Ways to Increase Veggie and Fruit Intake?

Nutrition
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I’ve recently been reviewing my diet and realized that I’m not consuming a whole lot of fruit and vegetables.

While cutting I eat a whole lot of both, but I’m currently eating 4,000 kcal a day and it’s pretty hard to squeeze in veggies as they contribute to increasing the already high volume of food I have to consume.

I think that a good way to squeeze in some fruit other than the occasional banana I eat (I like them, I just don’t find myself having them at hand as consistently as I do other foods) would be making fruit smoothies: like one banana, some frozen berries, half a cup of milk, a cup of orange juice, banana whey protein powder, a little bit of sweetener, and ice. That’d probably count as a couple of servings of fruit.

With veggies, I eat them when I have lunch at my mom’s house after workouts, but when I’m at my place I just can’t manage to make it a habit. It’s just too convenient to cook some rice and then throw in a can of tuna or salmon. I heard that some people mix veggies in their protein shakes because they can’t taste it. Does that really work?

In the end, I probably only have veggies 4 times a week when bulking, which is lower than it should be. I find it very hard to mix them with rice that already has stuff inside. How do you manage to eat more veggies and fruit?

Bonus question: although we know that the food source isn’t as important as the calorie and macro balance, I sometimes feel guilty, perhaps a little bit influenced by the “eat clean” crowd, of not eating well enough.

The main foods I consume are rice, chicken, tuna, salmon, pasta, eggs, milk, peanut butter, and cheese, but I’m exercising some freedom and as far as snacks I’ve recently been having things like milk with froot loops or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (either of these is my usual go to late night, before bed snack).

Also a meal that I really like is this: I cook rice, then I prepare 2-3 different kinds of cheese (Scamorza, brie, cheese slices…) and I usually add olive oil or butter. It ends up having upward 30 g of protein but, although I know diary protein is a good quality, highly bioavailable protein, I read so many times that meals have to include “meat or fish protein” that I sometimes feel like I should be subbing that meal for some “rice and chicken” type one.

Oh, I do track my calories btw. Is this all nonsense is can there be any merit to eating a diet that’d be traditionally considered “cleaner?”

I’m asking because I’ve been taking the IIFYM approach for granted, but I realized that many people are still advocating for traditional, bro-sciencey type of nutrition.

Thanks for your time.

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Spinach, carrots and avocado all vanish into smoothies without any real taste.

I throw this into the blender…

spinach
Mango
Avocado
Berries
Ground almonds
Carrot
Ginger
Banana

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3

Make salads. Some lettuce, tomato, spinach, peeled carrots, etc, then throw your proteins on top. A can of salmon, chicken, steak, etc.and some quartered hard boiled eggs.

Dressed with some evo, lemon juice, what ever herbs and spices.

You might have to restructure your shopping and eating habits a little.

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When cutting, I’d do this all the time.
But how can I get in my 450 daily grams of carbs this way?

That’s what’s making this difficult. I consume 200 g of rice both at lunch and at dinner.

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Does the blender actually manage to blend almonds?

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What does this taste like in the end? :rofl:

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It tastes like 6 servings of fruit/veg! It’s not too bad, kale is very noticeable in there but sometimes I add that.

I buy the almonds ground already from the baking section.

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Good Lord I’ll have to try that haha.

Any thoughts regarding my “bonus” question?

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steamer bags of frozen veggies, 5 min in the microwave. Have them with your easy meat and rice meal. Jazz em up with whatever you want to make it not so bland - salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, lemon juice, soy, vinegar…

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Pretty much anytime I have eggs, they’re getting a handful of vegetables mixed into a scramble - Normandy blend (a carrot/broccoli/cauliflower mix), spinach, kale, zucchini, whatever’s around.

If I make pasta, there’s usually some greens in there. Super-easy to throw some spinach, kale, or chard into a red sauce, though I can appreciate how this may be sacrelige to you.

I have a shake in the morning, I’ll often toss a scoop or two of Superfood in it. It’s literally designed to be concentrated fruit/vegetable micronutrients without the sugar or fiber. A cheater’s way to have more fruits and vegetables? Yep. That’s the point.

If I make a sandwich, it gets a few pieces of boring lettuce or some spinach leaves. It’s pretty easy to add stuff to your meals, you just need to be on the lookout for where they can slide in instead of just eating the same stuff out of habit.

We do not know that. And it’s precisely one of the bigger problems the IIFYM crowd runs into, overfocusing on the convenience and fun of eating “anything” while overlooking nutrient-dense healthful foods. Paul Carter went in-depth discussing the pros and cons of IIFYM here.

Sliced bananas or strawberries, or a handful of blueberries, are awesome in cereal. Diced apples in oatmeal is a classic.

Banana and peanut butter go together like… banana and peanut butter. Thin-sliced apples would work too, and gives texture so no one needs to deal with the travesty that is “crunchy peanut butter”.

Not sure about you, but I can easily inhale a couple bananas or a couple of clementines or a few kiwis or a bowl of watermelon or a bunch of apple wedges with minimal effort. Plenty of fruit isn’t all that filling. Or if you find they are, push them to your late-night snack so you don’t need to deal with being full afterwards.

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Regarding the bonus question, does your health factor into your nutritional decision making? If so eat your fruit and veg.

