How To Double Your Vegetable Intake Without Just Eating More Vegetables.

A simple trick that most of us aren’t doing.

So before you blow off this quick article give me a moment to explain because I’m going to give you a few reasons and methods to double your vegetable intake and why you should double your vegetable intake other than just because they are “healthy”. 
Beides… It’s a short article, to the point, if you’re reading this you were probably on Facebook and now on my website so nothing else too exciting must be going on. Right? Ha. 

Anyways…

So I was chatting with a client the other day about eating more vegetables which we all know was everyone’s favorite subject when it comes to nutrition. During nutritional consults I have never had to tell someone they are eating too many vegetables and almost every time I have to tell them they are not eating enough.
And my usual trick for doing so – I always tell clients to double their vegetables every meal. What do I mean by this? I mean when you order food or you are making food or serving your food – whatever the recipe calls for – I want you to literally doubled the vegetables on your plate or in the recipe. Seriously. Just do it.  

And this is of course assuming that you are eating vegetables every meal and if you’re not… Shame on you. It’s time to pick up the pace.

On a sidenote, that does also include breakfast and although it’s difficult to do other then mixing them in with scrambled eggs/omelet or drinking a fruit and greens smoothie (which I do every morning) it’s OK to add in one serving of fruit instead.

So, back to doubling your vegetables. Other than doing that because of the obvious reasons like – because vegetables are good for you, or they come from the earth, or they are full of vitamins and stuff, blah blah blah blah… You get the idea. But I wanted to give you some other reasons on why you should double your vegetables or shooting for half of your plate being vegetables.

First, eating more fiber is good for you but will also make you feel fuller longer without the added calories that comes along with every other type of food. We all know that vegetables are nutritionally dense and calorically not dense so it’s a super great way to feel fuller longer while getting all the other benefits from actually eating your veggies.

Second, vegetables are usually the cheapest food type out there compared to all other types of food per volume. I am sure that a head of cauliflower would keep you full for an entire day if you ate the whole thing (which I don’t recommend by the way unless you really want to get on that “cleanse” diet) and that head of cauliflower is not very expensive. Sure, it’s not gonna taste as good as a nice ribeye steak (which is ok and DELICIOUS too) but my point being is that you can still have the ribeye steak BUT  instead of one little side of a few florets of cauliflower you can cut the sucker in quarters and grill right along with that beef. Season that thing up and it would be mighty tasty. Minimal cost for maximum volume.  Be creative.  It’s easy.

Also to note, frozen vegetables are usually $.99 a package can be thrown in the microwave for 1 minute and usually equal two servings. You should always have vegetables at every meal. There’s no excuse because it doesn’t get any simpler than that.

The third is that produce is by far the widest range range of variety of major food groups out there. There’s only so many types of proteins, there’s only so many types of carbs, and only so many types of fats BUT you have hundreds of different types of vegetables and combinations that you can choose from. So don’t give me that crap that they’re boring,….you’re just not being creative. Pinterest helps a lot too. Lol. 

And fourth, this does go back to the healthy/vitamins and minerals/fiber/food of the earth thinking and… dammit, they are just good for you.  If it came down to it and you had to pick one food group to live off of the rest your life you probably much healthier and sustainable by eating vegetables. I don’t get me wrong because I love my protein and fat more than I love my vegetables but I still love my body and my health even more. 
So remember. Double your vegetables at every meal from now on and it will be one of the easiest tricks you can use to keep yourself on the right track. They are cheap, they are filling, there is a huge variety of them, and they’re filled with electrolytes and stuff.

So eat them all and eat them all the time.

Train Smart. Eat smarter. Stay Fit.,
-Eric