Every day hundreds of US citizens are told that they need to change their lifestyle in order to improve their health. However, changing how we live our lives after so many years of following our own routines is difficult, so here are some tips on how to make the change easily and painlessly.

The first tip is organisation. There's absolutely no point in telling yourself you're going to get up early every morning and go for a walk if you don't set an alarm. Doing things like planning your meals for the week in advance will help hugely in your battle of wills against what you want and what you know you should be having. If you buy all your food for the week on the Sunday beforehand then you can plan it to be healthy. Go shopping each day for that day and you'll buy on a whim, choosing fatty, unhealthy foods that you feel like eating instead. If your routine isn't working out then don't panic, you can always change it to fit around your commitments, but do try to plan as much in advance as you possibly can.

Secondly, be prepared for the financial changes. We all know that very healthy foods, like blueberries and salmon are usually more expensive than unhealthy ones like chips and bread. Being healthy doesn't have to mean being out of pocket, though. Ditching things like alcohol, chocolate and cigarettes, which regularly burn a hole in your pocket, will give you more cash for the yummier healthy foods like dried mango, asparagus and flavoured yoghurt. All you need to do here is for your first few 'healthy shops' remember what your old expenditure used to be and as you put things in the basket, add the price up on a calculator. As you near the old budget you can decide what you need and what you can substitute for less expense.

One great tip for cutting grocery costs is growing your own fruit and veg. Not only is it almost free and tastes better than from the supermarket, but gardening burns a huge amount of calories and tones up muscles fantastically!

If you have to give up smoking or drinking to improve your health then do it slowly and with as much help as you can get. By all means speak to your doctor and get patches, gum and inhalers. Giving up an addiction is never easy and if you do it too fast you run the risk of relapsing as soon as you get stressed.

Exercise is probably the hardest part of a healthy lifestyle to get used to. To avoid aches and pains try a form of exercise which stretches your muscles so that they don't hurt; yoga. This exercise can be done inside the home, at your own pace and simply using a DVD. You won't get out of breath but will feel relaxed, healthy, motivated and tones afterwards instead. Try going for a short walk (20 minutes) before your yoga session to loosen up the muscles and make stretching easier.

Stan Tian

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