We have very different mind sets when it comes to training and nutrition. You like to think about and research everything, making everything complicated. I like simple, the simpler the better. Hence I don’t really have an opinion much of what you touch on in your bonus question. So for me, regardless of studies, macros, diet strategies and what ever else, it’s as simple as fruit and veg is good for you in many ways, hence I eat it as much as I can. Vitamin and mineral deficiencys can cause all sorts of problems in the body, consuming plenty of fruit and veg may help avoid that, when it’s as simple as throwing a steam bag in the microwave or stuff in a blender to drink throughout the day, why wouldn’t you?

Skry yogurt with granola, berries and honey is a regular meal of mine, 30+g of protein but no meat or fish?! Not at all bothered and you probably shouldn’t be either.

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That is only one meal.

We may be missing on the rice thing. I make one dry cup in a steamer, which makes like 2 cups cooked or something. So, for me, I just take half the bowl cooked and throw about 4 or 5 scrambled eggs on it for a weekend morning breakfast.

Another easy one is taking the other half bowl (one cup cooked) and using it as a bed for a nice dinner stir fry.

So depending on whether you’re talking dry or cooked weight, you can put down a few hundred grams of rice like nothing.

Edit: on the bonus question- Better ingredients make better food. If you want to eat good food, use good ingredients. The “clean” thing is generally patronized neurotically by people with their thumbs stuck in their asses.

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It’s 200 g dry. I don’t know how many cups that is, but it’s A LOT of rice.

Still, the problem isn’t the volume of rice per se, as much as the fact that adding veggies on top of all of that would probably be difficult.

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At 28 grams/ounce, that’s about a cup, so two servings the way I cook it.

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Eat 1 cup of uncooked white rice (3-4 cups cooked) in a meal as your carbs source. That’s already an easy 150 g of carbs. Eat this two times a day and that’s already 300 g of carbs. 2 bagels (~100 g carbs) felt more filling than one cup of uncooked rice (~150 g). Just eat the most of the veggies separately in the evening, after you get your most of starches that are calorie dense so that you don’t feel full earlier. I don’t like my veggies being blended. Fruits are awesome though. I love making fruits smoothie. Eating 450+ g of carbs is a piece of cake at least for me. I am more surprised how people can get 200+ g of protein on a daily basis, must be hard.

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You did not just say that!!!

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If your bulk is short and not frequent then I wouldn’t necessarily worry about it. Maybe add a carrot, leafy veg in where you can.

Other suggestions, there was a Dr Berardi article on here where he made a sauce type thing. Spinach, tomato, garlic, onion, I forget what else which you blend. It turns into a nice topping and is no more filling for 4 veggies.

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I’m pretty sure I read that article at least once, but I’ll take a look so that I don’t miss anything.

I do realize that IIFYM doesn’t mean to eat anything you want, and I’d say that if you look at the list of foods I mentioned I consume daily, most of them are wholesome and nutrient-dense. Still, I sometimes feel like some of the choice I make aren’t the best due to the stigma of eating rice with chicken and not much else that is around bodybuilding. I get that voice in the back of my head that tells me, “would a bodybuilder, trying to take his physique to the next level and optimize progress eat that?” And I just can’t imagine Coleman eating rice and cheese instead of tilapia lol, even if that fits the macros. I know that’s pretty silly but that’s how I feel when eating something that isn’t commonly regarded as “clean” (also I do realize the concept is silly in the first place).

Yeah sure, I’m not questioning whether I should eat more fruit and veggies. Matter of fact, I’ll be putting some of the ideas you guys gave me into practice by tomorrow. My question is more geared towards nutrition and results body composition wise.

I’m consistently hitting my calorie and macro goals, but there’s still something that makes me not satisfied because I feel like I could be doing better and that my results aren’t that amazing, so I started questioning whether I should actually just stick to rice and chicken/tuna and ditch pasta, fancy snacks and shit for the most part, as bro-scientists would have me doing lol

This isn’t a bulk as in “a brief, blitz-like attempt to gain weight where for x weeks I eat everything.” I am eating 4,000 kcal because I wasn’t gaining weight on 3,600 and not I’m starting to stall at 4,000 too (while inexplicably I seem to get fatter, but I’m probably just obsessed), so I’m trying to tighten things up because I might have to eat this way for some more time.

I’ll look for that article, thank you.

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Found it:

It’s a bit of a read so the relevant bit is below (he mentions adding yoghurt a bit further down from this quote):

One of my favorite sauces is influenced by Indian cooking and is made from three cups of spinach, two whole tomatoes, one whole onion, and three cloves of garlic. I puree these in a blender with 0.5 cups of water. Then I mix in some salt, pepper, and curry powder (eliminate if you don’t like spicy food)

This is pretty good but I wilt the spinach first ad use minimal water and add a bit of oil.

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This comes down to time and patience. I’ve said it time and time again, muscle building is a slow process. Your not going to get noticeable amazing results, it’s a slow some what unnoticeable process.

I honestly believe that most people should just forget about physique goals and chase performance. You will never feel muscular enough whilst cutting and you will never feel lean enough whist bulking, it’s a mind fuck that leads nowhere. Pick a routine, follow it and make progress in weights and reps, then repeat over and over. The physique will follow.

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