1.Know what foods to avoid, and

2.Planning – get yourself organized.

What is a healthy snack? One that contains little or no sugar, little or no salt (sodium), no white flour and no saturated fat. Check food labels to see what is inside. Many foods are now labeled ‘fat free’ but are laden with sugars and will still cause an influx of calories. Do not assume that ‘fat free’ means healthy! Western societies are eating more and more fat free foods, and yet obesity levels are rising faster than ever.

Healthy snacks do not live in a vending machine.

Here are some healthy snack ideas.

·Raw vegetables, such as celery, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, green pepper, green beans, cucumbers, mushrooms or zucchini may be served with a lowfat dip.

·Fresh fruit in season.

·Lowfat quick breads and muffins, such as pumpkin, zucchini, banana or bran.

·Non-sugared cereals, snack mixes made with popcorn and whole grain cereal.

·Lowfat yogurt with fresh, frozen or canned fruit.

·Shakes with lowfat milk or yogurt and fruit.

·A few squirts of butter-flavored spray and a sprinkle of garlic or onion powder on popcorn

Organize yourself to stay on track.

.Plan to have a small snack mid morning and mid afternoon. It is much better to curb your hunger than to starve yourself.

.Plan your snacks as part of your overall daily food plan.

.Organize your week – especially if you work outside home. Write a list of snacks for entire week and make sure you shop ahead. Buy enough to last whole week.

.Buy a variety of healthy snacks so you don’t get bored.

A report has shown that people who have a healthy intake of food in four of five episodes throughout day are less prone to obesity than those who eat three or less times during day.

Snacking CAN be good for you!

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4. Eat lean protein with every meal. Protein provides a powerful signal to brain providing a longer sense of fullness. The right source of protein is essential to controlling your hunger with fewer calories and necessary to maintain your lean muscle mass. Choices of protein should be flavored soy shakes with fruit; white meat of chicken and turkey, seafood such as shrimps, prawns scallops and lobster and ocean fish or vegetarians may prefer soy based meat substitutes.

5. Rev up your metabolism with activity. If you want to enjoy a lifetime of well-being, exercise is a key ingredient. Adults should do something for 30 minutes each day that takes as much effort as a brisk walk. It is also helpful to build physical activity into your daily routine: use stairs instead of escalator or lift at work, park your car in parking bay furthest from super marketing and don't use remote control to change TV channels.

6. Get support to ensure you develop a healthful eating plan and reach your goal weight. Whilst a small percentage of people possess discipline to lose weight, you may respond better to some form of consistent encouragement and coaching from a professional weight loss coach.

Being overweight or obese has been identified next to smoking, as most preventable major risk to developing cancer. Even small weight losses have been shown to have beneficial health effects. So it's never to late to start and you can never be too young or too old to be concerned about your health and do something about achieving a more healthy weight.