In the documentary Hungry for Change, Daniel Vitalis states, “We are overfed, but we are starving to death!”
This statement doesn’t make a lot of sense when we look at our obesity epidemic, and the fact that on average Americans consume 3,770 calories daily. That’s almost double the recommended calorie intake, so how are we starving to death?
What he means when he says that we are “starving to death” is that we are starved on a nutritional basis. The Standard American diet is full of processed ‘dead’ foods that provide little to no nutritional value to our bodies.
Our bodies were designed to get a variety of vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytonutrients (hello antioxidants!) and macronutrients (carbs/protein/fats). We need these certain nutrients, in proper quantities, to fuel our bodies with energy and to aid in the natural detoxification of the chemicals we come in contact with every day.
As an added benefit, the nutrients we get from vegetables help to give us healthy glowing skin, strong nails and shiny hair (without spending an arm and a leg on special beauty products! Who doesn’t want that?!?)
Now, we all know that it’s super important to eat veggies daily, but let’s be real, as any parent of a small child will tell you, the majority of us just do not want to actually eat the veggies! So here are my 5 tips to sneak more veggies into your diet without munching on broccoli stalks and carrots sticks all day.
1. Smoothies!
Throw in a few handfuls of spinach (or greens) into your morning fruit based smoothie and you just added iron, calcium, antioxidants and a whole bunch of other vitamins and minerals to your breakfast, and you’ll barely even notice the taste of the added greens! You can also throw handfuls of spinach into scrambled eggs, soups, stir fry or just about anything and it cooks down to just about nothing but you still get the added nutritional benefits!
2. Cauliflower
Cauliflower is such a versatile food that you can swap it out and use it as a replacement in a lot of traditionally unhealthy foods (like white rice and pizza crust!). Pulse your cauliflower in a food processor and steam like you would any other veggies and serve under stir fry or under a plate of meatballs instead of pasta, and I promise you it’s super yummy! (tip – Costco sells bags of already prepared Cauliflower Rice! They do all the prep for you, so you don’t have to lug out the food pressor or take the time to chop up a head a cauliflower! Now you have no excuses to not give it a try!). Get on Pinterest and check out some great recipes for Cauliflower Pizza Crust, Mashed Cauliflower, Mexican Cauliflower Rice, Cauliflower Tots – the possibilities are endless! To sneak in with kiddos, try pureeing the cauliflower and adding to Marinara sauce or ground meat (so easy to hide!).
3. Greens Powder
Greens Powders are kinda like a super human food that you can throw right in your morning smoothie too! These green powders will deliver a hefty dose of energy that doesn’t even compare with your morning Starbucks, for about half the cost and tons of added benefits. Greens powders contain more than just the standard dose of kale & spinach that we would think would come from a ‘green drink’. These powders have over 5 servings of greens in each scoop and contain ingredients like spirulina, wheat grass, and chlorella which are super foods for detoxification, aiding to boost your immune system and high in antioxidants! You can add these to your smoothies or to protein muffins or straight in water or juice!
4. Soup
With the crisp fall air rolling in this week, this is the perfect time to bust out the slow cooker and start making pots of soup! Soup is such an easy way to throw in loads of extra veggies without having to sit down and eat a salad all the time (and it brings that added layer of warmth!). Make a pot of chili and throw in a chopped up red and green bell pepper, with a zucchini and yellow squash and a few huge handfuls of spinach and maybe even a chopped up sweet potato, if you are feeling adventurous! You could even do the cauliflower rice in chili or any soup! Any soup that calls to be serve with rice, you could easily swap that out for the cauliflower rice instead.
5. Swap bread/wraps for Lettuce Wraps/Zucchini Boats
Any recipe that calls for taco shells or tortilla shells or bread, you can easily swap out for a lettuce wrap or cut a zucchini in half length-wise, and scrape out some of the white seeded flesh part and BAM you have Zucchini Boats! We like to use the lettuce wraps for traditional sandwiches or with our turkey burgers or tacos and we use the Zucchini Boats for Enchiladas instead of a corn or flour tortilla shell. Give it a shot today!
When you start eating more veggies, you will start to feel better, both mentally and physically, and you will instantly have more energy. Gives these tips a try this upcoming week and watch how good you start to feel!
We have so many upcoming events to aid you on your health and wellness journey! Check out the events below and get signed up today!
– The week of October 10th is Friends and Family week! Any of your friends or family can get checked at Life Source for FREE (a $240 value!) this week!
– The whole month of October, Ashley is offering ½ off her Nutrition Consultations! Typically, they are $60, but for October they are only $30!
– October 24th at 6:15 pm please join us for our Thyroid Workshop! We all know someone who has issues with their thyroid (or we do ourselves!) so make sure you get registered today, as this one is filling up quick!