“May I be excused?”
“Not until you eat all your veggies!”
How many of us grew up hearing that at least a handful of
times in our lives? I’m sure there are a fair few of you out there, including
myself. I have never really hated vegetables, but I never loved them either or
specifically asked for them. Unless you count stuffing grape tomatoes in my
mouth straight from the garden when I was a kid (there’s photographic proof of
this).
Growing up, particularly through middle school and high
school, I never really was keen on eating all my fruits and veggies. Fruit
didn’t appeal to me unless it was the only option, and a veggie was just an
afterthought with dinner for me sometimes. Then there was the occasional salad
thrown in just to look cool.
But as a whole, I didn’t really make it a part of my daily
nutrition. That has carried over into my adult life, and fruits and veggies
were more of an afterthought for me rather than a staple or main food group in my
life. And thus, I found myself packing on the pounds and lacking a lot of
nutrition that I needed, leaving me tired and weak a lot of the time.
This past April, everything changed. I was introduced to the
21 Day Fix, which laid out for me how much fruits and veggies (and every food
group for that matter) I was supposed to have each day, and just how big each
serving was supposed to be. “What?! You mean I have to eat multiple servings?”
I thought. Veggies was one of my biggest category for daily nutrition and to
that point it was probably my lowest next to fruit.
How about you? Do you struggle to get your fruits and
veggies in? Do you ever get that random bag of broccoli because it seemed like
a good, healthy choice at the time, only to find it three weeks later rotting
in your forgotten veggie drawer? That definitely happened to me. Though now I
am happy to say those drawers are used daily now.
So, how have I turned my habits around to getting 5 servings
of veggies and 3 servings of fruit in per day? (Which in all honesty that is a
liberal estimate of what I had per week before of those things) For one, the 21
Day Fix has taught me how to plan it in, and actually enjoy eating vegetables
and fruit. It is now a daily staple in my life.
Another big way I make sure to get my fruits and veggies in,
especially in a pinch, are smoothies! You can stuff those things full of fruit,
and veggies! Did you know that you can add kale or spinach to your smoothie and
you can’t even taste it? Try it out! You get a punch of nutrition and you don’t
have to feel like you’re eating like a rabbit (as my husband would say).
The moral of the story is, eat your fruits and veggies! Find
a way to incorporate them more into your diet through planning. Plan snacks,
make smoothies, sneak them into your dinner. I promise you that you will start
to notice a difference in your energy and how you feel when you fuel your body
with the right nutrients.
So what’s your favorite way to sneak in fruits and veggies
to your diet? Share some of your tips below!
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