My mother never finished elementary school. It wasn't unusual in those days (the first decade of the 1900's). Many children had to help out at home. She made up for the lack of a formal education by being a voracious reader (when she had the time). She even read "The Confessions of Saint Augustine". Mom was one smart cookie (that's a dumb expression, isn't it?), although I didn't appreciate it at the time (who ever gives credit to their parents?).
On the subject of healthful living one of her pieces of advice was, "Your dinner plate should be like an artist's palate, very colorful." That's what I'd like to pass along to you today. Oh, I know that most of you were told to eat your veggies, but in today's climate of fast food restaurants and frozen prepared foods, or meals in boxes, it is way too easy to skip over them. It is a problem for those of us who live alone with little incentive to spend time on food preparation
When cooking vegetables try to not let them get soft and mushy (unless they are meant to be that way). I hated most of the greens as a kid because they were cooked too well (much of what we got was canned), but loved many of them raw (how about fresh stringbeans?). Now I cook them as little as possible, and still eat many raw. Try adding fresh zucchini and summer squash to a salad. Same thing goes for thinly sliced carrots. Speaking of carrots (I tried to avoid even saying the word as a kid), try adding a dash of salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves, with a little splash of maple syrup just before you serve them. It's like eating candy. No kid can resist.