Ten Ways to Get Your Five a Day

Everybody knows you should eat at least five portions of fruit or vegetables a day but it’s not as easy as it sounds.

After all you only have three meals in the day and you have a mountain of other things to keep you busy other than eating.

The Her.ie team understands that you want to be healthy but you have great difficulty in fitting your five a day into your hectic routine. To try to get around this, read our ten ways to get your five a day.

1. Why not start the day as you mean to go on? Before you even get the bowl out for cereal or put the slices of bread in the toaster, have a glass of fruit juice. Our choice would be orange but you could also go for apple or pomegranate. Boom, one down four to go and you haven’t even left the house yet!
2. One of the best ways to get a good dose of fruit is to make a smoothie. Throw your favourite fruits into a blender along with a lot of milk and push the button. You’ll have a delicious smoothie in no time and better still you can put it into a bottle and take it with you. You sure are one smooth operator!
3. Bring a packed lunch filled with healthy snacks to work. It might sound a little sad but you’ll be the one laughing when you’re all healthy and energised by the fruit you’ve eaten! From bananas to oranges you can carry any type of fruit in your bag… except maybe a melon.
4. To jazz up your mornings add some chopped fruit to your cereal. Berries or bananas are ideal on the likes of Weetabix. If you fancy something a bit sweeter, feel free to sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar over as well.
5. If you can,have salad with your lunch and dinner. This is all about optimising the opportunities to increase your fruit or vegetable intake. You should, when you can, add salad to your sandwich at lunch or steak and chips at dinner. All you need is some lettuce and a bit of tomato. As Gordon Ramsey would say, “Done!”
6. Cook a stir fry for dinner to get a good intake of vegetables. The team at Her.ie loves chicken stir-fries and we add peppers, mushrooms, onions, baby corns and broccoli to ours. If you’re a vegetarian, just leave out the chicken. As if you need another reason,stir-fries only take all of fifteen minutes to make, which suits our rumbling tummies perfectly!
7. Don’t forget that frozen fruit also counts towards your five a day. You can use it for your smoothie or alternatively for desserts.  We don’t know about you but we definitely prefer the dessert option!
8. Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the better! Okay so it doesn’t rhyme but you get the point. Beans are definitely one of your five a day so tear open the can and enjoy.
9. A lot of people overlook the fact that raw vegetables also make great snacks. Chop up some carrots and bring them with you to work. Sugar snap peas are another handy snack that you can chomp on between meals.
10. Probably the best way to incorporate more fruit and vegetable is to eat a variety of fruit and vegetables. Don’t just stick to the same ones and try food you haven’t tried before. We know it’s daunting but we guarantee it’ll be worth it.

What are you waiting for? Go forth and eat fruit! Venture far and wide with vegetables! Just get your five a day in and see what a difference it makes. You’ll have more energy, your skin will look better and you’ll eat less chocolate… well two out of three ain’t bad!