If you want to start eating healthier, moving more, sleeping better, and taking better care of yourself but feel overwhelmed by where to begin, this guide is for you.
You do not need to overhaul your entire life today.
You do not need the perfect diet, an elaborate exercise plan, a cabinet full of supplements, or a refrigerator that looks like it belongs on Instagram. You just need a place to begin, and there are simple things you can do today that give your body more of what it needs.
Maybe something about your health has gotten your attention. You want more energy, you want to eat better, or you simply know you could be taking better care of yourself and aren’t quite sure what would make the biggest difference.
Start with what feels doable now.
One Good Thing Still Counts
This may be the most important thing I can tell you about living healthier:
Healthy living is not all-or-nothing.
Maybe breakfast was not especially nourishing. That does not mean the rest of the day is ruined. Maybe you have not exercised in years. You can still take a ten-minute walk today. Maybe your refrigerator is nearly empty. You can pick up some bananas, frozen berries, greens, or a few other simple foods the next time you are at the store.
Every nourishing choice gets to count.
Instead of looking at everything you want to change and wondering how you will possibly do it all, ask yourself a much smaller question:
What is one good thing I can do today?
That one question can take you surprisingly far.
Start With Healthy Food
Food is one of my favorite places to begin because every meal gives us another opportunity to give our bodies something nourishing.
If you spend much time around Green Food Crush, you’ll notice that I keep coming back to plants. Lots of them.
Fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices bring fiber, vitamins, minerals and an enormous variety of naturally occurring plant compounds to the table. If this way of eating is new to you, my Beginner’s Guide to a Whole-Food Plant-Based Diet goes much deeper into what it can look like in everyday life.
For now, keep it simple.
Put berries on your oatmeal. Eat a banana with breakfast. Add beans to soup or a salad. Have an apple for a snack. Put another vegetable on your dinner plate. Try a baked potato topped with beans and vegetables. Sprinkle some ground flax over oatmeal or cereal.
And start with foods you actually like.
If you love strawberries, eat strawberries. If potatoes are familiar and easy, start there. If carrots are the vegetable you’re happy to eat right now, wonderful. Buy carrots.
As you eat more plants, variety is worth paying attention to too. I have a full guide on why I like aiming for 30 different plants a week, but you can explore that as you go.
Make Healthy Eating Easier
Knowing what we want to eat and actually having it available when we are hungry are two different things.
A little preparation can make healthy eating much easier.
Keep fruit somewhere you can see it. Buy frozen berries so you do not have to worry about them spoiling. Keep canned or cooked beans in the pantry or refrigerator. Buy prewashed greens if that makes you more likely to eat them. Wash a few vegetables when you bring them home. Make enough dinner to create tomorrow’s lunch.
Find a few meals you genuinely enjoy, and keep the ingredients on hand.For me, one of those easy foods is a green smoothie.
Try a Simple Green Smoothie
I’ve been drinking green smoothies for years, and mine are much greener these days than anything I would hand someone on day one. 😄
A beginner green smoothie might include:
2–3 large handfuls of leafy greens
1 banana
½ cup frozen mango or pineapple
1–1½ cups water or unsweetened plant milk
Blend until smooth.
As your taste buds adjust, you can experiment with more greens, berries, ground flax, lemon, ginger or different vegetables.
These days I usually make a much more vegetable-heavy version based on Dr. Brooke Goldner’s approach. If you ever wonder how on earth I get so many greens into one blender, I have a full guide to making a Hyper-Nourishing green smoothie.
And if smoothies aren’t your thing, that’s fine too.
Your easy breakfast might be oatmeal with berries, whole-grain toast with almond butter and fruit, or something else that works for you.
Drink More Water
Hydration sounds almost too simple to deserve its own section, but it matters.
I’ve learned that I drink much more water when I make it almost impossible to forget. I fill a big jar the night before and leave it on my bathroom vanity, so it’s sitting there waiting for me when I wake up. I drink some first thing, while I’m working out, and then keep water near me throughout the day.
Your system doesn’t need to look like mine.
Keep a bottle or glass where you’ll see it. Refill it when it’s empty. Drink some water when you wake up or before meals.
Sometimes making a healthy choice easier is more useful than relying on yourself to remember it.
