This article was published on January 6th, 2018

Keep your new year resolution of eating healthier. Eating healthy and eating right will help you lose weight, feel energized, and can help you live longer. Eating healthy fuels your body for the day ahead, and to grow stronger. Here is how you can eat healthy as part of your New Year’s resolution:

Start meal planning. Pick a night of the week to go grocery shopping and have the time to cook enough to plan out your meals in advance. You’re more like to eat healthy if you’re the one cooking all your food and what you eat has already been planned out.

Eat breakfast. You need to kick start your metabolism with nutrition as soon as you wake up. Your body needs fuel to begin working properly, and eating breakfast helps set the pace for a better metabolic rate for the next 24 hours. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Eat lean protein. Protein helps strengthen our bodies and builds muscles. Foods like turkey, chicken, and fish are lean meats high in protein.

Avoid red meat. Meats like beef and pork are high in fat and bad for your heart. Replace ground beef with turkey and substitute pork for fish.

Eat more fiber. Eating more fiber often means eating more greens. Foods like spinach, broccoli, and kale are all high in fiber content. Basically, do what your mother always asked you to do, by eating your vegetables.

Step up your cooking oil game. Replace butter, margarine, and vegetable oil with olive oil, which is much better for you. You can cook with juices, dressing, and the moisture already in vegetables as oil alternatives.

Reduce alcohol intake. Alcohol is just empty calories your body doesn’t need and the mixers used to dilute the taste just add further caloric intake. If you’re going to drink, try a low calorie light beer, a red wine, or something with a no calorie or lo-cal mixer like a Stoli and soda water.

Skip dessert. You had the holidays to pig out and eat bad. The new year and new you is about realizing that desserts should be saved for special occasion and eaten in moderation.

These are 8 simple ways you can eat healthy this new year and to keep you on track with your new year resolution. Exercising can also help you manage your weight and keep you feeling great, too.

Have other suggestions for eating healthy in 2018? Leave your ideas and tips in the comments section below.