We've all heard it before, that we need to eat more fruits and vegetables in our diets. To be exact, the recommendation is 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables each day. It doesn't sound like a hard thing to do, but if your idea of a vegetables serving is French fries, then we have some work to do.
But why the push for more vegetables and what does that have to do with weight loss? There are a couple of answers to that.
First, vegetables are simply good for us. They contain vitamins and minerals that we haven't even identified yet that help our bodies refuel, stay energized, and help our bodies heal themselves.
Secondly, vegetables fill you up without overloading you on calories. When you eat more of the good stuff, you are less likely too eat too much of foods which contain empty, non-nutritious calories. This will ultimately lead to natural weight loss. Also, vegetables naturally contain high amounts of water. This is good because we all need to be more hydrated and it helps to keep us from getting bloated from excess salt and other culprits of bloating (think that time of the month!).
Because we all have good intentions and sometimes lack the tools for execution, here are 5 ways you can add more vegetables to your daily meals.
1. Add more vegetable fillers to your sandwiches.
Instead of having a plain sandwich, pile your sandwich high with tomatoes, onions, and spinach leaves (they are more nutritious than iceberg lettuce). If iceberg lettuce is your only option at that point, than use it - it's better than nothing. Not only will your sandwich be bigger, but also you'll be more full when you're done.
2. Skip the meat sauce on your spaghetti.
Now, I'm not suggesting not having any sauce at all, but here's what I do. I take a marinara sauce and add in onions, green peppers, and zucchini. I cut up the zucchini into big fun chunks so that my family can see the veggies. They don't even seem to miss the meat sauce (sorry mom!).
3. Eat a veggie omelet.
This is the easiest way to add vegetables to the most important meal of the day. Whether you are the cook or someone else is preparing the omelet, simply ask for a veggie omelet instead of one of the meat options. Again, this will keep you full and get your bodies some vegetables during the most important meal of the day.
And if you want to make the omelet even healthier, make it an egg white only omelet and skip the yolks.
4. Choose salad greens over bread.
Some of like to have chicken salads and tuna salads for lunch or a midday snack. What is very common is to put the chicken or tuna between a couple of slices of bread and that's it. Here's my suggestion, skip the bread and put it on a nice bed of salad greens such as a spring herb mix or spinach leaves.
The addition of the salad leaves will give your salad a nice texture. You get the benefit of healthier fare with fewer calories and a new dish to add to your meal rotation.
5. Eat some stir-fry.
This is one of my favorite meals and partly because it allows you to be so creative. Many of us have had stir-fries that have had too much oil or butter or something. We can take this and make it healthy and veg it up even more.
You can keep the meat in your stir-fry if you like, but you may want to try a veggie stir-fry. This will allow you to experiment more and play around with vegetable combinations you like the best.
The key to making this a great stir-fry is to used water or only enough extra virgin olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. That's all you need. Toss in your veggies, heat them up, and serve warm.
I like this meal because there are so many possibilities. You can even add extra-firm tofu in place of the meat. There are so many options. This is a great meal for a quick fix or even just to save your money instead of going out to get food.
So, vegging up your day can be easy. Even if you just had one serving of vegetables at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, that's 3 servings you may not have been getting before (especially at breakfast).
Add in those veggies and you'll be on your way to shedding that extra weight and being fit inside and out.
Wendy Stewart, "Baltimore's Toughest Trainer and Weight Loss Guru," is a Personal Trainer, Life Coach and Image Consultant. To learn more about her and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://www.wendystewart.homestead.com
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Wendy Stewart
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