Stack the Odds

I was in need of some veggies.  I was feeling a little veggie-less after a brunch meal void of green and I didn’t have any veggies at breakfast.  That is one thing you may be surprised to find as you start making better food decisions and intentionally getting all of your recommended servings of fruits and veggies each day…you start to crave the colorful nutritious things.  Just like you used to crave a sweet or a soda if you didn’t have one for a whole day, now you feel “off” if you don’t get your veggies!  It may seem impossible that day would ever come – “yeah right!” you say, a day when I am hunting down veggies, ha!  But it will happen.

They make you feel so good!  Not only do you just know that you’re putting good nutrition in, but as you make those healthy swaps more and more, you start to feel the difference.  When it makes you feel good, feel nourished, and feel healthier, you’ll look for more.  You might not know what you’re missing yet if you haven’t started making those swaps.  Fruit cup instead of fries, veggies and humus instead of potato chips, or simply just adding veggies to dinner and moderating your portion of pasta or rice.  You might not realize how poor you feel when fueling with sweets and fried foods until you experience the alternative.  You just have to intentionally give the alternatives a chance to show you what they can do!  Better quality fuel = better quality feeling and performance.

I find that one key to getting all my fruits and veggies is simply having them available.  Make the healthier options the convenient options.  If the fridge and pantry remain brimming with snack cakes, potato chips, and candy and you would have to go somewhere to get, or have to prepare a fruit or veggie, let’s not kid ourselves, you’re going to grab what you already have, especially if you are hungry.  So, keeping chopped veggies and grab-and-go fruit in the fridge, pantry, and on the counter will encourage better choices.  Re-vamp your shopping list this week to include some easy fruits and veggies.

My problem this afternoon…no easy snack veggies.  I’ll have to wait until dinner to fill my vegetable craving because I did not plan a convenient veggie snack option.  I didn’t have to turn to an unhealthy snack instead, just not a veggie (I chose unsweetened applesauce with cinnamon…yummy).  Lacking the veggie snack I was looking for reminded me of the power of planning and setting yourself up for success.  If you were given the power to stack the odds in your favor to make a nutritious snack decision versus trudging through the weekly battle of trying to avoid the not-so-healthy snacks in the pantry, would you take it?  Good news, you can do it!  Plan for it, shop for it, make the good decisions the easy decisions.  Take away those battles and feelings of guilt post junk food snack.

Same goes for good ole Halloween candy.  It’s so easy to justify having several bags of candy around for the trick-or-treaters that will be coming in…uh, T-minus 30 days? (When did you buy your candy this year?)  Ha, by the time Halloween actually rolls around you have to go buy more candy because the first bags were too often the easy snack choice.  I’m not going to lie, I currently have candy corn in my home.  1 bag.  My strategy, since I’m the sweet tooth in the house, is to keep it covered.  I’ve noticed that if it’s in an open bowl on the coffee table, it’s a sure-fire way to go through a whole bag of candy corn in 2 days, but if I keep it covered and put away where I have to make the conscious decision to go get some, our bag lasts a lot longer!  My advice, don’t buy Halloween candy until Halloween is actually right around the corner, don’t over-buy, and keep the candy out of sight, out of mind.  Make it the inconvenient choice, or at least a choice you have to intentionally make and seek out instead of mindlessly grabbing handfuls of treats just because it’s there.  Give yourself the upper-hand, an opportunity to think the decision through.  Instead, keep those little clementines around, or how about grapes or apples?  Easy, sweet, and good for you. 

Have a happy and healthy Halloween!