It’s okay to have your burger, your pizza, and French fries, but with a little modification to the mix, you can give all your favorites a healthy spin while still keeping the food tasty. Avoiding your all-time favorite dish or a staple "go-to" treat in your life can ultimately lead to a food binge.

Reducing unhealthy foods is wise, but going cold turkey can be damaging and mentally challenging. When trying to reduce or rid the "bad" food in your life, take small, meaningful steps for permanent change.

Start slow by using substitutions to make your entrée a healthier version. For example, replace white bread with whole wheat bread or 80%/20% ground beef for 93%/7% lean ground beef.

Food substitutions should not be extreme, hence my mentioning of starting slow. A full transformation on eating habits takes precious time and much patience!

One may think that the only satisfying meal is a burger with loaded cheese fries, or 5 slices of pepperoni pizza, but this mindset can be changed. Maybe you can’t change your love for burgers, but you can change the burger you love!

Hamburger Meal Transformation: Unhealthy to Healthy

Unhealthy

• Hamburger: 80%/20% ground beef
• Bun: white bun
• Toppings: mayonnaise and American cheese
• Side: cheese fries
• Drink: medium coke
• This meal offers little nutritional value given it’s loaded with saturated fat and excess starch — not to mention it lacks vegetables.

Healthy

• Hamburger: 93%/7% lean ground beef
• Bun: whole wheat Oroweat round
• Toppings: mustard, reduced fat cheese, lettuce, and tomato
• Side: baked fries with reduced fat shredded cheese
• Drink: medium water

• This meal offers the same type of meal with a total healthy transformation. Saturated and trans fat was reduced by using lean ground beef, mustard, reduced fat cheese, and substituting French fries for baked fries. Simple carbs were replaced with complex carbs when the white bun was switched to wheat and the coke was completely cut out.

I recommend starting your meal transformation with one food item at a time. If burgers and fries are your favorite meal, then it will take practice to adapt to a new way of eating burgers and fries.

A complete 180º transformation can be accomplished over time, but it would be wise to start slowly. Substituting the meat for lean ground beef could be the first step — or possibly replacing the white bun for a whole wheat option could be your start.

Making your food at home can vastly help reduce the unneeded, secret calories that are hiding in foods from fast food restaurants. Regardless of which meal you begin transforming first, remember that patience is a virtue!