dieting

Picture this…

Vegetables are tasty, good for you, fairly low cost and are among the foods that speed up metabolism – which we feel as increased energy – but you knew that.

You’ve been trying to eat a better, more balanced diet and you try to include foods that speed up metabolism so you’ve been eating plenty of vegetables. But for some unknown reason, you barely have the energy to get through the day.

After a hard day at work, all you want to do is plant yourself in front of the television and relax until bedtime rolls around.

Finally, the next morning when the alarm goes off, you feel like you’ve just finished running a marathon. You aren’t rested at all! You hit the snooze button as many times as you can and then finally drag yourself out of the bed. First destination? The coffee pot – ALWAYS!

You could be dragging because you aren’t getting the proper nutrition. You can stop blaming your bed! It could be your veggies. Foods that speed up metabolism and provide the right balance of vitamins and minerals will give you tons of energy- if eaten correctly. Here’s a possible culprit – vitamins are water soluble.

We fix our meals, happily cooking our vegetables – usually in boiling water! This means we’re dissolving the nutrients and literally pouring them out! By the time we’re finished, our meal has virtually no nutritional value left!

Guess what? Most vegetables can be eaten raw. Plus, they usually taste better that way! When given the opportunity, always opt for raw.

The up side is that there are TONS of benefits to doing it that way.

First, you stop throwing out all the nutrients! You are likely to notice an increase in energy almost immediately. Your general feelings of well being will get a boost as well.

Second, for great taste, nothing beats eating your veggies raw!

Third, you don’t have to wash your cooking pots and pans if you don’t use them.

Fourth, you can exact revenge on all those skinny members of your family! There is nothing more funny than LOUDLY biting into and chewing a fresh carrot or a crisp stalk of celery. Done properly you can disrupt conversations – ruin trains of thought – and generally drive your family nuts! (Hey, I may be an old dude but I never really grew up!)

Fifth, you get a lot of good roughage and fiber by eating your veggies raw.

Don’t forget, they taste better too!

What’s our goal? Eat a minimum of one raw veggie at each meal.

Be sure to thoroughly clean them before eating. They DO have chemical and pesticide residues. Whenever possible, try to buy organic, it will cut out the pesticides and they’re healthier.

The average diet doesn’t provide all the nutrients we need, so if you don’t take a daily vitamin supplement, it would probably be a good idea to start.

Don’t skip your vitamins, but as you start to eat healthier foods that speed up metabolism and start getting the nutrients you need in your food, you won’t so desperately need daily vitamins.

Start eating raw veggies and before you know it, you too can be one of those irritating people who jump out of bed in the morning all full of energy and raring to go!