5 Ways to Get Your 5 a Day

You may have heard that you should eat 5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day — which works out to a total of about 2½ cups. But experts actually recommend getting even more than that amount.
There are no limits on the quantities of tasty fruits and veggies you can enjoy — unless, of course, you load 'em up with butter or dressing, or deep-fry them! But many of us still find it hard to fit fruit and veggies into our meals.
Here are some ideas to help you get into the 5-a-day (or more!) habit:

1. Start with the first meal of the day. Plan to eat a serving or two of fruit with breakfast every day. Mix it up so you don't get bored. Half a grapefruit, an apple, or a handful of berries on your cereal are all good choices. Orange juice counts too — but only if you drink 100% juice. (Limit juice to 1 or 2 servings a day). Continue this pattern by eating vegetables at lunch and at dinner.
2. Get extra energy from fruit or vegetable snacks. The carbohydrates in fruit and vegetables are great sources of energy. Combine them with a serving of protein — such as a piece of cheese, a cup of yogurt, or a tablespoon of peanut butter, and you get staying power too. Ants on a log, anyone?
3. Double up on fruit and veggie servings. Recommended servings of fruit and veggies can be small. Unlike other foods, it's OK to double the serving size of fruit or vegetables. Serve yourself a 1-cup portion of broccoli or tomatoes instead of the standard serving of ½ cup.
4. Use fruit and vegetables as ingredients. Enjoy bread? Bake up a batch of zucchini bread and get your veggies along with your grains! Use applesauce instead of oil in your baked goods. Chop up veggies (peppers, carrots, celery) and toss them into your favorite chili recipe. If you don't like vegetables much, sneak them into foods you do enjoy (like grating carrots into tomato sauce or, again, zucchini into bread). It's a great way to get your veggies without having to taste them!
5. Try a new fruit, vegetable, or recipe each week. Our bodies like variety. So set a goal to try something different each week. You may find a new favorite. One good way to get variety is to eat the fruit and veggies that are in season in your area. They usually taste better than the bland fruit salad or shriveled apples you're used to seeing in the cafeteria!

Brain Power Foods

Brain power is characterized by how alert, energetic, and concentrated your brain is in response to a task. Information in your brain passes through neurotransmitters, which are manufactured by the nerve cells using precursors. Different neurotransmitters will have different impacts on your brain activity. For example, serotonin is the calming neurotransmitter that usually makes you more relaxed, drowsy, and fuzzy-headed. While dopamine and norepinephrine are neurotransmitters that make you more alert, more attentive, motivated and mentally energetic.
Food affects your brain power by affecting the production of neurotransmitters in your brain. By supplying amino acids, which are used as precursors to manufacture neurotransmitters, and by affecting the entry of the amino acids into brain, foods can have a significant impact on your brain activity. High-carbohydrate foods in general tend to subdue brain activity. Protein foods, on the other hand, can counteract carbohydrate food induced sluggishness. In addition, foods and herbs can have effects on brain activity by affecting blood circulation - the supply line of oxygen, nutrient, and hormone to the brain.

Rules of Weight Loss

To lose one pound of fat, you must burn approximately 3500 calories over and above what you already burn doing daily activities. That sounds like a lot of calories and you certainly wouldn't want to try to burn 3500 calories in one day. However, by taking it step-by-step, you can determine just what you need to do each day to burn or cut out those extra calories. Below is a step by step process for getting started.

1. Calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate). Your BMR is what your body needs to maintain normal functions like breathing and digestion. This is the minimum number of calories you need to eat each day. Keep in mind that no calculator will be 100% accurate, so you may need to adjust these numbers as you go along.
2. Calculate your activity level. Use a calorie calculator to figure out how many calories you burn while sitting, standing, exercising, lifting weights, etc. throughout the day. It helps to keep a daily activity journal or you could even wear a heart rate monitor that calculates calories burned.
3. Keep track of how many calories you eat. You can use a site like Calorie Count or use a food journal to write down what you eat and drink each day. Be as accurate as possible, measuring when you need to or looking up nutritional information for restaurants, if you eat out.
4. Add it up. Take your BMR number, add your activity calories and then subtract your food calories from that total. If you're eating more than you're burning, (your BMR + activity is 2000 and you're eating 2400 calories) you'll gain weight. If you're burning more than you eat, you'll lose weight. 

Instead of...	Do this...
An afternoon Coke	Drink a glass of water. (calories saved: 97)
An Egg McMuffin	Eat a small whole wheat bagel +1 Tbsp of peanut butter (calories saved: 185)
Using your break eat sweets	Walk up and down a flight of stairs for 10 minutes (calories burned: 100)
Hitting the snooze button	Get up 10 minutes early and go for a brisk walk (calories burned: 100)
Watching TV after work	Do 10 minutes of yoga (calories burned: 50)