Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your Amarillo personal trainer. Today we have part one for the “So many vegetables… so few that people are willing to eat.” duology. Today we’ll be talking about why you need vegetables and how much you need. If you have any questions about today’s blog, then please give us a call at (806) 322-3188
So, vegetables. The things that we have so many of, but so many people are afraid to eat them or absolutely can’t stand them for some reason. Today I want to talk through that with you.
You may be asking “Do I really need them? Are they necessary?” Well, vegetables are our largest source of vitamins and minerals, as well as phytonutrients which helps to bring the body into better balance.
So yes, macronutrients (if you’re familiar with the term) are very important, you’ve got your proteins, fats, and carbs. But if those things are empty of vitamins and minerals, then your body can’t actually do what it needs to do.
We’ve all heard of vitamin C, and calcium, etc…, and there’s so many things that the body needs, and they all need to work together in order to make the systems of your body work. So, it’s not just feeling good on the outside and having energy, but it’s actually having each little cog inside having the nutrients it needs to be able to turn.
So without those nutrients, you begin to feel sluggish, tired, have headaches, and all because the body doesn’t want to do what it needs to do. It’s almost like you filled up a car with gas, but you only put in about a quarter tank and then you try and take it on a fifteen hour road trip. When it finally gives out, you get out and kick the tires and are upset that the car won’t go any further. So you’re upset that your car isn’t going, but you’re the one that didn’t put enough fuel in it in the first place. The same thing happens with your body. You don’t provide yourself with enough nutrition to give the means for your body to do what it needs to do, and that can be a big problem.
Now, nutrition VS diet they are essentially the same, but here in America the terminology of the two can mean different things. So a lot of people go on a diet and start counting calories and eating specific foods, but they never think about why. If we go over to the nutrition side, then you make sure that you’re getting nutrition and not just eating for the calorie count or the macros. You want be focusing on whether or not you are giving the body everything it needs. So, that’s actually the purpose of a multivitamin, not to provide that in whole but to have a backup in case you aren’t getting everything at 100% then your body has something that it can work on.
So, good idea to take a multivitamin, but better to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. Obviously with the fruits you have to limit it a little bit. You don’t want to go crazy on those, because too much sugar causes extra fat gain, and then there’s everything else that goes with too much sugar. You want fruit though, you need it, just in moderation.
There are specific moderations that work with specific populations, so you have to just try it out and see what works for you. You can also get the help of someone like me, or our team of Amarillo personal trainers to help guide you in that process.
So, getting your vegetables, and how many do you need in the first place? Well when you think about a serving of vegetables it’s about one cup or about the size of your fist. And the fist is the size it is next to your plate, not how many vegetables you can fit in your fist. So, if you actually think about that, you actually need (ready for this?) about 8-15 of those servings a day. I know that sounds like a ton, right? You would be so full of vegetables that you wouldn’t have enough room to eat all those carbs, or be able to overload on all that protein. You have to find that balance between protein, vegetables, and healthy fat. And you have to make sure that your vegetables are the majority of that. So on each plate you’re wanting to think about half or three quarters of it should be vegetables.
So, ways that you can get in your vegetables each day. Well, you can have a salad, lots of people do. People come in all the time and say “I have a salad three times a day!”, and they still have too high percentage of body fat. So what you want to do is look at content. Remember the nutritional content we were just talking about? If you’re eating lettuce all the time, you’re not getting it. Even if it’s great spinach and kale, you’re getting a lot of great things, but it’s the same things every day. So when it comes to vegetables you want to eat the rainbow. You want to make sure that you got all different colors. Again, you can have that salad, but put some other things on top to add some color. The more colors you get in, the more phytonutrients, which is great for your body.
Now you can do that, and you can also hide it in your food. So if you’ve ever talked to someone that’s done paleo or have ever done it, then you know that there is more cauliflower recipes than you know what to do with. You can make it into pizza crust, rice, mashed potatoes, you name it, it works. And that’s a great way to hide your vegetables.
There’s other vegetables that you can hide besides cauliflower, and this January we’re going to have a seminar with Marla Evans and she’s going to be talking about “Vegetables even your husband will eat!”. I am so excited to have her come in to speak, and she has so many cool tips and tricks for sneaking in those healthy foods. So keep an eye out for it, we’ll be having her come in during this January of 2018.
I feel like this is a good place as any to wrap up part one on “So many vegetables… so few that people are willing to eat”. In part two we’ll be talking about juicing, raw VS cooked vegetables, an amazing story about one of my clients, and the January DownSize program.
So if you don’t want to wait until part two to get started on your nutrition and fitness plan, then give us a call! We have an entire team dedicated to this as professionals to help you. To get your consultation set up, give us a call at 806-322-3188 or email us at info@customfitness.biz At Custom Fitness, we are YOUR personal trainers in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great day, and you can now read part two right here: https://customfitness.biz/2017/12/28/many-vegetables-people-willing-eat-part-2-custom-fitness-amarillo-personal-trainers/