Hey Sweetheart Challengers! I pray you all had a wonderful, water-filled week last week! I can’t wait to hear about how everything went during our chat on Twitter on Tuesday. Yayyy for hydration!

So….this week, our challenge is based more on the food we ingest. While we’re all embarking on this journey toward better health, 50% of reaching any health goal is nutrition. We can’t workout 5 days a week and eat anything we want. Or if we are trying to eat well, we should know the reason for eating certain foods and their health benefit.

There’s been a huge uproar in the health and wellness world about eating green. Nutritionists, scientists, health experts, etc. are all pushing us to get more green foods in our diet. And for good reason. Here’s a few reasons why dark green vegetables such as broccoli, collard greens, kale, romaine lettuce, spinach and bok choy are called “SuperFoods”(taken from  http://vegetarian-nutrition.info) :

• low in calories (great for weight management)
• high in folic acid, vitamin C, potassium and magnesium
• major source of iron and calcium
• carotenoids, flavonoids and other powerful antioxidants that have cancer-protective properties
• significantly decrease the risk of breast cancer and skin cancer

Wow… all that from a food? Yup! The foods that grow out from the ground are the most beneficial for our bodies and we need to eat more of them. Those of you on this challenge who want to tone-up those muscles or just “eat better” well, get those green veggies in.

So , this week’s goal is as follows: Eat 2 servings of a green vegetable every day. Yup! Every day! A serving is defined as a cup (think of it as a handful). Some really great ways to get those two servings in are:

• Eat some greens with your breakfast. Try a spinach/broccoli omelet or scramble.

• Instead of plain, iceberg lettuce on your sandwich replace it with romaine lettuce.

• Cut up a green pepper and eat the slices for a midday snack.

• Order a side salad with your lunch.

• Make a green smoothie or juice for a meal. A great one to try is spinach, apple, lemon juice and ginger (a very small amount of ginger gives a great kick).
• Look up a recipe with a green veggie you may have never eaten and TRY IT!

For some other really great ideas for how to get these necessary servings in your meals check out the CDC website: www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov

Alright! That’s it! Let’s go into this second week strong and ready to conquer our health one goal at a time. I can’t wait to see how everyone’s doing with their goals and how everyone did last week. Let’s get ‘em!

Be Renewed!