In the first part of this article I talked about why fruits and vegetables might be just what you need to give you the winning edge in managing your weight. (Fruits and Vegetables Best Choice for 2009) Today I would like to share my thoughts on how you might make it easier to regularly include more fruits and vegetables in your diet.

The cost of fresh fruits and vegetables especially off-season might dampen your enthusiasm for my suggestion. Unfortunately, some of the least healthy food is also the least expensive. There are many reasons for this including certain government policies that made sense 40-50 years ago but not any longer. However, that’s a topic for another day.

Hopefully we may see some changes in government policy and otherwise that might make fruits and vegetables more affordable in the near future. In the meantime, I have some suggestions that may help a little. When you plan your food budget do keep in mind the enormous health benefits of fruits and vegetables as well as the opportunity to more easily manage your weight.

Cost of Fruits and Vegetables

•Minimize your costs by buying fresh fruits and vegetables by season (whenever possible buy local and organic). Imported produce can sometimes be more expensive than what is grown in the United States.

•When fresh is limited or not available, choose to buy less expensive canned fruits or vegetables. You may also find frozen to be cheaper than fresh. The nutritional value of frozen is as good and might even be better than fresh. Canned produce may have somewhat less in the way of certain nutrients but is still a good choice.

(Note: Choose canned or frozen options without added sugar, syrup, cream sauces, or other ingredients that add calories.)

•Whenever possible, avoid buying pre-cut fruits and vegetables for enormous savings. The convenience may be nice but you pay dearly for that.

The cost of fruits and vegetables may or may not be an issue for you but what about meal and snack ideas? And what kind of simple changes might you make in your routine to make it more likely that fruits and vegetables are a part of your diet more often?

Tips for Simplifying

•Pick one day at the beginning of your week to wash and cut fruits and vegetables. Put each in a separate container, if necessary. (Add a little lemon juice to cut apples and pears to keep them from browning. Or just leave these whole to eat fresh as is.)

Now you have a supply of fruits and vegetables ready for snacks or to include in a meal later in the week. This will not only save you precious minutes when its time to cook but will also make it more likely you will grab one of these containers for a ready-to-eat, healthy, and low calorie snack.

•Add leafy greens (such as spinach, red leaf lettuce, romaine), tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, green peppers, and more to sandwiches and lighten up on the meat and cheese.

•Don’t forget fruit. Thinly sliced apples can make a great addition to a turkey or chicken sandwich for extra flavor and nutrition. Sliced bananas or, better yet, low calorie berries go well with peanut or other nut butters instead of jelly or jam.

•Add chopped veggies to broth based soups (whether homemade or canned), stir-fried dishes, pasta, omelets, and pizza toppings. Eat more veggies and there is less room for higher calorie pasta, rice, or bread.

•Strive for having half your plate at mealtime filled with fruits and vegetables. Do eat off of smaller plates for smaller portions and fewer calories.

•Potatoes eaten with the skin can be a healthy choice; however, do limit how much you eat. They have a high starch (carbohydrates) content and as such are more similar to bread or cereals with respect to calorie count.

Recipe Ideas

If you need a bit of inspiration when it comes to additional ideas on ways to prepare fruit or vegetables, what you may need are photos and recipes that make your mouth water. Here’s just a few of the places I go for inspiration both offline and on.

The next time you are at a shop with a magazine rack, flip through a few issues of some of the better cooking magazines. I especially like the magazines geared for vegetarians. You don’t need to be a vegetarian to get inspired and enjoy the recipes you’ll find!

The latest issue of Vegetarian times (January 2009) caught my eye with the lead story of “Lose Weight, Gain Energy: 35 satisfying recipes under 300 calories”. After only a minute or two looking at the enticing photos and recipes and I was hooked. I don’t buy magazines very often but this one came home with me!

No time for magazines? No problem. There are lots of great online sites for inspiration:

Check out Flickr photos (online) for pictures of vegetarian recipes from around the world. Not all of the photos will appeal to you (or feature fruits and vegetables) but the ones that do are sure to inspire you to be more creative with your meals and snacks.

Flickr Vegetarian Group

Have you had a chance to read my review article of some of the best online sites for low calorie and healthy recipes?

Healthy Low Calorie Recipes: 8 Super Sites

Veggie Meal Plans (A blog site with lots of good recipes and sometimes very appealing food photos.)

Fruits and Vegetables Matter

One of my favorite all around recipe sites is RecipeZaar. What I especially like is the ability to drill down and find specific kinds of recipes. I did a basic search for low calorie fruit recipes and came up with over 6,000 recipes. I took a look at the calorie counts for some of the recipes and many were on the high side. So I then chose to “filter by nutrition” and did a search for low calorie fruit recipes with less than 100 calories per serving.

This narrowed the results down to 198. At that point I could have chosen to filter by course (breakfast, snack, main dish, etc.), ingredient, preparation (time to make, simple, etc.) or occasion (seasonal, holiday, etc.). Very nice!

