Why You Should Eat the Rainbow

Nutrition is an important wedge of the wellness wheel and an important part of your fitness journey. Good food can actually heal your body.

Hi, I’m Christina, happy to join you today to talk about eating the rainbow for good health. Different colors of the rainbow offer different nutrients from the fruits and vegetables in our food. So eating every color of the rainbow each day helps us get a variety of nutrients in our bodies. We need all the vitamins and minerals in a variety of foods for optimal health. Something like this rainbow pasta dish can help.

There are so many health benefits in a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables with powerful antioxidants that fight free radicals that harm health. Eating a variety of colors in a balanced diet gives you the essential nutrients that you need to reduce the risk of heart disease, and the risk of cancer, reduce the chances of cardiovascular disease, improve skin health, reduce oxidative stress to help with disease control, and more. When you eat a variety of colorful foods, you get natural compounds that have anti-inflammatory properties and anticancer properties. Each color in the rainbow gives you a different nutrient content and gives you a good reason to eat a variety of foods. 

Rainbow food chart

You can use this rainbow food chart linked below to give you ideas of what kinds of foods to put on your shopping list.

Rainbow diet

The rainbow diet just means that we try to get a rainbow of variety in every day from fruits and vegetables. These rainbow colors include purple and blue foods, yellow and orange foods, green foods, red foods, and brown and white foods.

Once you have had something from every color group, you will have had 5 servings of fruits and vegetables in that day. Isn’t that awesome!

If you want more of my weight loss story and how I grew up on little Debbies and soda and learned how to change my health and life through exercise and nutrition, check out this nutrition guide. It has some basic dos and don’ts that my wife and I used for me to lose 120 pounds and be on no medication at age 55. There are also some sample meal plans in there. It was a long process, not a quick fix, but if I can do it, so can you!

Rainbow fruits and vegetables

You can see that eating out, especially fast food, would make it hard to reach this goal. Because mostly there are just french fries. How often do you see something red on a menu at a restaurant? Tomatoes? What else? Purple and blue? Anything? Anyone? Bueller? This is why eating at home is so good for your health!

When talking about the rainbow, we aren’t counting meat, breads, fats, or anything like that. We are talking about just fruits and vegetables only. If our diets are based on fruits and vegetables, we are going to find a whole lot more health in what we eat. So our plates should be at least half full of these foods.

Purple and blue fruits and vegetables

Purple and blue fruits and vegetables have a variety of nutrients that boost immune systems and fight diseases. And there are plenty of yummy choices in this category. These colored foods are also may help slow cognitive decline, improve motor skills, and reverse memory loss.

• Purple cauliflower
• Purple asparagus
• Beets
• Blackberries
• Purple carrots
• Purple corn
• Plums
• Purple potatoes
• Purple kale
• Purple broccoli
• Eggplant
• Purple peppers
• Blueberries
• Purple grapes
• Elderberries
• Raisins

Yellow and orange fruits and vegetables

Yellow and orange fruits and vegetables have tons of beta-carotene which helps you resist infection and heal. This color of foods also helps with heart health and vision.

• Cantaloupe
• Lemons
• Pineapple
• Yellow peppers
• Butternut squash and other winter squashes
• Pumpkins
• Yellow potatoes
• Yellow apples
• Apricots
• Grapefruit
• Mangoes
• Oranges
• Papaya
• Peaches
• Yellow pears
• Tangerines
• Carrots
• Corn
• Yellow tomatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Yellow squash

Green fruits and vegetables

Green vegetables are full of antioxidants and folate as well as other nutrients. They support heart and vision and fight disease as well as lowering the risk of birth defects.

• Avocadoes
• Artichokes
• Lettuce
• Limes
• Green pears
• Green grapes
• Green apples
• Asparagus
• Zucchini
• Peas
• Tomatillos
• Green peppers
• Okra
• Green onions
• Spinach
• Cucumbers
• Celery
• Cabbage
• Green beans
• Brussel sprouts
• Broccoli

Red fruits and vegetables

Red fruits and vegetables are full of flavonoids and lycopene. These support healthy bones, skin and teeth, a healthy heart and healthy vision. It also supports urinary tract health and fights disease.

• Apples
• Rhubarb
• Tomatoes
• Strawberries
• Watermelon
• Beets
• Red peppers
• Radishes
• Radicchio
• Red onions
• Red potatoes
• Cherries
• Cranberries
• Red grapes
• Raspberries
• Pomegranates
• Red pears
• Blood oranges
• Red grapefruits

For a great treat, try this roasted cherry tomato toast for your reds. So good!

