Spice up Your Fruits & Vegetables Intake
Know Your Limit! Watch the Fruit Calories! A person would probably be fine with a
bowl full of salad with lettuce, baby spinach leaves, and kal e, but on the other hand, having a big
bowl full of fruit with grapes, watermelon, strawberries, and more fruit
pizazz might lock you into having way too much in sugar at once and estimated
easy 60 grams of carbs and sugars at once. Yes yo want to eat fruit but
please remember portion control especially with fruits!
"Ways to Make Fruits and Vegetables More Fun"
First and foremost, remember "why" you are eating fruits and
vegetables. Despite diligent efforts to be creative, there will be those
days where it may still seem routine. So again, please remember why you
are on this eating plan (not a diet) but what your goal is. Is it to lose weight or burn fat? Is it just to be
healthier? Whatever it is, just keep that in mind because there will also
be those days where taking a few extra minutes to prepare your fun fruits and
veges where you might not feel like it. Or a person might think "Do
I really have to do this?" And the
answer is YES!
See the Amazing Benefits for Eating Fruits and Vegetables
* Promotes More Energy for Exercise
* The Ability for Weight
Control
* Eating Healthy Fruits Speeds up the Metabolism
* Lowers Blood Pressure
* The Ability to Lower Cholesterol
* Good and Delicious in Taste! Very Satisfying!
* Convenience Factor (Little or No Cooking Preparation)
* Reduced Risks of Developing Certain Cancers
* Reduced Risks of Developing Cardiovascular Disease
* Many are Rich in Fiber (Removing Excess Calories and May
Suppress Your Appetite)
* Loaded with Nutritious Vitamins
and Minerals
* Can Help with Your Sweet Tooth!
* WATCH THE SODIUM! (In canned fruits and vegetables look for
low or no sodium options!)
Remember Substitution and Calorie Balance
are Important Keys
* You will find it easy to simply add in more vegetables to your
eating plan because most vegetables by serving size are lower in calories and
more filling. However adding in more fruits is a different story.
Depending on how much in complex carbs you would normally eat, try
removing some of your complex carbs and replacing them with an equal amount of
fruits. If you added fruit to your meal without removing any other calories
from the meal, it may be then too much in total calories for that meal.
Therefore, substitution is an important key! Having a general
understanding of "calorie balance" is essential.
Tips for Spicing up Fruits and Vegetable
Intake
1. Make a Smoothie! (Add those fruits and vegetables into
a delicious smoothie! Add in a scoop of protein powder and/or low fat
milk and whatever you choose to spice it up!) The protein powder will
help to provide healthy balance and balance out the blood glucose levels from potential levels increased
from too much in sugars. Healthy fats and nuts assist in this process
too.
2. Be Creative! Creativity is a MUST! My pops
the Legendary Grill Master cooked apples and peaches on the grill last week.
They had a nice sweet zesty taste. He didn't make them as shish
kabobs but he has before. They tasted good on the grill! So does
corn on the cob! One of my clients talked about trying mashed cauliflower
instead of mashed potatoes. I thought that was very unique and there are
several recipes on Google for it. (Low in calories too! But remember your body
needs plenty of calories!)
3. Variety is Important! Eating the same old fruits and
vegetables the same way over and over can get dull and boring for many so try
eating a WIDE VARIETY of different fruits and vegetables to keep your eating
plan "fresh". If you ate blueberries last week, eat
strawberries this week.
I just bought some salad mix the other day and I haven't
actually eaten a salad in a month. I have been eating mustard greens,
peas, broccoli and spinach. Now this week I will eat salad and raw
cabbage (great mixing them together) and next week I will buy some fresh
mustard greens or green beans.
4. Mix Vegetables and Fruits together. This sounds like an obvious on but a
person can easily add variety if they mix different fruits and veges together.
I frequently will mix mushrooms, onions, and green peppers together. You can saute them in olive oil in the skillet on the stove.
CREATIVE SALADS! A person can add so much to a salad to
keep it enjoyable and a nice change. How many different ingredients can a
person add to a salad? It doesn't have to be a typical salad with
lettuce, carrots, and cucumbers. It can be a delicious fruit salad with cantaloupe,
melons, kiwi, strawberries, watermelon, and fresh papaya and pineapple.
