Sometimes, though, you just know when it's time to make a change. I could feel it when I struggled to button up my jeans (the ones I saved for thosedays). I could feel it when I went hiking with my family this summer, and had to stop and rest on the side of the trail while my boys ran up the hill. I could feel it every afternoon, as I reached for a cup of coffee and a chocolate chip cookie for a burst of energy.

Photo credit Grace Hwang Lynch

I wasn't always like this. In my younger days, I was always naturally slim and didn't give that much thought to what I ate. Not that I craved terrible things. Like most Taiwanese immigrants, my parents didn't serve us many sweets. If there was dessert, it was fresh fruit -- wedges of melon in the summer and slices of oranges in the winter. And many American treats didn't appeal to me anyway. Halloween candy languished until Valentine's Day, not to mention what happened to my one Hostess Sno-Ball. But sometime between the midnight ice cream runs during college and the coffee-and-muffin play dates of early motherhood, something shifted. Studies have shown that within one generation of immigrating to the United States, Asians tend to adopt American eating habits -- along with the weight gain and health problems. And I've come to the painful realization that I fit right into that pattern.

Most of all, I want to make changes for my family. My kids are lean and active, thanks to soccer games and tae kwon do classes. But our diets are equally bad. Too many refined carbs, too much sugar, not enough vegetables and fresh fruit. That's just being a kid in America, these days, I've sighed to myself many times. And after all, it's not like I was putting Kool-Aid in their baby bottles or allowing them to drink Big Gulps full of soda. But I can't ask them to make changes without modelling those changes myself.

And now we're in the holiday season. How do I manage to make these changes happen? I've been sticking to my plan for two weeks, and after the first few days of saying no to the 4 o'clock sugar high, I've felt much better. My pants button up, and my energy is more even-keeled. Earlier this week, I ate a donut from a tray at a kids' birthday party, and honestly felt pretty crummy afterwards. Not because of guilt, so much as the roller coaster jitters and crash.

Here are my healthy food goals for the holidays

Eat at home more often. It's ironic that during this time of year when we try to spend more time with loved ones, we often eat out more. Not just the special occasion dinners, but the eating on the run, because we're out shopping or rushing to the next event. No one wants to order a salad with mingy slices of chicken when the air is filled with the aroma of steak frites and pasta carbonara.

Stock the pantry with healthy foods This seems obvious, but I've fallen into the habit of buying big bags of chips -- or possibly worse, boxes of little lunch-box sized packages -- because that's what the kids want to eat. Of course, we all end up poring over the box, negotiating who gets the Cool Ranch Doritos and who's stuck with plain Lays. I shouldn't be eating stuff like that on a regular basis, and neither should my kids. I'm trying to keep things like hummus and cucumbers (or even sliced pita for the kids) or even celery and peanut butter for after school snacks.

Skip the packaged sweets Those Candy Cane Joe-Joe's look very inviting on the shelf, but they don't taste that good. Okay, maybe they do... but it's hard to keep track of how many you -- not to mention, your kids -- are eating. Same goes for the bowls of Hershey's kisses and those fancy holiday espresso drinks. I'll skip the egg nog latte while strolling through the mall and just have a cup of the real thing on Christmas.

Limit the drinking Speaking of nog, it's everywhere during the holidays. Cocktails at parties, wine at family dinners, champagne on New's Year's Eve. Being a lightweight, I don't drink much, but it's a good time to remember that a glass of wine or a mixed-drink contains 100 (empty) calories.

Enjoy baking with the family and share the goods This one is both easy and hard for me. Easy, because baking special cookies is one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season-- and something my children look forward to. Hard, because even though I enjoy it, devoting an afternoon to mixing, rolling and frosting requires free time and advance planning. This year, I hope to focus on enjoying the time we spend together in the kitchen and teaching my boys about cooking.