My Diet - Enough Veggies?

Diet and Nutrition
1

I’m trying to arrange my diet so I don’t have to prepare my own food at home and take it to work.
I know it’s going to cost me slightly more but it’s just more convinient and less hassle.

Here is what I have come up with:-

Meal 1 - (At home) Protien shake consisting of cottage cheese, oats, whey protien powder, berries + apple.

Meal 2 - (At work) Chicken + salad sandwich on wholemeal bread- there is a shop next door to where I work where I can buy a chicken sandwich made from proper roast chicken, not the cheap lunch meat stuff.

Meal 3 - (at work) 2 chicken breasts, pre cooked from local supermarket + fruit - Apple, Orange, banana, grapes etc.

Meal 4 - (at work)Mixed Nuts

Meal 5 - (at home) Protien shake - Grow

Meal 6 - (At home) scrambled eggs with spinach + vegetable salad - Spinach, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms + olive oil for fat.

This would mean I will not have to prepare any food for work at all, as I’d be buying it from the supermarket/shop but my only concern is will I be getting enough veggies in my diet this way??
For example, should meal 3 which consists of chicken breats + fruit, actually be chcien breasts + veggies instead.
Does it matter if I eat all my fruit in one serving rather than spreading it throughout the day?? and eating all my veggies in the evening meal??

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Jay

2

Jay,

It looks like your doing really well with the frequency of your meals and making sure that you’re eatin well at work is a pretty crucial step in your diet. As for your question on veggies, Dr. John Berardi recommends in his precision nutrition plan that you consume somewhere from 7-10 servings of fruits and veggies a day.

Its impossible to tell from your post how many servings your getting because you didn’t post any serving sizes and you also didn’t tell us anything about you. If you happen to be a small 12 year old girl, then you are most assuradly getting enough, but if you are a 250 pound monster then the matter changes. My recommendation is to tell us alitte more about yourself for example; height, age, a brief goal summary and people will be much more effective in their critiques of your diet plan. It looks ‘clean’ and like your getting adequate protein (again, this is impossible to tell without knowing your weight).

Good luck with the nutrition and never hesitate to read anything and everything written by John Berardi, Dr. Lowery and any of the other great authors on this site in regards to nutrition.

Cheers,
Mark

3

just get 2 servings of fruit/veggies at every meal and your good. It looks like you have around 6-8 servings (depending on sizes), so your are ok. if not, stick an extra fruit/veggie snack in before bed with some slow digesting protein. (ie cottage cheese and berries).

you are better than 99% of americans with regards to healthy eating. basically, you are splitting hairs and just really fine tuning things.

4

Not much to add, but you could look into a Greens supplement if you think you are skimping on the veggies. However if I were you, I would add some broccoli in there and make sure every salad I ate was 90% spinach.

Shug’s pimps the hell out of frozen veggies and for good reason. It is pretty easy to dump some in a Tupperware container and be on your way.

5

I found that my diet was seriously lacking in fruit and vegies so I am now a big fan of frozen vegies. They are not my primary source but I use them as a vegie supplement of sorts.

It only takes 10 minutes to cook a days worth of vegies at home, or you can keep them in a freezer at work and cook some while you walk to the shop to get your meals.

6

I found a really good supplement called veggie greens. You can find it at most supplement stores or find more info at the Progressive Nutritional site.

It is a comprehensive combination of over 60 land vegetables, as well as EFAs and probotics, enzymes and herbal extracts. One small scoop is equivalent to six to eight servings of veggies. No artificial flavours, sweeteners, or colours.

7

[quote]TBSgirl wrote:
I found a really good supplement called veggie greens. You can find it at most supplement stores or find more info at the Progressive Nutritional site.

It is a comprehensive combination of over 60 land vegetables, as well as EFAs and probotics, enzymes and herbal extracts. One small scoop is equivalent to six to eight servings of veggies. No artificial flavours, sweeteners, or colours.

[/quote]

That’s impressive, is Greens + the same type of deal? If I coudl get my whole days worth in a scoop that would be phenomenal.

8

odds are if you have to ask us if you’re getting enough, you probably aren’t.

If you were already getting 10 fruits/veggies in a day, then you’d probably be gloating about it, I typically gloat about my fruit/veggie intake to those that ask or bitch about how 5 is difficult.

Here’s some easy ways to increase your intake:

cook with more veggies! yup, that’s the simplest way to do it. If you normally throw in a bell pepper, throw in two. Same with all veggies.

Lettuce wraps - Instead of sandwhiches, wrap that shit in a bunch of lettuce (also helpful if you’re cutting). Think of it as a salad burrito.

snack on carrots, raw brocoli and bell peppers, maybe use some hummus for a little extra flavor.

Onions, if you eat a little bit you’re gonna wreak like a skunk; might as well throw in a little more and get some extra veggie content out of it.

Fruits: you can easily get bags of mixed frozen fruit at costco and the grocery stores. These are awesome for throwing in some protein and having “super slurpees”

Most fruits you can bring around with you wherever you go and toss’em back for a light bite to eat. It’s way better to have an apple or a banana instead of french fries (also not a veggie).

While greens supplements seem to work (hell, I even use one if I’m feeling a little lazy around a meal later at night) they aren’t really necessary, but more of a crutch.

10 cups of fruits and veggies a day, it’ll seem like a lot at first, then you’ll be used to it. Also, while 10 of either is better than zero, I would caution to stay on the side of mostly veggies.

9

Eat greens 'til your shit is green. That’s how I tell if I’m eating enough :wink:

10

On what time of the day do you workout?
I would add something with meal 4 and 5, if possible. Meal 5 (shake) is at home, so in that meal it’s easy to get some more veggies in. Like suggested before, frozen veggies are easy to make in advance. Just store small portions.

At meal 4, I would add a complete protein source (nuts are OK, but it’s easy to eat a lot of them and it’s more fat source) and more fiber.

11

For what it’s worth, if you’re interested in an easy way to get more vegetables into your diet, add them to your protein shakes.

I use a lot of frozen fruit for my shakes but on top of that, I’ll add something like baby spinach or some frozen brocolli cuts. The fruit overpowers the taste of the veggies so you don’t have to worry about tasting the veggies.

12

In my opinion, not enough vegetables that count, like broccoli.

13

[quote]TBSgirl wrote:
I found a really good supplement called veggie greens. You can find it at most supplement stores or find more info at the Progressive Nutritional site.

It is a comprehensive combination of over 60 land vegetables, as well as EFAs and probotics, enzymes and herbal extracts. One small scoop is equivalent to six to eight servings of veggies. No artificial flavours, sweeteners, or colours.

[/quote]

yeah we used to have some of that in the fridge. tastes like garbage though. i prefer just to eat veggies straight up. lots of stirfry and such.