June 17 is Eat Your Vegetables Day©
Posted: Monday, September 01, 2008
by Arlene Wright-Correll
http://www.learn-america.com
June is National Fruit Month and right smack dab in the middle of the month on every June 17th is National Eat Your Vegetables Day!
We are encouraged to be healthy and by eating 5 different colored vegetables and fruits daily, especially fresh ones, we can be healthy. We all know those commercials that say, "I could have had a V-8".
As a nation that lives on lots of meat and fast food we often find it hard to put one vegetable or fruit in our daily diet no less 5!
Our eating habits are exactly that, Habits!!!! They only thing we can do if we do not have good eating habits is to change them. I used to teach a time management workshop and my research showed that it took about 25 to 45 days to develop a habit, good or bad and it took almost 36 months to get rid of that habit!
With that in mind isn't it time you changed your habit and added more fruits and vegetables to your daily diet and to your family's daily diet? How can we do that? The easiest way is to start having a tossed salad with each meal and make sure it has something in it other than lettuce. Try making your salad with a couple of different types of lettuce, perhaps some baby spinach, a chopped or thinly sliced onion, a chopped tomato, some chopped or grated carrots, the same with some broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes. You will be amazed how few veggies it will take to make a nice big salad.
I rarely put dressing on it. I just put the dressings on the table and let each one use what they like and that way any left over salad can be quickly put into a plastic bag and served at the next meal.
When it comes to deserts forget the pies, cakes etc and try putting fresh fruit on the table and let each one choose what they would like. You might want to add a plate with some kind of cheese. I love this European/Mediterranean method of sharing time, conversation and desert at the end of the meal.
Those two parts of a meal, alone, will give you your 5 fruits and vegetables a day. So even if you have one family meal a day make sure you add a nice salad and a fruit tray for desert to it.
We are now down from feeding a minimum of 7 people three times a day to feeding just two of us two times a day. We each take care of creating our own breakfast and that always includes at least a banana and either a glass of orange juice or grapefruit juice.
It is easy for us to create a salad with a meal and even if I am just making scalloped potatoes I may add some peas and carrots to it or a can of drained corn. If we are just having a bowl of soup or a sandwich for lunch we add some carrot sticks or sliced cucumbers.
We are encouraged to be healthy and by eating 5 different colored vegetables and fruits daily, especially fresh ones, we can be healthy. We all know those commercials that say, "I could have had a V-8".
Our eating habits are exactly that, Habits!!!! They only thing we can do if we do not have good eating habits is to change them. I used to teach a time management workshop and my research showed that it took about 25 to 45 days to develop a habit, good or bad and it took almost 36 months to get rid of that habit!
With that in mind isn't it time you changed your habit and added more fruits and vegetables to your daily diet and to your family's daily diet? How can we do that? The easiest way is to start having a tossed salad with each meal and make sure it has something in it other than lettuce. Try making your salad with a couple of different types of lettuce, perhaps some baby spinach, a chopped or thinly sliced onion, a chopped tomato, some chopped or grated carrots, the same with some broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes. You will be amazed how few veggies it will take to make a nice big salad.
I rarely put dressing on it. I just put the dressings on the table and let each one use what they like and that way any left over salad can be quickly put into a plastic bag and served at the next meal.
When it comes to deserts forget the pies, cakes etc and try putting fresh fruit on the table and let each one choose what they would like. You might want to add a plate with some kind of cheese. I love this European/Mediterranean method of sharing time, conversation and desert at the end of the meal.
Those two parts of a meal, alone, will give you your 5 fruits and vegetables a day. So even if you have one family meal a day make sure you add a nice salad and a fruit tray for desert to it.
We are now down from feeding a minimum of 7 people three times a day to feeding just two of us two times a day. We each take care of creating our own breakfast and that always includes at least a banana and either a glass of orange juice or grapefruit juice.
It is easy for us to create a salad with a meal and even if I am just making scalloped potatoes I may add some peas and carrots to it or a can of drained corn. If we are just having a bowl of soup or a sandwich for lunch we add some carrot sticks or sliced cucumbers.
"Tread the Earth Lightly" and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…
Peace, Light and Love,
Author's note: This article was originally written for GreenThumbArticles.com
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