The first small change is to take a look at snacks. Our dad has a candy bar every day. A candy bar now and then would be fine, but not every day. Here is our suggestion;
- Swap out the candy bar for 3 piece of fresh, ripe fruit.
When you are grocery shopping, keep in mind that the most nutritious foods are all around the perimeter of the store. Generally the fruits are right at the front of the store, so dive right in and choose as many of them as you think you can eat in a week. Make sure they are ready-to-eat when you buy them, otherwise sometimes we wait so long for them to ripen that they either end up in the trash, or you run out of ripe fruit and instead reach for that pesky candy bar...
My favorite fruits to eat are kiwis. I make sure that they are soft when I buy them so I can dig right into one when I get home. I cut them in half and then eat them with a spoon.
Kiwifruit is a rich source of vitamin C, 1.5 times the DRI scale in the US. Its potassium content by weight is slightly less than that of a banana. It also contains vitamins A and E. The skin is a good source of flavonoid antioxidants. The kiwifruit seed oil contains on average 62% alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid. Usually a medium size kiwifruit contains about 46 calories, 0.3 g fats, 1 g proteins, 11 g carbohydrates, 75 mg vitamins and 2.6 g dietary fiber. Where did I get this info? From Wikipedia, so I can't guarantee that it's correct, but my point is that kiwis are exceptionally good for you, and taste delicious!
Make sure to get fruits that you think are like eating treats, and pretty soon you will not miss the candy bar at all!
This image was created by Richard Thomas and accessed from his flickr account, flickrich.
