PUSHING PRODUCE

Even though produce can be seasonal, it's always a good time of the year to include it into your daily nutrition routine!

A great question I get often is how to do that, especially when it comes to large pieces of fruit like bananas, apples, oranges, etc., since their sizes can vary greatly and saving a quarter of a piece of fruit can be a pain.

Berries and the like are easier to measure since the size is consistent, but I still like to use a food scale versus measure by volume. However when it comes to these larger sized fruits, using the food scale is really best.

The first thing I would do is determine the weight of your fruit. You can do this by peeling/coring the fruit, cutting up and weighing it. Another option is to weigh the whole fruit by itself and then subtract the difference of what's left over that you don't eat.

The second step is when tracking it on your log, utilize a single gram weight option so you can adjust up or down based on size. For example, I've had bananas ranging from 80 to 130 grams in weight.

Finally, have another flexible carb in your day that you can easily manipulate to offset the fruit (rice for example) based on the quantity of carbs.

It takes a bit to master but once you get in the habit, fruit is great to include not just for the macros but all the other micro nutrition they provide.