Eating More Veggies

One of my “Do More Of” for the year is to eat more vegetables. I eat some, but not nearly enough. When I look at the meals Dr. Gabrielle Lyon has on her website that include the 30 grams of protein per meal it seems like way too much food.

I can eat a great breakfast, 30 grams of protein and plenty of veggies. The meals after that though are a bit of a mash up. Some days I can manage a second meal with 30 grams of protein and the 30-40 grams of carbohydrates. A third meal of that amount of food rarely ever happens!

This is why many of us over 60 have a hard time eating enough protein! It’s a lot of food. I routinely have to bug my father into eating more protein. Plus, we don’t process it as efficiently as we did when we were in our 20s, thus we need more than the average youngster.

Protein intake I have dialed in, I add 30 grams in a protein drink in the morning while doing my workout. This is about 4 hours before I eat breakfast or my first real meal of the day.

Looking at what I have written, I realize I can add a salad with lots of fresh veggies and some nuts and maybe goat cheese to my rotation in the afternoon. I also love a good batch of green beans cooked in the slow cooker. Cole Slaw mix sautéed up with ginger chicken makes a spring roll filling without the spring roll wrapper (extra carbs). Trying to add in a good serving of a colorful veggie at every meal, including breakfast!

30 grams of carbohydrates, just how much is that? It depends on the items. For leafy greens it’s a fair amount. The goal for weight maintenance is a 1:1 ratio in grams of carbs and protein. 30 grams of protein is needed per meal to make or maintain muscle. You want no more than 30 grams of veggie carbs with that protein. If its veggie protein, watch the carb load as you strive for 30 grams of protein.

That 30 grams of carbohydrates does not include things like bread, crackers, potatoes, rice, etc. It includes colorful veggies full of polyphenols that feed your gut and keep your immune system happy. Pulses if you can process them are excellent but again watch that carb load as you calculate your protein.

To do all of this you need a kitchen scale and one of the weight loss apps. Or you can look up the amount of protein/carbs/fat in each food. I cook 90% of my food at home and do this once, write it down and then I know what I have for each meal. Making a Brussel Sprout stir fry meals, weighing the sprouts, onion and anything else going in, including the fat/oil used to stir fry. Once it is all written down, then you know the proportions per gram of the stir fry. Yes, it’s a pain to do but do it for a couple of weeks and I would bet you have most of the dishes you make written down. Soon you will know what 30 grams of protein and 30 grams of carbs looks like and you won’t have to mess with it.

Whew, that’s a long way from me adding more veggies to my diet isn’t it?