Not many people know this, but I am an expert in not eating vegetables. I did not start consistently eating vegetables until I was in my late 20's.
We all want the best for our kids, so my wife and I have been giving my son vegetables his whole life. Poor kid.
A rare father/son conjoined twins sighting.
One day he did not feel like eating those vegetables and after I did some very convincing parental, vegetable talking I realized that I should be giving that speech to myself. How can you expect a kid to do something you are not willing to do yourself?
Kids watch what you do, more than they pay attention to what you say.
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.
Here are few things I did to start eating more vegetables.
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. You will feel like a superior being when you have vegetables with breakfast.
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. Try different spices as well.
Here is a secret I found out. Not all vegetables are terrible! Who knew?
3. Pre-made saves the day
If you don't have time to rip up heads of lettuce, chop vegetables, and all of that jazz govern stores can help you. They have vegetables already cut up, lettuce leaves that are salad ready. Two things I would avoid though are the pre-made salad kits (with all the cheese, croutons, etc...) and iceberg lettuce (not many vitamins and nutrients in that pale mess).
4. Get the salad bar and actually get some salad
I went to Ruby Tuesday's after church on Sunday not long ago 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 kind of defeats the purpose of getting a salad bar.
5. Make it a priority
This is the most important thing I did. Whatever you make a priority you will accomplish. Simple as that. Want to eat more vegetables? Commit to it! If you don't make it a priority, then you will continue to eat vegetables sporadically or not at all. I know from experience.
6. The Green smoothie
There are tons of recipes out there for green smoothies. Here is one that I really like.
-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, but actually tastes good. Great way to start your day with some vegetables.
