Day 10: It's the Little Things Part Uno!

Hey Everybody!

Today's topic is discussing the importance of those other types of vitamins and minerals that your body needs...like potassium!

Sounds boring, BUT, as somebody who suffered from not having potassium [which landed me a trip to the ER and six days of misery] I cannot stress on how important this issue is!  When you eat clean, you are getting a full amount of your vitamins and minerals with your foods.  You are eating veggies, fruit, lean proteins and healthy grains at least 80% of the time!  You either know what vitamins and minerals are in your foods you are consuming or you are researching/logging into a calorie counter to know for sure!  It's the best way to figure out what you need.

Do you know what vitamins and minerals help you? Since this is such a large topic I am going to divide this one into two parts.  Today I am going to talk about Vitamins, tomorrow I will discuss Minerals.  Both are important!

Common Vitamins and Their Role in Our Bodies 

Vitamin A: directly helps with vision including fighting off cathartics.  Vitamin A plays a crucial role in bone growth, especially in the younger years.  It also helps keeps your tissue and skin healthy and clean.  Also helps reduce certain types of cancer.  Foods: Eggs, shrimp, beef, cheese, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, spinach, mangoes

Vitamin B1: Helps convert food into energy as well as fuels skin, tissues and brain cells! Food: Pork chops, ham, watermelons and acorn squash have a significant amount of B1, but most clean foods have some sort of B1. 

Vitamin B2: Also helps convert food into energy as well as fuels skin, tissues, BLOOD and brain cells.  Food: Milk, yogurt, cheese and whole grains  

Vitamin B3:  Helps maintain the nervous system. Food: Peanut butter, mushrooms, meat, poultry, fish and potatoes are a few examples. 

Vitamin B5: helps convert food into energy.  It also helps makes lipids (fats) neurotransmitters (those things that help us think) hormones and hemoglobin. Food: Most chicken and veggies out there.  Mushrooms, avocados and tomato products have a significant amount per serving.

Vitamin C: Helps reduce the risk of some types of cancers in people.  It helps build collegian and plaques that help heal skin tissue faster.  Also neutralizes unstable oxidants in the body. Foods: Citrus juices!

Vitamin E: In addition to neutralizing oxidants, this vitamin helps protect vitamin A from bacteria that would typically destroy it. Foods: Most veggies and oils. 

Vitamin D: Helps bones and keeps teeth white:) Food: Milk and dairy products. 

Vitamin K: Helps to activate protein and calcium so the body can use it.  Also helps with blood clots. Apparently it helps with hip fractures.  Foods: Cabbage, liver, eggs, milk, spinach and broccoli. 

So very important to have all of these!  Are you getting enough of your vitamins and minerals?   According to MyFitnessPal, I sure got the majority of my Vitamin intake!  Here is what I ate today!

Breakfast:  Runner's Banana and PB Sandwich

I was in a rush so this is what I ate.  However, I can tell you that it was not enough.  This baby was only about 250 calories and I typically need at least 300 to make it to snack time:)

Lunch: Leftover Lemon Chicken c/Veggies, Clementines and a Cookie!

This filled me UP!  And yes, I did eat that cookie and yes I enjoyed every single bite while eating it!  Super amazing and good!

Dinner: Dinner: Moroccan Veggie Stew [I made it into a curry] w/Whole Wheat Quionia

This was an unplanned dinner.  I wanted something with enough potassium so I could recover from my run properly.  This is what I came up with.  I have the recipe.  Just click here to retrieve it!  It is loaded with some potassium friendly foods; sweet potatoes, squash and more!  It didn't take long to make once all of the veggies were cut up.  I added green curry paste instead of tomato sauce and it turned out SPICY and EPIC! Best part? Only about 350 calories per 1 cup of curry and 3/4 cup of quionia! If you make this dish, please send me a pic [or post on social media!]  Let me know how you like it!

Snacks: [not eaten at once!]
-Fiber One Bar
-peanuts
-2 pieces of chocolate
-1/2 a pretzel
-banana c/carrots
-sugar snap peas
-1 slice of bread

That's all for now!  See you tomorrow!
<3
Em