Strategies for the Vegetable Challenged

Apr 24, 2015

In virtually every initial call I have with a client when they are desperately seeking help to keep the weight off for good this time, they will usually attribute their weight to one of three issues:

• lack of portion control
• emotional eating (usually stress)
• knowing what to do but not sustaining it

There are ways to manage all of these issues (notice I didn’t say fix), but the portion control thing is for sure the easiest to address.  Veggies are for all intents and purposes free so you could just eat more of the “cheaper” things.  Pick your battlegrounds.

A few concrete calorie examples convince almost everyone of the mathematical truth of this.  Picture Perfect Weight Loss by Howard Shapiro provides engaging visuals that get folks to sit up and take notice and put this solution within reach for many.  Add some healthy fat into the mix and it’s really quite livable.  The choice is yours.  You can still just eat less overall if that’s actually easier for you, but it not a prerequisite to success and has a limited shelf life for sure.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that when I have had folks return for a tune up, invariably a significant part of their weight regain is because they have started to replace veggies with (usually processed) starches again, like a sandwich instead of a salad at lunch, thus exponentially increasing the calorie content, while getting less overall food – that digests and leaves their stomach faster to boot.  No surprise then that the weight starts creeping up.  It baffles them because they are not scarfing down something obvious like M&Ms. They view starches (even the processed) as real food, not the sugar that starches really act like in your body.

And when you consider that making half your plate colorful, non-starchy veggies will alkalize your blood leading to all sorts of fabulous physiologic changes (like not using your the calcium in bones to buffer acidic blood from eating only starches and proteins, or that cancer cells cannot live in an alkaline blood pH), it just may not seem like such a stretch.

So, if asked after two decades of private practice to select a single effective dietary strategy for successful weight loss maintenance, I would hands down, 100% of the time, without a split second pause say vegetable consumption. Non-starchy, colorful vegetables are the single food group that has never been in dispute in all the years of nutrition debate.

Aside from the obvious health benefits like the provision of literally thousands of helpful plant chemicals like polyphenols and antioxidants, here’s why they are the cornerstone of a successful weight management plan:

• you don’t have to rely on not eating or strict portion control
• veggies contain all types of fibers which keep you full and actually escort other calories out of your body
• if you eat them first (particularly if you serve them as an actual course) they can take the edge off your appetite so you can eat reasonable amounts of the foods that you have more difficulty managing
• they can fend off a binge, or at least dilute the ultimate caloric and nutritional cost
• unlike pretzels and the entire line of processed, dry, crunchy things, you probably won’t eat them if you aren’t hungry
• if you did, it wouldn’t matter

Where the trouble begins is in acquiring them.  Problem is, people don’t order them or seem to want them, so restaurants tend to treat them as colorful decoration.  Oh, they have them in the kitchen so you can get them, but they are not the predominant element on your huge dinner plate.  And when you look at the grocery belt for most families you will see five starch options and one head of broccoli.  So, here are some strategies to streamline vegetable acquisition:

• Bulk prepare two times a week (I do Sunday and Wednesday usually) so that they are always on hand.  Debbie’s Green Bags will allow you to keep your produce longer
• Make more than one vegetable option at dinner
• Order from a co-op like Door to Door Organics so that they get delivered and being to busy to shop doesn’t stand in your way.  This also reinforces eating  seasonal, fresh foods
• Order them online already made and have them delivered (some options are:  FreshDirect.com, PaleoDietDelivered. com, PetesPaleo.com and KettleBellKitchen.com
• Home deliver the ingredients for a gourmet meal you cook yourself in 30 minutes from HelloFresh.com
• Buy them pre-made from a local deli, caterer or supermarket
• Hire a personal chef to come to your home or to buy meals or sides from
• In restaurants order a side of roasted or sautéed veggies as a starter course
• In restaurants trade the starch with your dinner for two veggie sides instead – I have never been refused this option anywhere

How can you convince your family to be on board?  You can tell I am single because my first thought when a client says that their husband or kids won’t eat vegetables, is, “Oh good, more for you!”

• Role model eating them yourself
• Limit the universally appealing fatty-starchy dishes being served
• Present appealing veggie options – raw for kids, like Thai Pineapple Cauliflower Rice or Indian Spiced Roasted Cabbage Steaks
• Serve only the veggies family style
• Serve a salad or vegetable soup as an actual first course when all are hungriest
• HealthBarnUSA.com in Wyckoff offers summer programs that can inspire your kids by growing a vegetable garden and producing a cookbook together
• Grow a garden at home: learn how at Sustainable Dish
• Eating the Alphabet:Veggies, Eating the Alphabet:Fruits can help small children to recognize these colorful beauties
• Door to Door Organics brings farm fresh food to your door every week

Here’s what I know about myself:

• if folks are eating, chances are I am too (I can count on one hand the times I just watched!)
• when I am hungry, I won’t wait for veggies (no matter how much I should as a Nutritionist)
• I hate to waste food, so if veggies are left over I will use them in an omelet (this works against me with lasagna)

To quote my own 2004 newsletter, “To any question about weight management or nutrition, the answer is always the same (even more so in 2015): vegetables, vegetables, vegetables.”