(Note: If the link for the filter for low calorie fruit recipes with 100 calories or less per serving doesn’t work, just do your own search at www.recipezaar.com following my tip.)

Low Calorie Fruit Recipes

A search at RecipeZaar for low calorie vegetable recipes with 100 calories or less per serving turned up 48 recipes:

Low Calorie Vegetable Recipes

For more about nutrition and the value of fruits and vegetables for weight loss you might want to read:

Fruits and Vegetables: Nutrition Source, Harvard School of Public Health

Last but not least, I wanted to share with you a list I came across at Health.com (Health magazine) for the 10 best supermarket chains. These are the stores selected by six prominent health experts as being the best of the largest chain stores for delivering the freshest and healthiest food possible.

These stores may not be available where you live. That doesn’t mean you are out of luck. There are a number of smaller chain stores and other grocery stores with an outstanding selection of healthy choices that did not make this list because of size.

In addition, some of the stores listed may not be the best for you based on cost. And just because a chain store may have received high marks in general doesn’t mean a particular branch store where you live is as good. It may not have the kind of management necessary to assure the same high quality guidelines as the same shop in another city.

1. Whole Foods
2. Safeway
3. Harris Teeter
4. Trader Joe’s
5. Hannaford
6. Albertson’s
7. Food Lion
8. Publix Super Markets
9. Pathmark
10. Super Target

If you have some time, I would encourage you to read the original article to see what some of these shops offer and what kinds of things matter when it comes to making healthy choices: America’s Healthiest Grocery Stores

Do start out the New Year with a plan. Eat more fruits and veggies. Good luck with this and best wishes for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight!

Health Maintenance weight loss

A while back I wrote an article on where to find low calorie meals offered by national restaurant chains. This past week I came across some new choices to add to your list of ideas. This may be especially helpful if you are on a 1200 calorie diet. I’ve also learned of an inexpensive way to get some inspiration to exercise with some DVDs from the pros. And I have an update for you about My Food Diary, my favorite online calorie tracker. It’s the service I use to create the 1200 and 1500 calorie sample menus that I’ve been sharing.

Small Sammies are now available at Quiznos

Quiznos now has two low cal and low cost versions of their gourmet flatbread sandwiches called Sammies. For only 200 calories and just 2 bucks each you can choose from two new flavors: Balsamic Chicken or Black Angus steak.

You could team up one of these sandwiches with a side salad for an additional 130 calories (comes with either balsamic vinaigrette or buttermilk ranch dressing). That comes to 330 calories total. It sounds like it might be a reasonably nutritious choice, but I can’t comment on that till the nutrient breakdown is available. However, I’m sure this combo will come up short for calcium so you would want to get enough low fat milk, yogurt, or cheese with your other meals and snacks.

More Ideas:

I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal posted in the January 10 issue about low cal restaurant meals that might interest you. Evidently a group of reporters (?) from the Journal actually purchased a variety of low cal restaurant entrees for testing at an independent lab to see if the calorie counts matched the claims.

It seems that most of the calorie claims were in fact accurate. However, what the Journal reporters noted, and you will want to keep in mind is that the calorie counts typically did not include anything extra. An example they mentioned is the 340-calorie Subway sandwich. If you, as a customer, request variations on the original sandwich or ask for additional mayo or a slice of cheese, the calorie count will likely be significantly higher.

Something else to watch out for are the extras that come with meals, especially take out. Breadsticks, dips, or chips are only a few of the possibilities you might find in your take out bag along with the main item. For more tips and restaurant meal ideas you might want to read the article yourself.

Motivation for Exercise:

Has it been bitter cold where you live? With all the ice and snow and extreme cold that we’ve had for a quite a while now, I’ve had to put walking outside on hold. I usually don’t mind going to the gym but at 11 degrees below zero, I’m not thrilled with the idea of going anywhere. Sometimes having fresh new ideas for exercise routines I can do at home is just the inspiration I need to make time and do it!

I discovered an offer by Columbia House that might interest you as well. It seems that you can order 5 DVDs for only 50 cents a piece. This company has a good selection of just about anything you might want on DVD.

From kickboxing, to Pilates, yoga, body sculpting, keeping fit in your 50s and many more, there are plenty of choices for exercise. So if you’d like some inspiration, maybe something new and different will spark your enthusiasm. (You can check out the exercise DVDs at Columbia House by peeling away the ad in the top right corner of my website.)

MyFoodDiary.com

My Food Diary now has more than 50,000 foods listed in their database! Wow! When I wrote my review back in August there were about 45,000 food items. This is far more than any other service I’m aware of online. If you get a chance do take a look. Whether we like it or not, calories do count!

This coming week I have a new sample menu for a 1200 calorie diet. It was somewhat challenging to put together because I wanted to share one with you that does not require any cooking (other than heating something up in a microwave oven.) Achieving nutrient balance with 1200 calories can be very difficult when working with convenience foods and, in this instance, a lunch from a restaurant.

Till next time, watch your calories and stay healthy!

calories Exercise weight loss