Eat Your Vegetables!!!!

Why do you have to force kids to eat vegetables? I’ll be the first to admit there are some strange kids out there who just love vegetables. I was one of them! I don’t think my mother ever put anything in front of me I didn’t like except liver. I don’t think there were many kids out there like me. I know this from experience. I had friends who absolutely hated vegetables and would do anything to avoid them. I have personally witnessed countless “fits” when one of my vegetable hating friends was forced to eat these morsels. Why do vegetables have a such a bad reputation?

Kid Before… Adult Now

“I don’t like vegetables!” I hear this every now and then from adults, yes adults. These people are no longer kids. I can only look at them with a squinted eye and say,“huh?” These are the very same people who have the nerve to tell me they want to lose weight and have been struggling to do it. I’m not sure if they know every one of those “commercial” diets contain some sort of “veggie” to be included with a meal. How could they not make the correlation of vegetables and weight loss? Its crazy how we can “miss the forest for the trees,” isn’t it? In my own experience, I have grown out of disliking certain foods as I became an adult. I don’t know if it was just me or I was under the “influence” of others. What do I mean by this? As a kid, I would pretend I didn’t like certain kinds of foods because my friends didn’t like them and I wanted to be a part of the “in crowd.” I  guess I told myself this so many times, I started believing it until I matured.

The Big Fail

If you are not eating vegetables, you’re pretty much screwing yourself. I can give you the same ol’ regurgitated mumbo jumbo about the nutrients veggies provide, but chances are you heard it all before, right? I don’t think this has convinced you in the past so it won’t do anything now. I can tell what will convince you…hunger! Everyone pays attention to their grumbling stomach when they are hungry. I can’t tell you how many people I hear complain about hunger when they start their fitness training programs or diet. Vegetables are fiber dense and leave you feeling full longer. You need to feel full or eventually you’ll cheat and fail on your program. You can eat an unlimited amount of these tidbits and they have no overall effect on your calories. It takes as many calories to burn vegetables as in the vegetable themselves so they are the perfect fat burning food!

I’m Tired!

Do you know someone who is tired all the time? Some of us may have a medical reason for being tired, but it might just be a nutritional deficiency. Veggies provide complex carbohydrates which are slow to burn in the body and provide energy all day long. They don’t spike the blood sugar and you want this benefit if you’re going to lose weight. So, if you’re tired of being tired, try some vegetables. There are many other benefits to eating vegetables and this could be a very long post so I want to cut it short but I’ll leave you with one recommendation. If you’re having a problem eating your veggies, try a sweet potato. Everyone loves something sweet! You can work your way into the hard stuff later. 

Darren McDuffie
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
Certified Nutrition and Weight Management Specialist
Certified Exercise Foundations Specialist
Certified Fitness Testing Specialist