We all find challenges in making any change.
When you want to change to a healthy diet, it is best to take small steps and do it gradually.
As your new way of eating progresses, you will start to think about other times you eat, like when you have a snack.
Having the right foods on hand will go a long way to ensuring you do not slip back into old bad habits.
When you shop, one piece of advice is to "shop around the edges".
That is where you will find the least processed food and this is what you want to have on hand, so that you are not tempted to eat the foods you are trying to eliminate from your diet.
Think about what foods you usually snack on.
Comfort foods are often eaten as a snack when you are not really hungry - a packet of savoury biscuits, crisps, that morning muffin, or the afternoon piece of cake.
In the evening watching TV, you might have some sweet biscuits, popcorn or chocolate.
Some of these you might have previously believed would be OK to eat as a vegetarian; after all, there is no meat in them.
Check out the ingredients and you will find they contain eggs, animal fats and other animal products.
You may not want to exclude all these ingredients when you first start eating healthy, but they also contain a lot of processed sugar, highly processed white flour, preservatives, colourings and other additives to either make them look better or extend their shelf life.
These ingredients are things you should try to cut out, or at least significantly cut down on, if you want to eat following the vegetarian food pyramid.
Your snacks should be natural, unprocessed fruits, nuts and vegetables.
Try the following options:

• Cut up some raw salad vegetables for morning tea.
  
• Have a container of nuts in the cupboard and take a handful for a filling snack.
  
• Sprout beans and seeds on your kitchen bench and you will have a crunchy, tasty snack on hand that will give you an energy boost.
  
• Always keep a few pieces of your favourite fruit in the fruit basket, better still if you have a fruit tree or bush in the garden, pick the fruit and eat it straight away to get optimal nutrition (once things are picked they start to lose their nutritional value, so the sooner you eat them after picking, the better).
  
• Grow herbs such as parsley and chives and pick a handful to sprinkle on a healthy sandwich, with tomato or avocado.
  
• A good snack for kids, which they will love, is celery spread with peanut butter.
  Peanut butter from the health food store, is just crushed peanuts, so good for you.
  Put some sultanas on top of the peanut butter and it becomes "ants on a log"!
• Have a few sultanas, dried cranberries, figs or dates.
  

Keep in mind the vegetarian food pyramid, snack on whole grain foods, vegetables and fruit.
There are lots of healthy snacking options - enjoy!