How to Eat More Vegetables

Fresh from my back yard garden

Like so many of you, I, too, have heard and tried to obey the call to eat more fruit and vegetables. After reading Eat for Health by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, I started weighing my food to ensure I ate at least half a pound of fruit and vegetables per day. That was actually not as tough as you'd think, and though I am not really weighing my food now, the weighing process did give me an idea of how much I should be eating. One apple is nearly half a pound. Half a cucumber, half a tomato, and some broccoli was half a pound. That's not a hard starting point (but later in the book, you're supposed to be eating a lot more than that, but, I'm happy with simply more than what I had been consuming in terms of fresh foods, and half a pound is doable).

Ok, all well and good. But how did I make it easier to eat this fresh fruit and veg? By orchestrating it. Yep it was a learning process, and involved a little planning and strategic placement of the foods I wanted to integrate more into my diet. Here's what worked for me:

• First  - buy the food! I had a bad habit of not buying vegetables unless I had a plan for them, because, being a frugal suburbanite, I didn't want the food to go off in the fridge. So, don't be frugal - buy the food, so it will be there to be eaten

• Second - Prepare the food for consumption as soon as you get home from the market or grocery store. Wash the grapes, and the tomatoes, and all the stuff you bought. Then, anything that needs to be cut up, cut it up. For example, cut a few stalks of celery into smaller sticks for easy consumption. If you bought watermelon, cut it all up and put it in a container. Why do all this? Because, let's face it, when you're hunger or just feel like snacking, are you really going to peel a cucumber or cut open a watermelon? Especially when you've got a bag of cookies in the pantry, all ready to eat? Yeah, that's what I thought. 



• Third - put your fruit and veggies where you will see them. For things that don't need refrigeration, put them in a bowl on the kitchen table or counter. For things in the fridge, keep some out of the crisp drawers (where, for me, things lay forgotten for-e-ver!), and place them where your eyes are first drawn upon opening the fridge. For me, it's the second to bottom shelf (maybe the 2nd shelf down?), on the right hand side, near the front. I noticed that that is the place my eyes always go. So, I stopped storing the left-over pizza there, and put my pre-cut broccoli florets and my celery there instead. Voila - I just automatically started eating more veggies!

Oh, another point: Don't let non-organic or non-delicious deter you. What I mean is, well, every health nut is on the organic band-wagon. And, actually, I do believe organic is better. I mean, who wants to ingest pesticides? But, hello, I'm barely employed,and if I had to eat only organic vegetables, I wouldn't really eat any. I think even Fuhrman says that it's better to eat vegetables that are not organic vs. eating none at all.

And, finally - if the only way you find salad palatable is with dressing on it, then go for it. It's better to eat vegetables with blue cheese sauce than not eat any at all!