Eat More Protein – Small Changes to Increase Your Protein Intake
Eat More Protein
Most of us know how important including protein in our meals is, in fact, I encourage people to make sure it’s part of every meal, including snacks. But many of us still struggle to make that happen. So here are a few healthy ways to do that, and they aren’t all chicken breast:
Switch to Greek yogurt
Greek yogurt, on average, contains as much as 17g of protein where regular yogurt has somewhere around 9g.
Nuts
Keep nuts on hand as a snack option or to add to meals. Nuts are high in protein and versatile. You can easily add them to a salad, oatmeal, yogurt, or as a side to a piece of fruit for a balanced snack. Just be mindful of your servings as their healthy fats can add up quickly to a lot of calories.
Eat more protein by Meal Prepping
Take time on a day off to roast a tray of chicken breast, pork loin, or even make multiple burger patties. Having those in the fridge makes it very easy to add them to a meal.
Include beans in your meals
Beans are full of fiber and average around 15 g of protein per cup. Adding that to a salad, soup, casserole, or any other dish, even if it includes meat already, can really boost your protein.
Try quinoa
The seed has about 8 g of protein per cup and is considered a complete protein because it contains all the essential amino acids we need.
Add some seeds to your routine
Seeds like hemp hearts, sunflower, chia, and flaxseed are easily added to smoothies, oatmeal, yogurt, salads, etc., and 2 tablespoons of the seeds can have 3.5 to 6 g of protein.
Add peas to soups and salads
Peas contain about 8 g of protein per cup.
Food is best but in a pinch
Find a healthy protein powder (ask our coaches at the gym for suggestions) and keep it on hand. Having protein powder on hand means you’re always ready for a post workout recovery or with a healthy snack.
Try nutritional yeast
Not only does nutritional yeast have a lot of B vitamins, it contains 8 g of protein for one and a half tablespoons. It has a bit of a cheesy taste, and can be used to season anything from scrambled eggs to salad to popcorn to pesto.
If you’re still struggling to include enough protein in your meals, book a nutrition consultation today! We have helped hundreds of people get to their goal weight by changing their habits!
OC has been training Bend, Oregon residents since May of 2009. Experience the difference!