Fruit and Veggies at EVERY meal

As you know one of the things we track on our healthy living challenges is fruits and vegetables. Our goal has been to eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day with 3 of those being vegetables. Did you know I’ve been going super easy on you? The suggested number of daily servings of fruits and vegetables vary among dietetics guidelines with some suggesting as many as 12 servings per day.

Check out this fruit and vegetable calculator prepared by the Center for Disease Control to see how many it says you need.

http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/fruitsvegetables/howmany.html

It suggests that I get 3 servings of fruit and 5 of vegetables daily.

Yowsers!

To be honest I’d have to make an extra effort to get that many servings of fruits and vegetables in --especially since I’m still traveling. While home I tend to get a lot of my daily vegetable servings from my green smoothie lunch and I fit in the others as a snack or with dinner. I often don’t enjoy any fruit or veggies for breakfast. This challenge to eat more fruits and vegetables throughout the day is one in which you can include your husband and children. Why not begin their summer vacation with healthy foods spread throughout the day? Before we get started you might want to stock up your fridge with favorite fruits and a veggies and have them washed, cut up and prepared for easy grabbing throughout the day.

The whole point of this particular challenge is for you to displace something else that you would normally eat (like chips or fries or even crackers) with some colorful produce. So for those that are worried about the extra expense of fruits and vegetables try buying more produce INSTEAD of something else that you would normally buy. And also consider buying frozen produce, which is a wonderful alternative to fresh and usually cheaper. I started having a dessert of frozen mango (eaten while still frozen) while visiting my daughter and it is one of my new favorite treats.

I’m not sure if I shared that my dietician daughter worked with a very fit and trim dietician in Hawaii a few years ago. This dietitian had children and when talking with my daughter about how she handled their desire to eat at McDonald’s she shared “We do go once in awhile but I limit them to one fast food item. That isn’t enough food for them to get full so I always grab a bag of mixed frozen veggies and throw it in the car when we head off! They eat it while I drive.” Can you imagine inspiring such a healthy habit in your family?

Here are some tips and meal ideas to help you fit more vegetables and fruits into your week

•  For breakfast…

◦                     Put some small bits of fruit in your cereal or oatmeal (like frozen blueberries or bananas), and also have some fruit (like apples or pear) on the side

◦                     Mash up some bananas to go inside your pancake batter and offer a second fruit like grapefruit on the side

◦                     Make an omelet with chopped bell peppers, onions and mushrooms inside and have some fruit to go along with it as well

◦                     Have a smoothie with your breakfast especially if you have to run out the door…you can easily throw in a lot of different fruits (and even veggies like spinach)

•  For lunch…

◦                     Try making a sandwich or wrap with veggies inside (like cucumber or lettuce or avocado) and also have some fruit on the side

◦                     Cut up some raw veggies that you can dip into something like hummus

◦                     Soups are often packed with veggies and would be easy to heat up (or take to work) if you had some leftover from dinner the night before

◦                     If you are going out to lunch consider bringing a banana or apple with you (or eat it beforehand) to supplement your meal…restaurants don’t usually offer very many fruit items on their menu

•  For dinner…

◦                     Have a salad with your dinner as well as a side of veggies

◦                     Make a one-dish meal like pasta, stir fry, or quesadillas where you can easily mix in a variety of vegetables

◦                     Eat two vegetable sides instead of a starch like rice

◦                     Consider adding fruit to your dinner…I always think of dinner as a time to have veggies, but fruit would often be a good addition as well

So here is our 3 part challenge for the week:

1. Use the CDC calculator to see how many servings of fruits and vegetables you and your family members should be getting per day.

2. Eat a minimum of two different fruits or vegetables with every breakfast, lunch, and dinner meal this week.

3. Try to increase your daily intake of fruits and vegetables to the level suggested by the CDC

Healthy Snacks

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics have synthesized years of research on adult weight management to form nutrition guidelines. One topic they've analyzed is the effect of regular meal and snack patterns on weight loss. "Several studies show that eating four to five times per day is associated with reduced or no obesity risk,"  The research also shows that the three squares a day could actually hurt your efforts to reach and/or maintain a healthy weight. "Eating less than three meals or snacks per day may increase the risk of obesity,"

Physiologically, it does make sense: "When you eat regularly throughout the day, your body knows that more food is on the way, and it's more likely to burn the calories you consume than store them as fat," Eating at regular intervals helps stabilize blood sugar and energy levels.

I’m sure you’ve had that experience where you realize it has been a long time since your last meal but you are rushed and busy and keep putting off finding something to eat. As you get hungrier and hungrier your resolve to choose healthy foods subsides and before you know it you can find yourself over eating unhealthy foods. It’s as if your blood sugar got too low for your brain to remember your goals so you just start shoveling in food (usually highly processed low nutrient dense carbohydrates!)

I’d like you to take a good look at the time pattern of your healthy eating. Is there a time (mid-morning or mid-afternoon) when a healthy snack would be a wise choice? For me it is mid-afternoon. I eat lunch around noon and dinner at 6 and that is too long for me to go without eating. So I love to have a snack around 3.

OUR CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK IS TO SCHEDULE, PLAN, PREPARE AND EAT AT LEAST ONE HEALTHY SNACK A DAY. I’d like you to do your planning the evening before or morning of the day. And by preparation I mean you purchase, wash, measure or weigh, cut up and prepare your food for eating in the morning BEFORE your day starts.  And don’t forget to enter it into myfitnesspal to make sure you don’t go over your daily calorie budget. I want you to make sure your day starts with your snack in a bag ready to take along to work or errands or to enjoy in your kitchen later that day.

