20 Ways to Enjoy more Fruits and Vegetables!

Food, Nutrition and Health Tips from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

20 Ways to Enjoy More Fruits and Vegetables

 Variety abounds when using vegetables as pizza topping. Try broccoli, spinach, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and zucchini.

2. Mix up a breakfast smoothie made with low-fat milk, frozen strawberries and a banana.

3. Make a veggie wrap with roasted vegetables and low-fat cheese rolled in a whole-wheat tortilla.

4. Try crunchy vegetables instead of chips with your favorite low-fat salad dressing for dipping.

5. Grill colorful vegetable kabobs packed with tomatoes, green and red peppers, mushrooms and onions.

6. Add color to salads with baby carrots, grape tomatoes, spinach leaves or mandarin oranges.*

7. Keep cut vegetables handy for mid-afternoon snacks, side dishes, lunch box additions or a quick nibble while waiting for dinner. Ready-to-eat favorites: red, green or yellow peppers, broccoli or cauliflower florets, carrots, celery sticks, cucumbers, snap peas or whole radishes.

8. Place colorful fruit where everyone can easily grab something for a snack-on-the-run. Keep a bowl of fresh, just ripe whole fruit in the center of your kitchen or dining table.

9. Get saucy with fruit. Puree apples, berries, peaches or pears in a blender for a thick, sweet sauce on grilled or broiled seafood or poultry, or on pancakes, French toast or waffles.

10. Stuff an omelet with vegetables. Turn any omelet into a hearty meal with broccoli, squash, carrots, peppers, tomatoes or onions with low-fat sharp cheddar cheese.

11. “Sandwich” in fruits and vegetables. Add pizzazz to sandwiches with sliced pineapple, apple, peppers, cucumber and tomato as fillings.

12. Wake up to fruit. Make a habit of adding fruit to your morning oatmeal, ready-to-eat cereal, yogurt or toaster waffle.

13. Top a baked potato with beans and salsa or broccoli and low-fat cheese.

14. Microwave a cup of vegetable soup as a snack or with a sandwich for lunch.

15. Add grated, shredded or chopped vegetables such as zucchini, spinach and carrots to lasagna, meat loaf, mashed potatoes, pasta sauce and rice dishes.

16. Make fruit your dessert: Slice a banana lengthwise and top with a scoop of low-fat frozen yogurt. Sprinkle with a tablespoon of chopped nuts.

17. Stock your freezer with frozen vegetables to steam or stir-fry for a quick side dish.

18. Make your main dish a salad of dark, leafy greens and other colorful vegetables. Add chickpeas or edamame (fresh soybeans). Top with low-fat dressing.*

19. Fruit on the grill: Make kabobs with pineapple, peaches and banana. Grill on low heat until fruit is hot and slightly golden.

20. Dip: Whole wheat pita wedges in hummus, baked tortilla chips in salsa, strawberries or apple slices in low-fat yogurt, or graham crackers in applesauce. 

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How the Compound Effect can Help You Lose Weight

One of the most dangerous traps that you can fall into while dieting is having the “It’s all or nothing” attitude.  But sadly, this is why many people who are trying to lose weight fail at their attempts.  They make a mistake here and there, whether that is missing a day of exercise or indulging in treats too frequently, and end up so discouraged that they just give up completely. 

Losing sight of the big picture is deadly if you are on a weight loss journey.  But it is sometimes hard to see the big picture when you get mired down in the day to day grind of little decisions.  The truth is that everybody fails sometimes.  Everybody.  If you expect perfection from yourself, you will certainly be disappointed, because it is not possible.

You see, focusing on occasional failures is like looking at snapshots rather than the entire movie.   If you went to see a movie that was two hours in length, you would see a whole story complete with plot, background, character development, suspense, and conclusion.  In other words, you would come away with a full scope of the big picture. 

But suppose your friend, rather than seeing the movie, only saw a handful of still shots from it.  Would your perception be different?  Of course it would.  You might even disagree about what happened in the movie.  This is because she can only focus on a few aspects of the movie, whereas you can see the big picture.  Sure, the main character might have made a mistake at some point, or perhaps things looked really bad for part of the movie, but that is only part of the movie.  It is not the final outcome.

Looking at your own journey to health in the same way is critical if you are going to get through the bad days and the periods of discouragement.  Your failures are only a still shot within a fully developed screen play.  The extra dessert you ate yesterday is a snap shot; it is not the whole picture.  The whole picture includes the one hundred times last month that you resisted unhealthy food!

This is why the compound effect is so helpful when you are making hard lifestyle changes.  Every single good decision you make adds up to a magnificent outcome.  Sure, maybe you did skip your workout three times last week.  Okay, that happens; it was a rough week.  But remember how many workouts you have accomplished over the last six months?  Remember how you took the stairs instead of the elevator several times last week ?  Flex your muscles—see that bicep that you have developed from lifting heavy dumbbells? 

Healthy choices compound together to create a tapestry of health.  They are cumulative.  They are the movie, not the snap shot. You will fall occasionally.  Just pick yourself up, acknowledge that you are not perfect, remind yourself of how far you have come and file that snap shot away.  You don’t need it:  you have an entire movie to watch.

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