Boost Your Immune System With Simple Ways to Add Nutrients

Do you love vegetables?  If you do, I bet you’re still not eating enough.  If you don’t like them, let’s start changing your palate.  Adding vegetables every day is such a simple way to boost our immune system, fight viruses/bacteria, inflammation, and lose weight.  Here are some simple ways to eat lots of vegetables with ease and enjoy it.  That’s right!  It still needs to taste good and can’t be too cumbersome, but cumbersome is relative and a matter of putting systems in place.

• Subscribe to a CSA box weekly or every other week.  It’s a great way to eat your fruits and vegetables and try new ones too.  I use Be Wise Ranch and love them.  Try other ones that have pick up stations near you.
• Use raw vegetables instead of chips, pita, bread, and crackers.  I love Persian cucumbers with hummus or baba ghanoush, for example.  Use greens as a wrap instead of tortilla or sandwiches.  I don’t believe in zero carbs but I do believe that processed carbs can lead to weight gain, feeling bloated, and potentially eating too much.  Vegetable snacks help us feel much lighter and we reap lots more nutritional reward. This shift is much better than dieting.
• Have a side salad with every meal.  Prep it in advance in jars.  I also love arugula, cucumber, peppers on the side with my eggs.  Figure out what sounds good to you.
• Add vegetables to everything and even double the recipe.  You can top any dish with kale, spinach, broccoli, zucchini, peas, etc.  Add double the vegetables to eggs, pasta, rice, or even pizza.
• Nothing wrong with frozen vegetables.  Add a bunch to soups, scrambles, pastas, rice dishes, etc.  I don’t love all frozen vegetables but I do like peas, carrots, corn, spinach, artichoke hearts, edamame.  Again, the trick is to figure out what YOU like and the textures that work for YOU.
• What vegetable dishes sound super yummy to you?  Are you the cream of broccoli type or the roasted brussel sprouts type?  That’s a nice clue into where you can expand.  Maybe you love roasting your vegetables.  Maybe you love throwing everything into a broth or creamy soup.
•  Prep for the week.  Yes, it’s best to have fresh vegetables daily but I’d rather see you eat them and use any method that works for your busy schedule.  Wash, chop, roast, or even freeze vegetables for the week.  Pre-chopping and having it all ready has really helped some of my clients.  Others will actually have them all roasted, cooked, and ready to go for the week.
• Add veggies for breakfast.  Add spinach, kale, etc. to omelets, frittatas, or have them on the side.
• Drink your veggies.  Add lots of greens and some fruit to your smoothies.  This isn’t something we do often in our home because I believe we are better off chewing our food.  It helps regulate how much we eat and the chewing process helps with digestion, however, I understand that it’s a good breakfast in a pinch. Subscribe more to an eating diet versus a drinking diet when you can for weight loss and wellness.
• Store veggies on the top shelf in plain sight.  If it’s in front of us, we are more likely to eat them.