Day 15 - How & Why to Hit Six Servings of Vegetables Per Day
How Eating More Vegetables Burns Fat
✅ Eating vegetables BURNS calories via dietary thermogenesis
✅ Vegetables aid in digestion, which prevents bloating and enhances energy
✅ Nutrient dense foods reduce inflammation. Inflammation makes fat loss difficult!
✅ Help organs function with micronutrients, which helps your metabolic processes
Knowing vs. Doing
Hitting six servings of vegetables per day is the next step we'll add in to ramp up your fat loss. It’s no secret that eating more vegetables is a healthy habit to have, but there’s a huge difference between knowing something and doing something. When it comes to eating vegetables, many people just don’t eat enough of them. At this point in our 30 Day Reboot, it's time to start upping the vegetables to increase fat loss progres!
Eating enough vegetables will help to give your body essential vitamins and minerals, fiber, and other nutrients to help you reach your fat loss goals. All of these nutrients help your cells run more efficiently, help your tissues stay healthy, and help to squelch inflammation.
Vegetables also help to balance the ph levels of your body. Meat and seafood are wonderful for their protein content, and essential amino acids, but they present acid loads to the blood. So do grains and legumes. To create a healthy balance of alkaline to acid in your body, eat vegetables at every meal.
Eating more vegetables could also speed up your metabolism through something called “diet induced thermogenesis”. It takes energy to digest fiber rich foods, so eating vegetables at each meal helps to reduce the caloric load of that meal. 1 2
Negative Calorie Effect
At this point in the program, we can start to add in some very big changes to keep your body progressing to a leaner, fitter, and healthier state. Eating six servings or more of vegetables per day is the low hanging fruit when it comes to burning more calories.
Due to their fibrous nature, low calorie, and nutrient dense content, eating most vegetables actually burns more calories than they contain! You can only exercise so much, and you can only shave off so many calories, and that's why it's SO important to start helping your body get leaner and even healthier by eating enough vegetables. This is such an easy way to burn calories while giving your cells the nutrition they need to renew themselves and function properly.
How to Sneak In Six Servings a Day
In general shoot for at one servings of vegetables per meal. You might have to build up slowly at first to allow your body to acclimate to the higher fiber you’re eating.
- Smoothies - a green smoothie is a palatable and convenient way to get about half your day’s worth of vegetables and fruits. For smoothie recipes, go to page 18 of Lean Reboot Recipe Book
- Food processor - for quickly shredding or grating vegetables for slaw salads, salsas, or bulk sliced veggies for snacking)
- Roasting - An easy way to add flavor to most vegetables. Toss a mix of veggies in oil, season to taste, and roast for 25 minutes for a delicious side dish.
- Roasted tomatoesRoasted vegetable medley
- Roasted yams with carrots
- Roasted peppers with zucchini and olives
- Soups - Simmer any vegetables in a broth with onions or garlic, toss in a blender, and season to taste.
- Pre-chop some vegetables at the beginning of your week to have ready as a snack option
Resources
Lean Reboot Recipe Book - Brenda Turner
25 Simple Green Side Dishes- Article Complied by Faith Duran
How to Roast any Vegetable - Article by Emma Christensen
Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop
Vegetable of The Day by Kate McMillan