What’s the one habit that changed your health journey the most?

to lose weight… counting calories

to maintain weight with minimal calorie counting… Exercising daily

The single biggest impact to my health and wellness was eliminating refined sugar. After about 6 weeks, I stopped craving it. I'm perfectly happy eating fruit for a sugar fix now and actually crave it. It can happen!

For me, walking before breakfast for 2–4 km and then again later in the day after supper is ideal — or doing another fun activity if possible. If I’ve already walked a lot during the day, even just standing and moving around while the kids play helps. Anything that keeps my metabolism active and prevents that “I’m bored” feeling makes a difference.

I find vacations the most challenging, especially when they last longer than three or four days. Finding enough protein and avoiding constant snacking becomes harder to maintain. That said, three to four days of healthy eating is still better than none at all. The rest of the days are usually fine too, just with more unusual foods that contain additives like mono- and diglycerides or less healthy fats — all of which make it harder to stay looking and feeling my best. The type of calories really does matter, especially when going over the usual limit, and on vacation, not all calories support energy or appearance equally well.

Logging food but weighing and measuring first is very important and read serving sizes on packages. It's so easy to snack or eat a bigger serving than you realize.