I bet you some of your  “fondest” memories of your childhood involve your mother telling (nagging) you to eat your veggies.

Veggies are good for you.  They are loaded with healthy vitamins a minerals.  Blah. Blah. Blah.

She might as well have been talking like the adults in “Charlie Brown”, which always sounded like a muted trumpet, because you weren’t really paying her any attention were you.

I know this because even though those smart people in their white coats (I mean lab coats not the ones worn by the big guys in the psych ward) tell us that we need to eat 6-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, the average American eats only 2.

No that is not a typo. 2.

I almost cried when I saw this because that’s sad.  Being a personal trainer in Wellesley and wanting to get everyone there as healthy as possible, this was just another obstacle to add to my list

I hope that since you are reading this that you are already well ahead of the curve when it comes to getting in your 6-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

And if you are like the average American, I will slap you in the head like in those V-8 commercials the next time I see you.

Now I may be out of the loop because I have always been a big fruit and veggie eater.  Just ask my mom (I would eat almost the whole 16oz bag of veggies) myself.  She never had to tell me to eat my veggies.

It’s not that tough to get in the recommended  6-10 fruits and veggies in each day. 

Really.  I will show you.

Here are some super simple tips to get you started:

1.)  Buy them already chopped up.  No it is not being lazy.  Chopping up fruits and veggies can be a time consuming pain the the neck.  So go ahead buy them be chopped.  It is certainly much better for you then not eating them at all.  Also, I recommend the frozen variety.  They come in numerous different kinds of blends and frozen fruits and veggies hold on to their nutrients longer and better.  And they don’t rot and stink up the fridge.

Let someone else do the work.  You bust you butt in the gym.  Right?

2.)  Bring them with you.  Load up plastic baggies and/or small Tupperware contains with the already chopped up fruits and veggies from above and bring them with you where ever you go.  I don’t recommend you do this with the frozen variety.

I suggest the non-plastic variety fruits and veggies.

3.)  Start your day off with a fruit and/or veggie smoothie.  This is actually one of my favorite methods to get in my 6-10 (I have hundreds of smoothie recipes on my computer).  If you do this right, you can actually hit your quota before you leave for work (not that that leaves you off the hook for the rest of the day).  You can mix up any number of combinations of fruits and veggies.  Experiment.  Be  careful though, I have come up with some really awful ones.  You can also add other things like spices, juice, ice, milk and yogurt.  And speaking of yogurt.

The breakfast of master level personal trainers (in Wellesley, named Paul).

4.) Add fruit to your yogurt.  And by fruit I mean real fruit that you put in the yogurt yourself.  Do not by the “fruit” in the bottom stuff you see in the stores.  That’s just high fructose corn syrup disguised as fruit.  When you have your yogurt (I recommend the 2% Greek variety) try adding some blueberries, raspberries, strawberries or blackberries.

Doesn’t that look yummy.

Yes grasshopper, it really is that simple.

Still finding it hard to get you 6-10.  Well here is a bonus tip for you.  Try taking a whole foods based multi-vitamin.  They are  great way to provide your body with the nutritional foundation you need each day.  One of the best ones that I have found (so far) is  called VGF 25+ by Prograde Nutrition.  It even comes in different varieties for men and women.  And I just found out that the guys at  Prograde are now letting you try VGF 25+ for free.  There’s is a small S & H charge though.  And if you are like me you love (almost) free. 

Be sure to use these tips and let me know how they help you out. Or send me some of your own!

Your friend and trainer,

Paul F. Sweatt

Tags: 6-10, fruits, healthy diet, Nutrition, vegetables, veggies, weight loss

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by Paul | in Nutrition | 2 Comments