Move Your Body
You don’t have to become a “gym person” to move more.
Walk around the block. Garden. Ride a bike. Stretch. Take the stairs when it makes sense. Put on some music and move around the house. Try a few simple strength exercises.
Strength training has become especially important to me as I’ve gotten older. These days I’m much more interested in staying strong enough to hike, carry a backpack, work in my garden, and keep doing the things I love than I am in thinking about exercise simply as a way to burn calories.
Maintaining muscle and bone as we age helps us hold on to that capability and independence.
Whatever kind of movement you choose, consistency matters more than making it elaborate.
Give Sleep Some Attention Too
Food and exercise get a lot of attention when we talk about health, but sleep belongs in the conversation too.
One of the simplest places to begin is giving yourself enough opportunity to sleep.
Try going to bed a little earlier. Dim the lights in the evening. Spend less time looking at bright screens before bed. Keep your room dark and comfortable. Step outside in the morning and get some natural daylight.
Sleep is one of those subjects I became much more interested in once I understood what was actually happening in the body. Morning light, circadian rhythm and sleep are a good example of why learning the “why” behind a habit can make it much easier to care about doing it.
Let the Rest of Your Life Support You Too
Food matters enormously to me, but it isn’t the only thing I pay attention to anymore.
Sleep, strength, sunlight, time outside, relationships, stress, gratitude, and the way we spend our days all matter too.
Spend some time outdoors. Connect with people you love. Grow something if you enjoy gardening. Take a walk. Make room for things that genuinely restore you.
And pay attention to how your habits affect the way you feel.
Health happens in ordinary life.
Choose Your Starting Point
Now comes the important part: you are not supposed to leave this page with a giant list of things to accomplish tomorrow.
Choose something realistic.
Drink some water when you wake up. Add fruit to breakfast. Buy frozen berries. Put beans on your lunch. Take a short walk. Step outside for morning light. Go to bed a little earlier.
Some people enjoy changing several habits at once. Others do better focusing on one thing until it feels familiar.
There isn’t one correct pace.
The goal is to create habits that can live in your real life.
Learn the Why as You Go
This is the part I love.
Once you start eating more berries, beans, greens, whole grains, herbs, seeds, and vegetables, questions tend to follow.
What does fiber actually do?
What is the gut microbiome?
Why do I keep talking about broccoli, cabbage, and kale?
Why does building muscle become increasingly important as we age?
How can morning light change what happens at bedtime?
Those are the kinds of questions I love exploring.
For example, once you understand a little about the gut microbiome and the trillions of microbes living there, suddenly all that fiber and plant variety becomes a lot more interesting.
And if you’ve noticed an unusual amount of broccoli, cabbage, kale, and cauliflower around here, there’s a reason for that too. Cruciferous vegetables have some particularly interesting compounds, and they have earned a permanent place in my kitchen and garden.
The more I have learned about nutrition and lifestyle, the more amazed I have become by the human body and by how responsive it can be to the way we care for it.
That is what the rest of Green Food Crush is for.
You can learn the why as you go.
For me, understanding why something matters makes me much more likely to actually do it. It stops feeling like another health rule and starts making sense.
Where Would You Like to Go Next?
Follow whatever makes you curious.
I want to start eating more plants.
Start with my Beginner’s Guide to Whole-Food Plant-Based Eating.
I want an easy way to eat more greens.
Try my Guide to Making a Green Smoothie.
I want to understand my gut.
Explore What Is the Gut Microbiome?
I am curious about fermented foods.
Read my Guide on the Health Benefits of Fermented Foods.
I want to learn more about vegetables that support health.
Head over to my deeper guide on cruciferous vegetables.
I keep hearing about eating more plant variety.Read 30 Plants a Week and see why variety matters to the gut microbiome.
Curious about Dr. Brooke Goldner’s approach? Start with my guide to Dr. Brooke Goldner’s Goodbye Autoimmune Protocol, then explore the rest of my Dr. Brooke Goldner resources.
Pick the subject that interests you most.
You Can Begin Today
There will always be more to learn. That’s one of the things I love about health.
But learning and doing can happen side by side.
Choose one good thing that makes sense for your life today.
