How come I’m just catching onto podcasts
now? I LOVE them! I listen to them in
the car, on a walk, while I’m cooking, and while I’m cleaning. The podcasts I’m
enjoying right now are all centered around food and health. My most recent
podcast I have been bindging on is “The Paleo View,” hosted by Dr. Sarah Ballantyne
and Stacy Toth.
They both have a wealth of knowledge. There are over 350 podcasts so I have
plenty of material for a while I think! Sarah and Stacy have 3 1-hour long
podcasts on vegetables! Who would have thought vegetables could be a topic of
discussion for 3 hours! One thing that has stuck with me is that in the world
of health, there is much controversy over what is the best way to eat and
sustain a healthy life style. Whether promoting a vegan, paleo, vegetarian, or
keto diet, the one thing that scientists can agree upon is that an increase in
vegetables is linked to an increase in overall health.
My New Year’s Resolution for 2019 is to
increase my vegetable intake to 8 servings a day, plus 2 or 3 servings of
fruit. At first this seemed like an easy goal but eating 8 servings of
vegetables a day is no easy task. I was
probably eating 4 to 5 servings of vegetables on average prior to my New Year’s
Resolution. After New Year’s, I started adding a vegetable to my breakfast. Most
days, I eat a couple of eggs, avocado, and greens because it is easy, quick,
and will sustain me for a few hours with the fiber, protein, and healthy fats I
need. For lunch, I often have raw veggie
sticks with a sandwich, a salad, a lettuce wrap, or leftover dinner, which
includes veggies.
My biggest shift has been dinner. Before we
were eating protein and grain as our main dish with a veggie on the side. I now
try most nights to cook dinners where the main dish is veggies and the meat and
grain (if we have one) are on the side. When
I envision a plate, my goal is to have half of it filled with a few different
veggies, a quarter with protein, and a quarter with a grain or a starchy
vegetable (potatoes, peas, parsnips, and squash). After doing this for over a month now, I’ve
noticed that I’m buying less meat. This mindset has helped us transition to
buying most of our meat and eggs locally. At first the thought was a bit
overwhelming since local good quality meats and eggs are significantly
more expensive than buying organic meats and eggs at the grocery store. But
now that I’m buying less, it has made the financial piece more realistic for
our family.
For a snack, I often grab cut up veggie
sticks and dip them in a delicious homemade herb
ranch dressing,
hummus, or nut butter, depending on how hungry I am and how much protein I
need. Something I found most helpful was prepping about 2 to 3 days worth of
chopped up raw veggies. I found I was
far more likely to eat them if they were already prepared. When my girls come
home from school, it is easy to get out the veggie container and snack on
carrots, cucumbers, and peppers before dinner rather than chips and crackers. It
is amazing how many veggies they will eat when they are hungry and that is the
only option. My girls like to watch a TV show while I’m cooking dinner. Our family rule is that the only food allowed
in the living room is veggie sticks. It is one of our best family rules ever as
there is definitely a lot of veggie-eating that takes place on the couch in
front of the TV. Mindless eating at its
best!
Do my family and I eat 8 servings of veggies
every day? No, but I always have that in the back of my mind as a goal. There
are so many ways to add in veggies whether it is a smoothie for a snack, a veggie-filled
bowl of soup for lunch, or a muffin with hidden carrots, zucchini, or squash.
In a world where there are two sides to
almost every dietary recommendation, I’m thankful that experts agree about vegetables:
eat them and eat a lot of them as they will help increase your overall health.
If you are up for the veggie challenge, try
just adding one more serving of vegetables a day. Once four servings, for example, have become
habit, add another serving and continue to do so until you have reached your
goal. Happy veggie eating!!!