Brown and white fruits and vegetables

Brown and white fruits and vegetables contain a lot of potassium and selenium. They support a healthy heart and immune system. They lower blood pressure and cholesterol. And fight disease.

• Ginger
• Fennel
• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Leeks
• Kohlrabi
• Jicama
• Garlic
• Coconuts
• Brown pears
• White peaches
• Bananas
• Dates
• Cauliflower
• Parsnips
• Shallots
• Turnips
• White corn
• White potatoes
• White asparagus

For inspiration on how to include vegetables in your diet, check out these meals with vegetables. Check out these beautiful and healthy smoothie bowls too! Also, meal prep planning helps a lot.

So what can you make with all these wonderful foods? Check out these Rainbow diet recipes for inspiration. They are delish!

Eat the Rainbow challenge

So let’s challenge ourselves to try to eat the rainbow for good health every day for 7 days. Then try it for 21 and see if you form a habit that will last a lifetime. If you fall off the wagon, get back up and try again. Print out the checklist below so you can check them off as you go! And here are some great ways to save money on those healthy groceries.

I hope you are inspired to eat a rainbow today and in the coming days for good health! There are lots of great recipes using these fruits and vegetables over on Little Sprouts Learning.

For more ideas to get healthy, check these out:

• 9 Simple Steps to Wellness

The post How to Eat the Rainbow for Good Health appeared first on Actionable Wellness.

Hi, I’m Christina and I have a home daycare with 7 kids. I feed my family and the kids on a tight budget every week. Most meals I make are for 9 people, so I do what I can do save. Here are some easy ways to save money on groceries.

In my grocery store, I can buy a big sweet potato for $.78. A big package of fresh celery is $.98. A big bag of oranges is $4.48. How much did you spend on the last beverage you bought? What’s the price of a fancy coffee drink or soda with your meal at a restaurant? And nutrition is one of the most important parts of your fitness journey.

There are so many ways to save money on food, but simple, whole foods are not that expensive. I can buy a bag of beans, cook it up and serve it throughout the week for a very healthy side dish to my meals for pennies a serving. I just dump it in the crockpot with a packet of taco seasoning (I make my own taco seasoning mix here) and fill it up with water. I turn it on and at the end of the day, it’s ready and delicious.

Brown rice is really inexpensive. So is a rice cooker. I toss it in there and it goes off when it’s done. Super easy and I save money all year. Rice is a great base for a lot of meals and will keep in the fridge for a week so you can use it different ways.

Eating healthy on a budget grocery list

My suggestions for healthy foods on a budget include:

• Packages of different kinds of dry beans
• Brown rice
• Whole wheat pasta
• Old fashioned rolled oats
• Whole wheat flour
• Broccoli
• Onions
• Spinach
• Carrots
• Canned tomatoes
• Apples
• Bananas
• Frozen berries
• Oranges
• Pears
• Grapefruit
• Celery
• Cabbage
• Potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Whole chickens or chicken leg quarters
• Ground turkey
• Canned tuna
• Eggs
• Peanut butter
• Cottage cheese
• Yogurt

Budget grocery list for family

Using these budget-friendly items, most under $1, you could make any number of meals.

• Baked chicken with brown rice and roasted broccoli.
• Turkey burgers with cabbage and oven fries.
• Whole wheat spaghetti with ground turkey and marinara sauce with a spinach and carrot salad.
• Think about your normal go to family recipes and find ways to tweak them for budget friendly health. Replacing boneless skinless chicken breast with leg quarters gives you a more flavorful meat for 1/3 of the price. Plus, you can use the bones leftover to make a nourishing bone broth.
• Buying old fashioned rolled oats and flavoring it yourself instead of buying sugary cereals or instant oatmeal packets is a great way to save money and know what’s in your food.

Using apples and oranges for snacks or making smoothies instead of stocking the pantry with little debbies will do your health a world of good. I have a great friend who calls little Debbie the devil’s wife. And you know why. So, leave that girl at the store!

Cooking at home is one of the best ways to save money. And leaving fast food alone is the number one way to get back to wellness. There is NOTHING in fast food that you need. Nothing.

Making food homemade like tossing a pork butt in the crockpot or a whole chicken instead of buying a tv dinner full of processed junk will save you years on your life of illness and a ton of bank. And it doesn’t have to be difficult. And it can get you closer to your fitness goals.

