Before switching your focus to more detailed aspects of your health regime such as exercise routines, make sure you have the minimum basics in place to support your fitness journey – the nutrition basics.
Increase your vegetable intake. Most of us do not eat enough vegetables, especially at this time of year when our eating habits turn to Christmas party snacks and convenient take-away meals. It is however especially important to eat our greens to maintain a good vitamin and mineral intake.
The winter season brings about colds and flu, and the drop in temperature means we spend more time indoors and less time exposed to the sun, which further increases the need to get the necessary nutrients in!
- One of the easiest ways to manage this nutrient intake is to ensure that you have half a plateof vegetables with at least two of your main daily meals.
- Ensure that you are getting at least one type of green, leafy vegetable in per day, which could be: broccoli, cauliflower, kale, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, bok choi, swiss chard.
- These are lower in calories, packed with fibre and bursting with nutrients such as Vitamin C.
For those who are not so keen on their greens, there are creative recipes available to help “mask” the vegetables in your food or even hide them altogether! Some ideas are: broccoli mash or cauliflower rice, whether on their own or mixed in with a typical carbohydrate equivalent to add bulk.
Here is a tasty recipe to try with you next cauliflower purchase: http://fitmencook.com/fully-loaded-cauliflower-mash/