The Beautiful Thing about good, balanced nutrition is this: everything fits together in such a perfect way that just focusing on eating (early, often, balanced, and lean) will give you a blessing of nutrients. You don’t have to analyze your intake continually to be sure you’ve had your zinc today.

What you are responsible for doing is to choose healthy foods with a sense of balance and variety—the cornerstones of good nutrition.

Your health doesn’t depend on a single food or a single meal. No one food is perfect; no one food contains all the nutrients you need.

A healthy variety occurs when you make good food choices over a period of time.

Be sure to provide whole grain, low-fat meals that are full of a variety of brightly colored fruits and vegetables. The bright coloring is a sign of the nutritional content of a vegetable or fruit; generally the more vivid the coloring, the more essential nutrients it holds. That deep orange or red coloring in carrots, sweet potatoes, cantaloupes, peaches, and strawberries signals their vitamin A content. Dark green leafy vegetables such as turnip or mustard greens, spinach, romaine lettuce, brussels sprouts, and broccoli are loaded with vitamin A as well as folic acid. Vitamin C is found in more than just citrus; it is also power-packed into strawberries, cantaloupes, tomatoes, green peppers, and broccoli. Remember: you may not be able to tell a book by its cover, but you can tell the power of a fruit or veggie by its color!

Variety truly is the spice of life and when you embrace variety in your food plan you will feel better, have more energy and achieve better weight-loss results. Don’t be a creature of habit, be adventurous and enjoy a variety of new foods daily and weekly as a part of your balanced food plan. Sparking variation in your normal health routine and food plan helps to create lasting change for sustainable weight loss and long-term good health.

Don’t fall into the habit of eating the same foods, doing the same exercises and expecting different results. Our bodies naturally require diet and exercise diversity because no one food contains all the nutrients our bodies require, nor does one specific exercise target all parts of the body. Here are some important reasons to add variety to your daily health regimen.

Tips for Variety

Now that you know why you should vary your food choices and exercise routine, here is how you can make small changes to achieve this variety every day!

Get colorful. Add a rainbow of different fruits and veggies to your cart every time you shop.
Try something new. Make a promise to yourself to try a new healthy food each week. Brussels sprouts, bok choy, dragon fruit, blood oranges, Swiss chard are great options for variance.
Shop with the season. For the freshest produce, consider eating fruits and veggies that are in season.
Add veggies. Add different vegetables to your favorite soup, sandwich or breakfast options for additional variety, nutrients and taste!
Start small. Change one part of your meal at a time. Add another vegetable or change up your typical protein selection. Small steps add up!
Switch up your exercise. Just like diet, the same exercise routine can lead to your body plateauing. Change your cardio or introduce small weights to your regimen. You might even find something new you didn’t know you liked!

Be adventurous and step out of your comfort zone. We have a feeling you will feel better, have more energy, experience faster weight loss and enjoy improved health.

Are you still saying yuck to the same veggies you didn’t like when you were young? Open your mind, your taste buds, your likes and dislikes, your schedule, and your menu to these storehouses of nutritional power—they are worth it.
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