If you are like many people, you’ve fallen into some bad habits as you have grown older and have finally had enough. Aside from an increased risk for various diseases due to a sedentary lifestyle, you also might be feeling sad and depressed. This is all caused by lack of exercise and activity in your daily life.

Being active has a wonderful side effect of making us happier and more alert. This concept is very easy to understand, but very hard to put into practice. I’m going to share some things that have helped me lose a lot of weight over the past 2-3 years. Without these tips, I would probably still be sitting on the couch most evenings watching TV and eating ice cream (which is lovely in moderation)!

The first thing that you have to get on board with, is understanding that transitioning from an unhealthy lifestyle to a healthy one should never be done in one big shot. You will want to make small changes in order to increase your chances of not only success, but long term success. If your goal is to start running 5 miles per day, eat all organic foods, and go to the gym 6 days per week, you will likely fail. These are all fantastic goals, and I applaud you if this is your method of though, however, do yourself a favor and start small.

The easiest way to see quick results is what I call the “swap rule”. For every good habit you bring into your daily life, you will need to remove two bad habits. So, for example, if you want to walk 30 minutes per day, you will then have to remove sodas from your diet and parking in the closest spot when you go out.

It is amazing how quick these 2-for-1 habit swaps compound and lead to very fast results! Remember , you want to take baby steps so that you can truly change your bad habits and have long term success. Once you feel confident that you have made positive progression, continue by swapping out other bad habits. This is definitely a case of “slow and steady wins the race”.