Real Food Experience 2015 - Week 1 Challenge: Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

Happy New Year! For most of us, today is the official start to our healthy new year. We’ve made resolutions to eat better, exercise, and be more organized. Am I right? It’s a new year and anything is possible. I just love fresh starts! I have a plan to help you with those those healthier eating New Year’s resolutions. Joining The Real Food Experience 2015 is one of the best and easiest ways to learn to eat a healthier real food diet. With just a little bit of practice, it becomes a lifestyle that will stick for good. And……..this year I have lots of friends to help. You are definitely not alone. Come on over to our Real Food Experience 2015 Facebook group and join the conversation. We are making friends, having fun, and learning a healthy lifestyle that will really last this time. For more information on the Real Food Experience 2015, check out my official page.

This week’s challenge will be easy for some of you and down right difficult for others. I like to start out the first week after the “sugar holidays” with a reminder of what we should be eating…………lots of fruits and vegetables.

Week # 1 Eat Two Fruits and/or Vegetables at Each Meal

Yes, that’s right. The first week is all about eating more. More fruit and vegetables. Organic, conventional, fresh, frozen, dried or canned……… I don’t care. Just eat it. The foundation of a real food lifestyle is filling your body with lots of nutrition. There is a whole rainbow of fruit and vegetables to choose from. Each color brings its own list of beneficial nutrients. Nutrients that help your body to feel better and fight disease.

Eat more. How can that be a challenge? Well……..if you are like most of us in the United States who eat the Standard American Diet (SAD), you probably don’t eat two servings of fruit or vegetables in a day. And now I’m asking you to eat two for every meal. By the end of each day, you should have eaten 6 servings of fruit and vegetables. Bonus points if you are able to eat a rainbow of fruit and vegetables each day.

I know you are likely detoxing sugar out of your body after the holidays. That is not easy. I have always found fruit to be a good way to deal with sugar cravings. Another health benefit of eating lots of fruit and vegetables is the fiber they contain. Fiber makes your belly feel fuller and if you feel fuller, you are less likely to try to fill up on junk food.

A few tips before I go and you get started on the challenge. I get it. Not everybody loves fruit and vegetables. My little guy has got to be one of the pickiest eaters I know and I still find ways to get fruit and vegetables into his body. Smoothies are a great way to include a ton of nutrition into one delicious cup. We like to make pancakes with a banana as the sweetener and then top with fried apples. So good! Another of my favorite tricks is to shred carrots and include them in my meatloaf. Soups and pasta sauces are great ways to pile on the nutrition. And this may sound silly, but don’t forget about onions. Onions taste great in eggs, soups, sauces…………just about anything. Just make sure you make them really small so your onion-hating family members can’t find them and pick them out.

Well……….there you go. Time to get started. Have a truly delicious week. Fill your body with lots of health-enhancing nutrition. Start talking with your children about nutrition and why it is good to eat a variety of foods. Have a contest and see who can come up with the meal that has the most different fruits or vegetables in it. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with. Share photos of your meals on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with #RealFoodExperience.Look for more recipes and tips coming all this week to help you with your Real Food Experience 2015. Let me know if you have any questions along the way and I’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.

I promise to keep bringing you the best and most accurate information on nutrition I can find……….and hopefully with a little bit of humor along the way as well. You can find lots of great information on this blog (check out the tabs above and the archives). Make sure to subscribe by email so you don’t miss anything. You can also find lots of great tips, tricks, advice, and fun on my Facebook page and my other social media. Please join us and share us with your friends!