Baby steps, step II – Vegetables

Welcome to step II!

For all those who have stuck with it! Hurrah!

For those who haven’t, that’s okay – You can still focus on hydrating AND eating your vegetables. This isn’t a reason to give up. You can start being healthier any second of any day.

Anyway – WELCOME

I have chosen these steps in what I consider order of importance, many of you who know me may have thought I would have put protein first (though it does get such a bad rap for being such a great thing). But the general population just doesn’t get enough nutrients or fiber in their diet.

We are also building from the ground up which means this is the base or the bulk the diet.

Fact: That average American gets 1.5 servings of vegetables per day and only 1 in 10 hit the recommended servings per day

Fact: The number one and two most consumed vegetables are potatoes and tomatoes

The saddest thing about this is that the 1.5 servings are coming from french fries and ketchup (hence the tomatoes and potatoes hitting spots one and two)

This is also why potatoes get such a bad rap – POTATOES ARE NOT BAD FOR YOU.

Frying them in oil and eating copious amounts of french fries and potato chips is bad for you.

So if you’re here and you’re above the 90% of americans not getting enough of an already (in my own opinion) too low of a guideline, good for you but participate anyway.

The recommended intake from our government is 3 – 5 servings a day starting from the sedentary (3) to the very active (5)

As a blanket recommendation for health – we are going to go with four servings daily.

What is a serving size?

1. 1/2 cup cooked
2. 1 cup uncooked
3. 3/4 cup of vegetable juice

I would prefer you not to use juice – but I also can’t control you. I want you to get all the good stuff (like fiber!) from the whole food sources. You can put a cup of kale in your homemade smoothie and count that. But juice out of a can I’d rather you not.

Another this is that I don’t you counting starchy vegetables.. which make this harder.

What is a starchy vegetable?

Glad you asked.

1. Potatoes
2. Beans
3. Lentils
4. Edamame
5. Soy/Tempeh/Tofu
6. Green Peas
7. Corn
8. Plantain
9. Parsnips
10. Butternut squash
11. Acorn Squash

You can still eat these! Just don’t count them. They’re all good for you! I actually encourage you to eat all of these weekly. Especially if you’re vegetarian or vegan. These contain more amino acids than other vegetables and the more you eat the more you are able to produce complete proteins in the body.

But for what we are doing right now, we need to focus on our non-starchy vegetables. The ones everyone avoids unless it’s ketchup, apparently.

Non-starchy veggies:

Choose from this list:

• Alfalfa sprouts
• Arugula
• Artichoke
• Artichoke hearts
• Asparagus
• Bamboo shoots
• Bean sprouts
• Beets
• Bok choy
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Chayote
• Chicory
• Chinese cabbage
• Chinese spinach
• Cucumber
• Eggplant
• Green onions or scallions
• Fennel
• Garlic
• Green onions
• Greens (beet or collard greens, dandelion, kale, mustard, turnip)
• Green beans
• Hearts of palm
• Herbs (parsley, cilantro, basil, rosemary, thyme, etc.)
• Jicama
• Kohlrabi
• Leeks
• Lettuce (endive, escarole, romaine or iceberg)
• Mushrooms
• Okra
• Onions
• Parsley
• Peppers (green, red, yellow, orange, jalapeño)
• Purslane
• Radishes
• Rapini
• Rhubarb
• Rutabaga
• Sauerkraut
• Scallions
• Shallots
• Snow peas or pea pods
• Snap peas
• Spaghetti squash
• Spinach
• Summer squash
• Swiss chard
• Tomato
• Tomatillos
• Turnips
• Water chestnuts
• Watercress
• Zucchini

I took this list right off of wikipedia itself and added some to it…. So if you’re unsure what any of these are – click on it! TOO EASY FOR ME

This list is not an end-all-be-all. Meaning there are more non-starchy vegetables than this.

I can see some of you thinking this will be a breeze – two cups of leafy greens, two cups of kale in a smoothie. Four cups – done!

I’m not going to make this THAT easy on you.

Here are the rules for this step:

1. Four servings a day of NON-STARCHY vegetables ONLY
2. Three different colors (four if you really want to go all out) Eat the rainbow
3. Spread them out

Originally I had wanted to encourage a cup at each meal – but even I don’t eat lettuce for breakfast (most of the time). So spread these out for sure but try and get a serving or two at lunch and dinner.

Mix and match as well – the one cup doesn’t have to all one vegetable (think a mix of mushrooms, tomatoes, onions – three different colors). And if the mix doesn’t take up a whole cup – I would encourage leafy greens as your “filler” or roughage.

I want you to include all colors because each color means a different nutrient or antioxidant. We need lots of variety.

I also encourage snacking on carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, etc… But I encourage you to dip it in hummus, tzatziki or other yogurt based dips and not ranch.

Dip your vegetables in more vegetables!

I want you all to get creative and try new vegetables you’ve never had before.

And if you’re concerned about so much new food on your diet – non-starchy vegetables should not be counted for calories. ESPECIALLY if you’re replacing other foods you typically eat with them.

No they’re no a negative calorie food. But to avoid carrots because of the calories is ridiculous and don’t listen to anyone who tells you to cut back on them. Eat more of them and less cookies, okay?

Potatoes and corn will not make you fat. – had to throw that out there one last time. Even though they’re not really part of this post. They are vegetables with good attributes.

Eat up!