Salads are a great way to be creative! Do remember however that salads are not packed with lots of calories so for the MANY of you who have slow metabolisms (most likely due to not consuming an adequate amount of calories) you will want to most likely eat some carbs on the side with your salad such as whole grain pasta, half of a peanut butter sandwich (with natural peanut butter of course), beans or lentils, or see in my book for more ideas on carbs. I realize that a lot of you all are reading my book and I do appreciate all of your comments and feedback. Kel did deliver as promised!
5. Remember to add in the Olive Oil and
Ground Flax Seed! Olive
oil is a great way to add in some good fats and get in those important powerful
omega 3's that are good for the skin, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, blood
pressure, assisting in the metabolic process, and more. Ground flax seed
has several healthy benefits such as assisting in lowering cholesterol,
improving digestion, increase of fiber to help remove excess calories and
harmful toxins from the body, and overall heart health.
6. Explore Different Cultures! There is more to life than just the
good ole American way. Many other countries offer scrumptious recipe
ideas for healthy foods including fruits and vegetables.
7. Jello! Be a Jello Kid! Yep just like we begged our parents to
do for us as kids! Mix those fruits and veges with some Jello and be a
kid. It will taste good too! You also can mix with low fat pudding
(watch the carbs and sugars from the pudding) Mix in some protein powder
and ENJOY!
8. Mix Fruits and Veges with Yogurt! You can always mix in fruits and veges
in yogurt even if it comes with fruit in it already. Add some more!
You can also find Greek Yogurt now at grocery stores that are high in
protein (excellent choice) and add in some fruit to it. (Remember calorie
balance!) FAGE was top gun in the Greek Yogurt for a very long time and
they do offer a few good options (low fat and zero fat). A client of mine
and I went shopping yesterday and found a house brand in the grocery store
(Krogers grocery store) and it was MUCH cheaper and met my approval. You can also look for low fat
pudding or protein pudding to mix them with.
9. Google for Recipe Ideas (As much as I try to list some good
helpful tips and some of the latest hottest tips, you will occasionally hear me
way search google for more ideas. Google is one of the biggest search
engines in the world.) Who doesn't use Google?
Fruit and Vegetable Smoothies are AWESOME and DELICIOUS packed full of lots of healthy and nutritious vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber and carbohydrates for much needed energy to really boost your weight loss efforts.
10. Mix in Cereal Get a Fruity Splash in the morning if
you mix in some blueberries and strawberries to your oatmeal. Slice one
third of a banana to your Fiber cereal.
11. Add in Dried Nuts and Seeds. Mix in a bowl with almonds or raw
peanuts (with zero salt) You can also use walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil
nuts, Macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds. Both nuts and
seeds have many healthy benefits and adding them to
your fruits and vegetables makes a powerful weight loss and good health
combination. Raisins
are also a good addition but just watch portion control especially with
raisins. You can also
eat them with whole wheat or whole grain crackers.
12. Find
a Low Fat or Fat Free Dip or Topping. This is just another way to add
creativity to your eating plan. You can buy low fat or fat free dip and
you can also make them yourself. I just saw some for bean dip and garlic
dip. You can also make your own vege dip.
13. Remember the Soups! One of my clients makes this AWESOME
vegetable soup! How many different vegetables can you add to a soup?
Have you ever made a fruit soup? Make your own fruit soup! Leave the boxed crap and canned
options on the shelved for others to buy! Canned and boxed soup options
typically contain way too much sodium and who knows what else! Always make your own soups!
14. Slice them up in bite sizes for you
and your kids! You
can eat them at home, at school or eat at work! They can also be eaten
this way easily as a snack. Take the time to prepare your fruit and
vegetable options to help you with your eating plan. It's QUICK, FAST,
and EASY and it only takes a few minutes to prepare them. Pack and store
them away in plastic storage containers for easy storage and easy traveling.
15. Mix them together in a Pasta Salad Use wheat or spelt pasta for BEST
results.
16. Sautee them together on the stove!
17. Use different salad dressings (low
fat ones) or vinaigrette oil.
Find More Good Health and Eating Tips and many MORE helpful tips
in my new eBook
"28 Days to Extreme Fat Loss"
Get it Today! To get my hot book CLICK HERE!!!