So often we get caught up, short on time, trying to fit too many “to-do’s” in the day. By the time you catch your breath and take a break you realize you are STARVING! Maybe, if you have planned ahead you have thrown an apple in your purse or a banana in your gym bag, but most likely you haven’t.

The quandary, where is the closest convenience store or fast food drive through? You may even go through a list of what you may have in your refrigerator that hasn’t wilted or rotted since the last time you went to the grocery store, processed deli meat or the leftovers from the Mexican restaurant the night before last.

Research from the Journal of American Medicine indicates obesity is on the rise. This is not new information. We have all heard on television, read about it in the paper, or been confronted with it in our own lives, but let’s put it into perspective. With more than one-third, 34.6% or 78.6 million adults in the United States fighting obesity we really need to focus on our relationship with food. Heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancers are all associated to our diet, the quality of the food and how much we consume.

It is easy to place the blame on our lifestyle. We live fast-paced, demanding lives allotting little time in way of meal planning and prep. These are excuses. If you want to feel better, look better and detour those looming medical costs spurred on by added weight gain and not taking adequate care of your body than the time to act is now. When it comes to writing out your to-do list in the morning, proper diet and exercise should be penciled in at the top.

Eating healthy, whole foods does not have to be difficult, and can actually be fun and most certainly rewarding. You may even save money by preparing food at home rather than buying processed products off the shelves. The key here is finding a method that works for you.

Packing up a weeks worth of meals on Sunday may not be what you want to do on your weekend, and that’s okay. Find a strategy that works. Load up your refrigerator with fresh, seasonal produce and quality meats, rummage your pantry removing processed foods and start to discover a new way of living. Make a pact with yourself to make small changes at first, say drinking more water and having an apple with almonds as an afternoon snack instead of a bag of chips. Once you get the momentum going, these changes will slowly form new habits, and  eventually without realizing it you will start to embody a whole new way being.