Negros Oriental - We all know how difficult it is to incorporate vegetables into our diets. Running between work and home and making dinner can be more than enough to fill a weekday. It's easy to fall into a pattern, and many of those routines don't include ensuring that everyone in the family consumes the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables each day.

Nonetheless, we know that vegetables are essential to a healthy diet. They are high in nutrients that our bodies require and provide us with the energy we need to get through our hectic days. Eating more veggies as part of a balanced diet can help lower blood pressure and minimize the risk of various ailments. Plus, because veggies have fewer calories than many other foods, eating more of them might help everyone in your family maintain a healthy weight.

So, how can we include more vegetables in our daily routine without sacrificing our family favorites? Begin small. Break your significant aim of eating more vegetables down into smaller, more manageable stages. Instead of attempting to incorporate veggies into your breakfast, lunch, and supper straight once, you can begin by focusing on one meal per day or by substituting a healthy snack for a regular one. For example, you can decide to include veggies at breakfast three times a week with a delicious veggie omelet or swap the chips in your child's lunchbox for sliced carrots or another crunchy veggie. You may add more vegetables to other recipes and be creative with them.

Making a healthy menu plan ahead of time might also help you achieve your goal. Many types of vegetables, like carrots, can be prepared and kept refrigerated for 3-4 days, allowing you to portion them out in batches ready to go without any mid-week prep. Make and freeze vegetable soups, stews, or other dishes in advance for a quick and easy meal.

You can also mark your calendar every day that your family has eaten veggies, you can even list the veggies eaten each day. Reward everyone with a family outing, movie night, or sleepover with friends.

You can gradually increase your vegetable intake as these small steps become habitual. The trick is to start small and progressively find more and more opportunities to expand as time goes on. We're less likely to give up and more likely to stick with new behaviors if we reduce enormous goals into tiny, manageable steps. // ND II Jhianne Mae Nicole C. Tugaoen, RND