Renee commented today that she is working on improving her diet and her goal is to eat more balanced healthy meals. While most would agree that this is a good goal- a lot of people don't know what constitutes healthy.

In the 90's people became fat phobic. So healthy meant fat-free. In the early 2000's carbohydrates were the enemy and so healthy meant carb-free. Now, in 2008 we're finding ourselves somewhere in between (Thank Goodness!).

Here are a couple rules of thumb to creating healthy snacks and meals:

1. All snacks and meals should include fat, protein and carbohydrates. Fat and protein take longer to break down in your body - same with complex carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables. The advantage to eating this way is that you will feel fuller for a longer period of time after eating. Say good bye to repeat trips to the vending machine or refrigerator!!

2. The less packaging the better. Try to eat naturally occuring foods rather than ones that come boxed, bagged and labeled.

3. Every meal and snack should contain a fruit and/or vegetable. Plain and simple. Don't tell us you don't like fruits or vegetables. With hundreds of varieties of both out there is clearly something you can find that you will like.

4. Eat a rainbow of colors throughout your meals and snacks each day. Red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, white. No - Skittles don't count. The more varied the color, the more varied the nutrients you are eating and the happier your body.

5. Fruit flavored things don't count. This means you can't count the cherry coke, banana popsicles, etc. Be on the lookout for convincing labels on products - for example, fruit on the bottom yogurt DOES NOT contain fruit - just syrup and sugar that is fruit flavored.

6. Healthy food still contains calories. To maximize weight management efforts, pay attention to portion sizes.

Eating healthy isn't very complicated, but it does require effort on your part. If the above rules are too hard to follow all at once, pick one to follow this week. Next week add another - until you have 6 new healthy eating approaches under your belt!

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