UNITED STATES—Eating healthy is no easy task, most Americans know this. You can tell yourself a trillion times that you will do so, but if you don’t put a plan in place to do so it will never happen. With spring in full-force, and the summer months quickly approaching, I’ve reignited my passion for juicing and making smoothies. It was something I did religiously for over a year and then stopped after my blender went kaput.

With a new blender in place, I’ve made it a habit every morning to put together a concoction to eat healthy with my veggies and fruits. I will admit it does begin with knowing what goes in and out your body daily, weekly, monthly. I mean I kicked off the New Year giving up soda and candy, and I’ve done quite well for the past 4 months. However, in the past few days I’ve nibbled on a few pieces of candy, which I know I shouldn’t have so I’ve made it a mission to revert back to staying away from the sugary stuff.

The biggest question people ask time and time again is how do you resist temptation? Remember out of sight out of mind. If you don’t have those items in your pantry or cupboard you don’t have to worry about being tempted by them. Trust me after a certain time frame you get to the point, where the notion of you even drinking a glass of soda or pop or a caffeinated beverage (the terminology is dependent on what part of the country you live in) seems weird. Someone asked me the other day about soda and even though I had already given it up for the New Year, I allow myself a pass once Lent ends, but at that point I didn’t want it.

Make water a personal friend of yours. Of course, we’ve all been told the benefits of water, but there are ways to jazz it up and still get those health benefits without putting into your mind that you are drinking something so bland. How about throwing in a lime, a lemon, and orange slice, a variety of veggies or even some cucumbers into that H2O.

Fruits and veggies can flavor the water without you looking to throw in a ton of calories by having a caffeinated or sweetened beverage. Remember a lot of the calories we consume daily aren’t always from meals we eat, it’s from the amount of beverages that we have. Water is indeed the best liquid for your body and you don’t ingest calories, sugar or fat. When it comes to preparing those smoothies, I try to prep the fruits and veggies in advance. I will admit I hate washing or having to chop up fruits and veggies at times. People fail to realize its work; especially if you’re preparing a fruit salad with all the trimmings (watermelon, honeydew, pineapple, cantaloupe and the rest of those tasty treats).

The same happens with a good vegetable salad. Prep is a deciding factor that forces so many Americans to simply say, “The hell with it!” Get rid of that notion people, and get rid of it real quick. When it comes to preparing those smoothies put your concoction together the night before. Utilize little containers to prepare the items you plan to consume later.

I like to color code things: orange smoothie, green smoothie, red smoothie, purple smoothie and of course yellow smoothie. Remember you want a rainbow of colors when it comes to your fruits and veggies, and when you varietize it keeps things fresh and you excited at the same time. Carrots, oranges and mangoes are perfect if you want to go orange. If you want to go green a combination of spinach, kale, kiwi, green pears, Granny Smith apples, cucumbers and avocados can be combined in a number of ways. If it’s yellow, than bananas, pineapple, lemons and ginger can do the trick.

These are all just examples, there are many other fruits and veggies you can play with, just don’t get too creative to the point that you mix flavors and colors that deliver you a drink that appears brown, black or some color that you never even heard of. When it comes to healthy eating, it all starts with the mind, don’t put into your head that it’s impossible to make something happen, because that negative ideology or thought process will shoot you in the foot quicker than you can count to the number 3. Know what you want, plan it and go after it, plain and simple people.