Whether you need to do so for urgent health reasons or you would just like to lose weight and improve your nutrition, the transition to healthier eating can be difficult. You can make it easier by creating a specific plan with goals for change and benchmarks to help gauge your progress along the way. It is very difficult to drastically change your diet overnight. Phasing out unhealthy habits gradually as you phase in healthy substitutes can make the transition more manageable. Ask your family member to help you stay on track by gently reminding you about what to do, encouraging you, and helping to celebrate the goals and milestones you attain. You can also decide on ways to reward yourself that do not involve food.

Most nutrition experts do not recommend cutting out tempting foods altogether (except for maybe the worst-of-the-worst like deep fried candy bars). Abstaining from eating foods you love can make you crave them like they were a drug. Instead, allowing yourself to have small tastes of such foods every so often can keep you from giving in and pigging out on a whole portion of it. For example, if you just love greasy potato chips buy the small snack size bag and parse it out into handful-sized portions. Store these portions in plastic sandwich bags and then when you are craving chips, you can eat one without going overboard.

Cooking your own food at home can be a good way to improve nutrition. There are lots of resources for health recipes available on the Web. This can be hard if you don’t have much time in your day to begin with, but if you make it a family affair with everyone helping out, it can be a great experience.