Eat your veggies

Everyone knows that vegetables are good for you.  According to the Harvard School of Public Health, "Eating plenty of vegetables (and fruits) can help you ward off heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure, prevent some types of cancer, avoid a painful intestinal ailment called diverticulitis, and guard against cataract and macular degeneration, two common causes of vision loss.  What does “plenty” mean? More than most Americans consume. If you don’t count potatoes—which should be considered a starch rather than a vegetable—the average American gets a total of just three servings of fruits and vegetables a day. The latest dietary guidelines call for five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables a day (2½ to 6½ cups per day), depending on one’s caloric intake.  For a person who needs 2,000 calories a day to maintain weight and health, this translates into nine servings, or 4½ cups per day (2 cups of fruit and 2½ cups of vegetables)."

Wow that's a lot!  On Weight Watchers, vegetables and fruits are considered "free" foods, meaning you can eat as much of them as you want.  I find it's much easier to eat fruits than it is to eat vegetables.  How on earth is a person supposed to eat that much vegetables?  One way is to eat some kind of vegetables with every meal.  I like to put mushrooms in my eggs, a salad topped with lean protein for lunch, and a green veggie with dinner.  But even that doesn't hit the recommended 2.5 cups.   My next step is to swap out my snacks for vegetables and fruits.  I'm not quite there yet.  I like processed junk like Fiber One bars, Kashi bars, and the occasional Cheez-its. 

At a recent Weight Watchers meeting, one of the members demonstrated this cooking tool called a Veggetti.  She used it to cut zucchini into long strips that looked like noodles.  They are available at Bed Bath and Beyond.  Here's a link :Veggetti

 

You might also want to check out this lady's blog, she has awesome recipes that are WW friendly: http://sliceofjess.com/

 

Let me know some of your ideas!  Because no one I know enjoys carrots as a snack, except rabbits!