.

Let’s say you didn’t work out at all in 2012. If you worked out once a week, you would be making progress. If you worked out for 20 minutes daily, you would see better results. Now let’s combine the healthy eating with the daily workouts and you are making some real progress. To turn it up a notch, let’s make a pledge to ourselves to take the stairs instead of the elevator, park in the aisle furthest from the store instead of circling the parking lot for 10 minutes (saves gas & helps Mother Earth), and drink water instead of juice or sodas.

I can go on and on with small alterations that can be made, but I think you get the point. Don’t wait another minute. Make a few tiny lifestyle changes and reap the benefits. To a healthy 2013!