You can cook one pork roast and make 5 meals for a family. It freezes great and you can portion it out into individual servings. You can top baked potatoes or sweet potatoes with it, make soup, tacos, just about anything you can imagine. It’s versatile, inexpensive, and all you need is an oven or crock pot to cook one up.

You can also cook one whole chicken and make 3 different meals out of it. Then use the bones to make broth. It’s a great money saver and using leftover meat is a wonderful time saver. We all need more of that.

Order food in bulk. You can get a 10-pound bag of rice or beans and it will last you months. They don’t go bad. Just keep them sealed in a container and you’ll be golden. These resources are great for healthy meal plans on a budget.

Making homemade bread is so much less expensive than buying store-bought. I know it’s a stretch and not a time-saver, but bread products are the most chemical-laden foods at the store in my opinion besides tv dinners and food mixes. So much so, that I can’t even eat them without getting a rash from all the preservatives in them. I have a lot of sensitivities. And bread products make me sick when I buy them store-bought.

I am allergic to sulfites and they are used to preserve many bread products, but when I found that out and studied what they do to your body, they are really responsible for a ton of illnesses and no one should be consuming them. So, if you don’t want to make your own, go to a bakery and get fresh bread that doesn’t have a shelf life. Leave the chemicals at the store.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are less expensive than frozen or canned. You can grab a head of broccoli or cauliflower or a bundle of green beans or carrots and roast them up in the oven for a magical flavor bomb. Just cut them up, season them the way you like, sprinkle on some olive oil, and bake at 400 until they are lightly brown on the edges and soft enough to stab easily with a fork. YUMMY!

If you roast up a couple of sheet pans full, you’ll have sides or ingredients for your meals for several days. I do this every week for us and the daycare kids. They love them, we love them, and I can add them to soup, pasta, use them to top a baked potato or homemade pizza, or use them as a side and they are ready to go to reduce my cooking time.

Cooking time reduction is important, especially when you have 7 kids that can go rogue while you’re working on their lunch. So, I’m obsessed with time-saving measures that still give my kids wonderful nutrition.

Saving money on food

Another great way to save money on your grocery budget is to eat less meat. Meat is expensive. And quality meat is really expensive. So, try using beans and dark leafy greens to get more of your protein. Also, making something like stir fry with a little chicken instead of a plate filled with a giant piece of chicken and a big serving of potatoes is a great way to stretch your dollars. And you don’t need a giant serving of protein. We just need two 4 oz servings of protein a day. And that doesn’t have to be meat for your meal plan.

Eating what’s in season gives you healthier tastier food AND saves money. In the summertime the foods that are cheaper are melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, cherries, squash, peppers, peaches, berries, greens, and eggplant. In fall you can get lettuce, potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage for less. In the winter the seasonal items are avocado, citrus fruits, apples, pears, and pineapples. And in the spring the cheapest and tastiest foods are lettuce, radishes, carrots, berries, greens, peas, and one of my favorites, asparagus.

You can also get really cheap produce from imperfect foods. They save missized or less pretty produce from the landfill by bringing it to people like me who appreciate delicious healthy food and don’t care if it looks funny.

Healthy weekly meal plan with grocery list

Here’s a healthy weekly meal plan for two people. If you are one person, you can freeze the second half or do leftovers every other day and use the menu for two weeks. If you have a big family, you can double everything. No matter who you are feeding, use this as a jumping off point to plan out your week.

Grocery list

• Dozen eggs
• Butter
• Sour cream
• Milk
• Parmesan cheese wedge
• Yogurt 4
• 2 c ricotta cheese
• Cheese sticks
• Block of cheddar cheese to shred for tacos
• Block of mozzarella to grate
• 2 pounds breakfast sausage
• 1-pound chicken thighs
• Citrus fruit of your choice 4
• Cabbage
• Onions 5
• 2 heads lettuce
• Apples 8
• Carrots
• Celery
• Garlic
• 2 pkg mushrooms
• 1 crown broccoli
• Bananas 8
• Raisins
• Butternut squash
• Kale
• Cauliflower
• Cucumbers 2
• Tomatoes
• Zucchinis 4
• Spinach
• Bag of frozen corn
• Tortilla chips
• Canister of oatmeal
• White rice
• Wild rice
• Flour
• Granola (or make some)
• Peanut butter
• Olive oil
• Bag of beans
• Taco mix 3
• Tuna
• Mayo or miracle whip
• Spicy mustard
• Pickles
• Chicken stock 6 quarts
• 1 jar artichoke hearts
• Whole wheat bread
• Nuts
• Whole wheat flour tortillas
• Can of Rotel
• English muffins
• Dried thyme
• Sage
• Dill
• Oregano

Once you have purchased all of these items, you’ll see that it’s far less expensive than a week of eating out and you’ll have leftover supplies for many meal plan dishes in the future.

