We had a nutrition seminar the other night for boot camp and our registered dietitian Hunter Copeland made an interesting point about vegetarians. He said that many of the vegetarians he sees tend to not eat any vegetables! Hunter even said himself that when he was a vegetarian he very rarely ate actual vegetables. He said the “vegetarians” were actually consuming large amounts of grains and processed junk (chips, crackers, cookies, etc…) instead.
How many vegetables are you eating? The recommendation is 5-7 servings a day, but do you know how many servings the average American gets? 2 servings. Sadly it is probably one serving from pizza and one serving from the lettuce and ketchup on a Big Mac. I am a bit of an expert myself in the no vegetable area of expertise. I did not start consistently eating vegetables until I was in my late 20’s. Nothing quite like telling your son to eat his vegetables when the last vegetable you had was a carrot that came with some wings 4 years ago.
I became determined to eat vegetables and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. More energy, felt better overall, skin looked better, lost a lot of belly fat, etc… plus I felt like a better role model to my son. So I would like to share with you a few ways I used to start getting more vegetables in your body.
1. Get the day started right-I love me some eggs and I eat them nearly every day. I get some frozen vegetables, heat up some coconut or olive oil, cook my vegetables in the oil, then throw in some eggs for a delicious meal. Conventional wisdom and the classic food pyramid would tell you that this meal is terrible. Conventional wisdom in this country has gotten us to the point where nearly 1 in 3 people is overweight or obese. Time to try something new. Here’s what I ask a lot of people. How is what you are doing currently working for you? Getting good results? Awesome, keep it up! Not getting results? Why not try something new and see if it helps?
2. Experiment- Get crazy baby! Go into the produce aisle and try something you can’t even pronounce. Figure out what cooking style tastes best for you: grilling, sautéing, boiling, raw, green smoothies (recipe below) like in the 21 Day Belly Blast.
3. Pre-made saves the day- I’m too lazy to rip a head of lettuce up into a salad. Grocery stores know this, so they have you covered. Makes it real easy to throw some salad into a container and add a protein. For instance, today I had my lettuce, package of tuna, a few cranberries, and some olive oil poured over the top. Shake it all up to mix everything and you have a quick and healthy meal
4. Get the salad bar and actually get some salad- I went to Ruby Tuesday’s after church on Sunday and got the salad bar. Great salad bar, but I saw some people pull of a pretty impressive feat. Get a giant plate of food from the salad bar and not get one vegetable. It was amazing. There was cheese, bacon, pasta salad, the mayo filled fruit salad thing, croutons, and salad dressing. Pretty impressive, but not that great for you.
5. Make it a priority- This is the most important thing I did. If you make it a priority you will eat more vegetables on a consistent basis. Don’t make it a priority and you will continue to eat vegetables sporadically.
Green smoothie recipe
-1 cup of water
-1 cup of mango
- 1 frozen banana
-1-2 cups of spinach
Put in water, then fruit, then greens, blend it all up. Sounds disgusting, looks more disgusting, actually tastes good. Great way to start your day with some vegetables in the tank.