A Little on Vegetables

A few years back I tried (and succeeded) at losing some noticeable weight. In the initial stages I had never heard of the paleo diet, but I had some basic knowledge on nutrition: Vegetables and fruits are very good for you and are low in calories. Protein will help build muscles and combat fat storage. Avoid simple carbs.

There was a little trick I used to get myself to eat more vegetables (and thus less crap). Every time I suffered a little hunger pang during the day I asked myself how many servings of vegetables or fruits I had so far. I tried eating 5 servings a day – eating more vegetables than fruit. If I hadn’t reached my 5 servings goal then before eating anything else I would eat at least one serving.  Sometimes I steamed or roasted some veggies, grabbed a handful of raw carrots, sliced up a bell pepper and dipped it in salsa, or munched on an apple until I nearly ate the core. Honestly, most of the time when I had some veggies or a piece of fruit with a full glass of water I was satisfied. Many of us experience an emotional attachment to eating and/or develop poor eating habits, such as eating when we are bored. Or we just feel like we need to eat when we are not really that hungry. I recommend trying this trick when you are feeling hungry between meal times. If you weren’t really hungry in the first place, there is no real harm in eating more vegetables. If you are still hungry after a veggie snack then eat a little bit of protein to keep you fuller for longer.

While doing the Whole 30 I am going to implement this way of thinking again, but will be doing it with veggies only. I will save the fruit for dessert.

Side note: Whole 30 is by no means a low-calorie diet, so make sure you get enough healthy fat and protein throughout the day as well.