Sunday

Monday

Breakfast

Boiled egg

Whole wheat toast

Banana

Snack

Handful of nuts

Lunch

Chicken artichoke and wild rice casserole

Roasted broccoli

Snack

Banana

Dinner

Cabbage Rolls

Side salad

Tuesday

Breakfast

Yogurt and granola

Apple

Snack

Boiled egg and raisins

Lunch

PBJ

Sliced cucumbers with a little drizzle of vinegar and salt and pepper.

Side salad

Snack

Banana

Dinner

Cauliflower, butternut squash soup

Whole wheat toast

Wednesday

Breakfast

Cook up the pound of sausage in patties and put a pound of beans in the crockpot with taco mix.

Sausage

Apple

Snack

Carrot sticks

Lunch

Tuna salad recipe with eggs on a sandwich

Cucumber salad

Snack

Cheese stick

Dinner

Taco/Nacho salad using browned ground turkey and beans, fresh diced tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and shredded cheese.

Thursday

Breakfast

Yogurt and granola

Banana

Raisins

Snack

Apple

Lunch

Soft taco using leftover meat, beans, and toppings from last night

Snack

Peanut butter and celery

Dinner

Taco soup using leftover beans, a bag of frozen corn, and a can of Rotel

Friday

Breakfast

Sausage English Muffin

Snack

Apple

Lunch

Snack

Boiled egg

Dinner

Vegetable lasagna using zucchini noodles

Side salad

Saturday

Breakfast

Healthy Pancakes

Citrus fruit

Sausage patty

Snack celery (chop up the rest of the celery in slices and toss in the freezer for soups later)

Rest of the day use up any leftovers

Free Printable PDF Week Meal Plan on a Budget with Shopping List

The post Meal Plan on a Budget appeared first on Actionable Wellness.

We aren’t thin, we have always struggled with our weight, but our bodies need healthy food to function. We save a ton of money on doctor bills and medication by letting food be our medicine and sticking with natural things that are as close to the way God made them as possible. Good food can actually heal your body. And there are diet changes that help you have more energy. This is an important part of your Health and Fitness goals.

What did your great-grandparents eat? Just simple food, without chemicals. We call it real food. We need several servings a day of fruits and vegetables to stay healthy. Different foods have different vitamins and minerals and we need all of them to stay well. We need to pay attention to nutrition because it’s a big part of our wellness wheel. It’s just as important as exercise on our fitness journey.

If you look at a typical plate of food from a restaurant, the food groups are not well represented. There is usually a large portion of meat, a large portion of bread, and maybe a small number of vegetables as an afterthought. We need meals with vegetables. And we need to try to avoid glyphosate. Even healthy snacks are important in a well balanced diet.

Importance of good nutrition

I always liked to get the two-meat combo at a BBQ joint. So, my plate was half filled with meat and a quarter filled with bread, usually Texas toast. Toss some fries on that and maybe some baked beans that are covered in sugary sauce and you don’t have a very well-balanced meal.

I love to eat junk food; it’s been hard for me to change. But my wife stays diligent in trying to put our health first and she always encourages me to try to do better. I love her for that.

Healthy actions

Over time, we have added a ton more variety of fruits and vegetables to our diet and cut out a lot of chemicals such as additives and preservatives, and we are enjoying better health than we did in our twenties.

We are at the age where most of our friends are on multiple medications, but our cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood work are all really great. We get a clean bill of health year after year since changing our lifestyle except for our weight. We are working on portion control and slowly losing weight to get to our healthiest selves possible.

Nutrition and wellness

Every step we take toward a healthier future is a big deal. So, we try to celebrate each accomplishment.

So, what constitutes healthy eating?

