By CARLA MORRICAL-FREDERKING

Special to The Hays Daily News

Taking just one "small step" to improve your lifestyle choices can drastically enhance your health. Here's an example.

To prevent weight gain of 1 pound a year, eat 10 calories less per day on average. Here's another example. Walk one-half mile five days a week for three months to burn the calories found in 1 pound of body weight.

Two small food choice changes that improve health are to eat breakfast more regularly and to replace white bread with a whole-grain type. Next, you might snack more often on fruits and vegetables instead of selecting foods high in added salt or sugar.

You might choose to read the nutrition facts labels on foods, replace most soft drinks with fat-free milk, add cooked legumes to salads or replace 80-percent lean ground beef with 95-percent lean.

Similar to making gradual improvements in food selections, being more physically active enhances well-being. You might begin to walk during part of your lunch hour, or park a little farther away from your office and stores. Over time, you could increase the minutes per week spent in planned physical activity sessions, such as stretching, using light hand-held weights or bicycling.

Recent research confirms that losing 10 pounds of excess body weight and getting 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise, such as walking, greatly reduce the risk of getting type 2 diabetes, or at least postpone the risk.

The first step in this change process: Be aware that you don't have to make lots of changes in food selections and physical activity all at once. That can lead to feeling overwhelmed. Instead, start by improving just one or two of your lifestyle choices. Nudge your food and physical activity habits towards better health. You can expect measurable benefits to your health and quality of life.

Carla Morrical-Frederking is the Ellis County Research and Extension agent for family and consumer science.