How To Improve Your Health In 14 Days: Small Changes For Maximum Health & Weight Loss

Many Americans include health improvement in their New Year's Resolutions. But real life intrudes, and we find ourselves facing the fact that our plans for reshaping our lives and health were a bit too much to manage in the face of the rest of our busy lives. However, small changes can be as effective as large ones - much less intimidating - and result in long-term improvements in your health.

Here are two week's worth of small changes and activities that can improve your health. While these are written with people in an office in mind, they can be adapted to outdoor work or full-time parenting.

Day 1: Identify your Junk-Food-Hour. Put an index card in wallet or purse. Keep track of times at which you're most likely to hit the candy machine or potato chip stash, that one thing that frustrates your good eating habits. For many of us, it's mid-afternoon, though it may be at 1 a.m.! Track yourself for a week.

Day 2: Have a Green Day. Whether you buy lunch out or make it, see if you can include a green veggie each day. If you've got kids, they can have fun picking out new green food (nope, green gelatin doesn't count!)

Day 3: Exercise Nibble. Take five minutes of your lunch break to walk. Walk two and a half minutes towards any place (up the street? up the stairs?) and then take the other two and a half minutes getting back. Got kids? Make it a small family ritual and start their good habits early!

Day 4: Sneaky Exercise. Sneak in exercise while you watch TV! Every time there's a commercial, stand up and march in place until the commercial's over. If you only watch public TV? Pick a word that characters or announcers are likely to say and march in place for two minutes.

Day 5: Start the Smoke-Out. If you smoke, pick up your phone, today, and make an appointment with your healthcare provider to set up a quitting plan. Alternatively, call the National Quitline at 1-800-784-8669, or check out the webpage put out by the Surgeon General (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/conspack.html) for the booklet "You can quit smoking" in both English and Spanish.

Day 6: De-stress the Drive. At each red light or stop sign, take a slow deep breath, counting to five as you inhale, count to five as you exhale. This simple habit makes sure you've really stopped at a "STOP" sign , and reducing your stress can keep you focused to prevent an accident.

Day 7: Junk Food Begone! Use your index-card record to figure out when you're most vulnerable to a junk-food attack. Put some healthy alternatives (depending on your nutritional needs, this may be whole wheat crackers, dried fruit, nuts) in a bag at your desk or in your purse. Five minutes before your tough time, check to make sure that you're hungry. If you're just bored, take a short walk (even up the stairs, wash your face, or reapply lipstick). If you're hungry and losing energy, make use of the stash of healthy food you've created.

Day 8: Check the Pressure. Stop at the drug store and use the automated blood pressure machine. High? Time to see your healthcare provider. Low? Check back each month.

Day 9: life-Saving Self-Exam. For women of all ages: Pick a date and circle it on your calendar in pink. Repeat for the rest of the year. If you menstruate, make sure the dates are unlikely to coincide with PMS. Each "pink" day, do a self-breast exam. Don't know how? Go to www.bigbam.org to download a "how-to" card.

Day 10: Medication Weed-Out. Set a timer for 30 minutes and tackle the bathroom cupboards. Medication that are expired? Vitamins that have been sitting there for years? Get rid of them. Make sure that you don't flush these medications; your pharmacy or sanitation company can help you discard these items safely. If it takes more than 30 minutes, rep