This is a pretty big question that I think we can all continue to ask ourselves every day, no matter how far along our healthy journey we are. We might be close to our healthy peak in one area of our lives, but in another area we might have lots of work to do. It’s good to think about this question everyone once and a while and to reflect on what could be improved in your life, health-wise.

My new job (I say “new” because I’ve only been there about a month – and I just found out last week that it’s been turned from a part-time job into a full-time job, which I’m super excited about it!) has really got me thinking about this question. For one thing, I’m surrounded by people in the Food Matters office who are all very nutrition-conscious and food-focused, particularly with regards to food policy and the question of where does our food come from? And for another thing, the project that I’m working on, called Dig In Manitoba, is a resource for people to start with when they are trying to live healthier and more sustainably.

There are some things that I’ve been neglecting to “healthify” for various reasons. Take, for example, apples. Up until the past few weeks, I wasn’t eating organic apples. This is because my favourite type of apple is Macintosh, which I haven’t been able to find an organic brand of, and also because most of the healthier food stores are far away from our condo. But now that Mr. Science and I have a car (hurray!), we can go on a once-weekly grocery trip to our favourite health stores (we adore VitaHealth). And they have organic apples.

I’ve known for years that I should be eating organic apples. Apples are among the top foods that we should absolutely buy organic because if they’re grown conventionally, the pesticides can really get into the fruit in a way that they can’t when the fruit has a harder shell or peel. Also, I tend to eat one or two apples a day, so that’s a lot of pesticides that could be getting into my body over the years. Even Mr. Science has been telling me to get organic apples! So a few weeks ago I decided it was time to say goodbye to Macs and to welcome some organic ambrosia apples into my life. And they taste so good. The change wasn’t painful at all – I don’t miss my Macs one bit.

Another thing I’ve been slowly doing is to try to choose eco-friendly, organic and fair trade household products, like dental floss and laundry detergent. The key here is to make the change one step at a time. When I run out of a product, that’s when I buy the “healthier” (for me, for the environment) product. Some of the things I’m using still aren’t super great, but once I’ve finished with it, I’m looking forward to moving on to healthier products. Or I’ll just buy a gigantic box of baking soda, since you can use it to clean just about anything 😀

While there are things I haven’t made the switch for yet – like organic walnuts (since I use large quantities of them, I’m not keen to pay the extra dollar at this time) – there are other things that I can make healthy changes for instead. And I know I’ll get there with the organic walnuts eventually!

Today is Monday: the beginning of a new week. And so it’s time to ask ourselves that question: How can I live healthier this week? My answer for this week is fitness-based rather than nutrition-based, and it is to make it to the gym at least twice. I’ve been putting off the gym since I’ve had meetings in the evenings and such, but this week I don’t have any evening meetings planned and the weather will be warm enough that it won’t be a freezing cold walk to get to the gym. It’s a little change to live healthier, but every bit adds up!

How will you live healthier this week? What changes do you plan to make? Share in the comments section below!