It is the first of June, the beginning of summer fun, and a chance for you to make a few steps in 2012 to better health. Here are a few ideas:

1. Walk or exercise 5 minutes today. Tomorrow walk or exercise for 5 minutes. Increase it to twice a day if you can. Saturday do the same thing. Set your goal for Monday morning to begin walking or exercising for 8 minutes. Make a chart and every Monday increase your exercise time or activity by 2-5 minutes. Slowly you will notice more energy and less resistance to doing physical activity no matter what your age.

2. Drink more water. For me I label 4 water bottles every day with a 1,2, 3, 4. As I need a drink or have a snack, I know exactly how much water I have consumed during the day and have made a good effort to include more water in my daily routine especially during hot summer months.

3. Buy 100 calorie snacks. By making an effort to read labels and purchase those 100 calorie snacks you are forcing yourself to look at not only how much you snack during the day but limiting the number of calories without missing the foods you love. Almost all brands of candies, cookies, and crackers now come in 100 calorie variety packs. ( The key here of course is to limit your intake to one pack during your snack time. Instead of eating more than one package, add an apple, carrot sticks, or other fresh fruit or veggie)

These are three very simple suggestions to make your first actions successful to better health. These work for all ages, all women in any stage of health, and even those that work full time. If you already work out at the gym and eat only healthy foods good for you. For those of you like myself who start a plan and fail almost monthly, lets try to start out small and see where it takes us. Let me know how you are doing and if you are feeling any changes in energy or strength.