We all know by now that we should be eating at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. But knowing and doing are two different things, aren’t they? Sometimes it is just not easy to get them all in there. We are constantly tempted to fill up on convenience and junk food. Here are a few ideas to “sneak” some extra vegetables and fruits in your family’s diet.
1. Start the day with a decent breakfast. Include some fruit either with your breakfast, such as an omlette and strawberries or weetabix with a banana or simply have a piece of whole fruit after your breakfast.
2. Dried fruit makes an excellent snack any time of the day. Add some small cartons of raisins to your child’s lunch box and pack some yogurt-covered raisins in your bag for your mid-morning snack. You can also add dried fruit to oatmeal and cereal in the morning. My family loves banana chips in their breakfast cereal.
3. Add some fruits and vegetables to your family’s sandwiches. You can add some banana, sliced apples or strawberry slices to a peanut butter sandwich. Top a turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and anything else they will eat. You can even make a sub shop style vegetable sandwich by combining several different vegetables with some mayonnaise and cheese on bread.
4. Have a salad bar at dinner. Set out a variety of chopped vegetables, some cheese and croutons as well as several choices of salad dressing along with the lettuce and let everybody create their own perfect salad.
5. Try this for dessert. Put a small scoop of ice cream or frozen yogurt in a bowl and top it with lots of fresh or frozen fruit.
6. Offer fruits and vegetables as snacks. You can cut apples into slices and top them with peanut butter or cheese. Cube cheese and serve with grapes. Cut up some fresh veggies and serve them with ranch dip. And of course there’s ants on a log - spread some cream cheese or peanut butter on the inside of a stick of celery and sprinkle raisins on it (fruit and vegetable in one snack 👍).
7. Try some new fruits and vegetables. Pick something exotic to get your family’s curiosity. With a little luck their curiosity will outweigh their initial apprehension to trying something new. You could try artichokes, plantains, papaya, mango, star fruit, or anything else you can nd in the produce department of your local store.
8. Start “My Veggie Day”. Each family member gets to pick a vegetable one day of the week. They qualify to pick a vegetable as long as they tried each vegetable the week before, otherwise they lose a turn and you get to pick instead.
Incorporate a few of these ideas and you will have everyone in your family eating more fruits and vegetables in no time.
Here is another tip:
Now that everyone in the family has gotten a taste for it, make sure you always have plenty of fresh fruits and veggies available and ready to snack on 😉
If you would like help with your nutrition, please get in touch. You can’t out-train a bad diet but you can adjust your ‘normal’ diet to make it more healthy. We have seen some incredible successes with members on our 3-month online fitness & nutrition course losing up to 9lbs in just the first 6 weeks! If you wa fancy some of that, we are here to help
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