Here are some ideas for healthy snacks:

1.           Plain or flavored yogurt or cottage cheese with sliced fruit or granola

2.           Whole grain cereals or oatmeal, dry or with milk, yogurt, or raisins

3.           Trail mix or healthy granola bars and fruit bars (look for high fiber and no trans fats and watch the calorie count)

4.           ½ a Peanut butter sandwich with raspberry jam and cashews

5.           Chocolate graham crackers with peanut butter

6.           Quesadillas (melted cheese on whole wheat tortillas)

7.           Popcorn, homemade or store bought (I am a huge fan of Smart Pop and Chicka Boom Popcorn and I eat it right out of my measuring cup)

8.           Tortilla chips and salsa or guacamole or topped with shredded cheese and put under broiler

9.           Whole grain muffins or breads, such as banana, pumpkin, corn, or zucchini (you can make a healthy batch and freeze them)

10.       Mini-bagels with cream cheese and sliced cucumbers

11.       Hummus dip with whole grain pita or crackers or veggies

12.       Sliced avocados with wheat crackers

13.       Hard-boiled eggs

14.       Celery filled with cream cheese, Boursin cheese, or peanut butter

15.       Edamame in the shell, sprinkled lightly with sea salt

16.       Chickpeas or other beans, eaten with fingers or toothpicks

17.       Olives, pickles, canned artichokes or hearts of palm (In searching the menu board at the movies the other day for something I could eat I discovered they sold pickles! Wow what a full taste snack!)

18.       Frozen peas (not thawed!)

19.       Apple slices with cheese, peanut butter, peanut butter and chocolate chips, or honey

20.       Fruit Kabobs (Cut fruit on a stick and dipped in vanilla yogurt)

21.       Smoothies: combine fresh and/or frozen fruit and vegetables, fruit juice and yogurt or soy milk

22.       Dried fruit such as mango, apricots, raisins, plums (I love Costco’s dried coconut but I have to weigh and bag my portions or I could eat the whole bag)

23.       Bananas and/or strawberries with semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate syrup

And if you want the recipe for the snack pictured you will find it at http://therepowoman.com/quick-healthy-snack-recipe-no-baking-required/

How to reward yourself

         I was talking with some young parents recently and mentioned that I think that even if you banned junk food from your house completely (which I was not advocating) I think children would still be eating way, way too much garbage just from what they get while away from home.

         It seems that the cop out easy way to celebrate anything special is to feature unhealthy treats. Whether it is an end of year school party, a soccer game, a church event or a good report card we usually reward it with fat and sugar laden prepared foods.

         I picked up my grand-daughter from her nursery school class yesterday and they were having pizza, brownies, cupcakes and ice-cream to celebrate the end of the year. We had been asked NOT to send lunches yesterday or today because they had lunch planned. (And today’s lunch was the leftover brownies, cupcakes and ice-cream. No more pizza)

         In talking this situation over with my daughter (the dietician) she said she hopes to reward her future children in ways other than food. You got an A on your math test- let’s go for a family walk. You had your end of the year chorus performance- let’s go bowling to celebrate. When you think about it time together and a fun activity really are more rewarding than junk food.

         And so your challenge this week is to find one thing to celebrate each day (either something personal or an accomplishment of a loved one) and find a way to celebrate without unhealthy food. Here’s a few ideas. Please post any ideas of your own!

1. Music! How about an instant dance party with your favorite music? I recently read that one family’s favorite memories involved impromptu dance celebrations in the kitchen. “Suzy got an A on her project so let’s all dance!”

2. Hugs - lots of them . I have given the challenge before to hug others until THEY let go and it is a good one.

3. Shopping. No you don’t have to buy expensive beyond budget items. Little children love having a dollar to spend at the dollar store or the Target dollar area. And even adults enjoy small luxuries like a new nail polish or kitchen gadget.

4. Purchase a new magazine that looks interesting or go to the library (or bookstore) or browse red box and rent a movie.

5. To get yourself laughing until you cry watch videos of your favorite comedians on YouTube. My current favorites are Brian Regan and Jim Gaffigan. What a reward and treat laughing is.

6. Drop by your favorite thrift store and see if you can find a bargain on something that you need.

7. Take a bubble bath or a long shower. Luxuriate a bit!

8. One of my favorite indulgences is Sonic ice. They sell it by the bag and I just love filling my glass nearly full of ice, Mio and water. Ahhhhh!

9. Watch a healthy eating documentary on Netflix. I find them so inspiring and have recently enjoyed several

10. Listen to a Ted talk or Podcast on a topic that interests you. Yes new ideas can be a treat to the brain!

Yes it is wonderful to mark special events, note even our tiniest accomplishments and appreciate when it’s time to take a bow. But we really don’t need to always show our joy through cake and ice cream. We can find better ways to pat ourselves and others on the back!

And how did we ever choose a carrot at the end of a stick as something to lure us to do something? I am traveling and at the mercy of a family member’s refrigerate. With no car yesterday the ONLY vegetable I could find in the house was carrots so I had to eat 1 ½ cups to get in my daily veggies. Yuck. Now a Klondike bar on the end of a stick might lead me to do anything.