People are exceptionally creative—they can come up with all kinds of excuses why they don’t eat healthy.  These can range from it takes too much time to prepare vegetables (but they’ll spend over 10 minutes in a running vehicle in a drive-through for take-out) to it’s too expensive to eat healthy (but if they tracked their eating-out expenses, it tells a different story).  All it takes is a change in perspective to make eating healthy more delicious and enjoyable.

1. Morning smoothies make getting a daily blast of Vitamin C and fruits a cinch. Nothing could be easier than throwing frozen berries, mango, banana, a splash of pure orange juice, and a tablespoon of peanut butter for protein into one container and blending.  Improve it even more by adding a handful of fresh spinach, which you won’t even taste.  Frozen fruit lasts a long time and is only pennies per serving when made at home.
2. It pays to buy the best quality balsamic vinegar money can buy since a tiny amount mixed in with extra virgin olive oil makes an easy and flavourful salad dressing. Baby spinach or lettuce alone is tasty with this easy to make dressing drizzled on top.  A little goes a long way and overall costs much cheaper than high fat dressings bought in the store, filled with preservatives and other nasty ingredients you don’t want in your body.
3. Fruit plates are a simple way to get more fruit. Instead of mindlessly snacking on crunchy potato chips while studying, set out a fruit plate of apple, banana, and orange slices.  You won’t even notice the difference, other than you feel energized longer.
4. While noodle soups aren’t the best health-wise, you can enhance their nutrient value by adding grated ginger (I keep a ginger root handy in the freezer), chopped green onions, carrots, mushrooms, and any other vegetable wilting in the crisper. You’ll still enjoy your noodles, but with flavourful vegetables too!
5. Vegetable omelets are a no-brainer. Chopped up green onions, spinach, mushrooms, even broccoli and peppers add flavor and nutrients to your eggs like no amount of cheese can.  Add hot sauce if like it spicy!
6. Instead of potato chips, chop up celery and carrot sticks, broccoli and cauliflower for dipping in your favourite dips. Still satisfyingly crunchy but more nutrient-packed.
7. It’s diabolically easy to sneak in extra chopped vegetables and tomatoes into pasta sauces and chili. Yum!
8. Make your sandwiches more exciting by adding cucumber slices, lettuce leaves, sprouts, and sliced avocado.
9. Remember all those frozen vegetables languishing in the freezer? Scatter them into any dish–stews, soups, casseroles and sauces.
10. Pizza is delicious and nutritious when you: a) Make your own crust and b) Make it mostly vegetarian. Lavish as much spinach, green, red, and yellow peppers, mushrooms, green onions, and zucchini your heart desire on top of your pizza, pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes, and you have yourself a scrumptious and healthy way to eat more veggies. Go easy on the cow cheese and add more goat variety cheese.  Goat cheese contains less lactose, so is easier to digest.  It also has less fat and more vitamins and minerals.

Undeniably, adding fruit and vegetables into your diet is painless when you get into the habit.  You may even be motivated to grow an herb garden in your kitchen window or outside the back door.  Lettuce also grows prolifically in a pot if you chop off the top leaves—it keeps growing back abundant new leaves for fresh salads.  Plus, growing your own greens is absurdly cheaper than buying those high priced, plastic-clad greens in the store.  Now for a healthy and energized 2019!