We need a variety of nutrients so we try to eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day. We also try to eat a small portion of protein and a small portion of whole grains at every meal. And by portion, we mean one serving. One pancake, one piece of whole-grain bread, or one serving of crackers. Not a plate full. A serving of protein is 4 ounces, not the 8-12-ounce steak you get at a restaurant meal. You can learn to like vegetables, I did it and you can too. We also need healthy fats every day for brain function and overall health. You can make these changes with a few healthy food swaps. And don’t forget there are a lot of empty calories and wasted chances to add nutrition to our diet in what we are drinking. Choosing healthy drinks is important!

A great way to avoid a lot of unhealthy eating is to eat at home. My wife works really hard to cook healthy homemade food for us as much as possible so we can avoid processed food. She does meal planning, buys cookbooks for me to flip through and choose meals I might like to try, and she makes healthy food taste good with her magical touch. I’m grateful for her. She even makes us healthy homemade bread, and it’s amazing!

If you want more of my weight loss story and how I grew up on little Debbies and soda and learned how to change my health and life through exercise and nutrition, check out this nutrition guide. It has some basic dos and don’ts that my wife and I used for me to lose 120 pounds and be on no medication at age 55. There are also some sample meal plans in there. It was a long process, not a quick fix, but if I can do it, so can you!

Importance of nutrition

There are several things she does to make it easier. She batch cooks. So, she might make a big pot of soup and freeze half of it for later in containers. Then she serves it left over for another day or two. This way we can have really healthy meals for multiple days from one big effort from her with cooking. Also, meal prep planning helps a lot.

This batch cooking saves a ton of clean-up time because you make the same mess if you cook one pot of spaghetti or 4 times that much.

She also saves a ton of money by cooking healthy food. Cooking dried beans in the crock pot all day is healthier than using canned. She cooks a big pot full and freezes them, so we avoid the chemicals in canned beans and get all of the nutrition from fresh. Most simple ingredients are far less expensive than the processed junk you can buy in the middle aisles of the grocery store.

She even grinds her own flour and makes us homemade bread. It saves us a ton of money. She can make a loaf for about seventy-five cents. Dried beans are far less expensive than canned as well. You can see that if you do this with 50 different foods, you would be saving a lot of money over time.

If you don’t like fruits and vegetables, check out how she has helped me and a ton of her daycare kids learn to like them by learning to make homemade food really flavorful with her homemade spice mixes and extracts, and by roasting vegetables to bring out their wonderful flavors. She has a ton of tricks that help food taste better and I’ve even learned to love a few really healthy things like broccoli since she came into my life. Also, these Healthy smoothies for weight loss are delicious! Check out these superfoods for health! Or this rainbow diet plan to make sure you get all of your nutrients in a day.

So, remember, 4 ounces of protein, one serving of whole grains, and fill yourself up on wonderfully healthy fruits and vegetables, and your health will thank you for it. You’ll be experiencing far more wellness in just a few weeks. And as we age, we want to live well, not survive with tons of ailments. Healthy food and good nutrition are the best ways to do that. And it’s simple to make food like this 2 ingredient tilapia recipe. You don’t have to spend all day in the kitchen to do it. (For inexpensive protein ideas, check these out).

Natural wellness

For us it’s helped us have fewer headaches, less acid reflux, have tons more energy, helped us think more clearly and be in better moods, give us more interest in life, and helped us to get stronger and have more stamina so we aren’t falling over-exhausted by the end of each day. This way of eating saves us a ton of illness treatments and medications and makes us feel and live better every day.

• Tips for How to Eat Healthy When you Hate Cooking
• 20 Easy High Protein Dinner Ideas to Make
• Check out this rainbow diet meal plan for ideas on how to get a variety of nutrients daily.
• If you’re on a budget, check out these cheap nutritious foods to keep in your diet.
• Here are some great ideas for meals you can cook in bulk and enjoy over time.
• Check out how to balance macronutrients for weight loss.
• Try these weight training ideas for beginners to help you burn the calories you eat too.
• Check out these healthy breakfasts to help you lose weight for ideas to start your day!
• And healthy lunches to help you lose weight as well.
• Remember to set Fitness Goals to keep you on track too.
• Try these organic Banana Walnut Oatmeal Cookies for a sweet treat that’s healthy too.
• Fit Over 50, Older Adult Wellness
• 22 Healthy Snacks from a Vending Machine
• Healthy High Protein Breakfast Ideas to Start the Day
• Simple Breakfast Ideas, Quick and Healthy
• Quick Breakfast Ideas for Healthy Mornings

Now, what did the ear of corn say when all of it’s clothes fell off?

Aw shucks! Ha ha ha ha.

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