We all know we should be eating our fruits and vegetables. You've probably heard the recommendations for meeting a 5-a-day quota, or seen the USDA's recommendation to fill half of your plate with fruits and veggies during each meal. And you probably already know that eating fruits and vegetables provides a number of important health benefits, like reducing the risk of chronic diseases and heart disease and helping you manage your weight. Eating a diet filled with veggies and fruits might also protect against certain cancers and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.

With all of those benefits, you'd think the entire human population would be chowing down on bok choy and snacking on spinach. But not everyone has a built-in love for the produce department. If you struggle to fit in your fruits and vegetables, read on for some tips and tricks to make eating a healthier diet easier than ever!

Tips for Increasing Your Fruit and Vegetable Intake

1. Eat a fruit or vegetable with every meal. If half a plate of fruits and vegetables seems like an overwhelming goal for you right now, start by simply adding one fruit or veggie to each meal. You can eat them as a side—think a cup of green beans with dinner or a banana with breakfast—or simply start adding them to foods you already eat. Fruit is a cinch to add to oatmeal, yogurt and cereal in the morning. Add onions and peppers to meat dishes, or pile a few of your favorite vegetables onto your sandwich. Once you start working them in, you'll welcome the new additions!

Read more: 13 Shortcuts to Meet Your 5-a-Day Quota

Setting a goal (such as losing weight) and implementing steps to reach it (like portion control) are two very different things. When it comes to eating healthier—or eating less for that matter—it isn't always as simple as "just eating less." Why? Because what and how much we eat is influenced by so many factors—the environment in which we're eating (relaxed at home or at a party), how much food is served (a portion-controlled meal at home or a super-sized restaurant meal), and how hungry we are (just a little or famished)—mindfulness, speed, emotional state. The list could go on and on.

The good news is that YOU can control many of these factors; it's just a matter of bringing them to the forefront of your mind until they become habits. Here are nine proven tricks you can use to help yourself eat less and keep your calories in check. Over time, they'll become second nature—and your weight loss will be second to none!

1. Enjoy every bite.

Read more: 9 Simple Tricks to Eat Less

We all know that for optimum heart health we need to eat a healthy diet, exercise and not smoke. But did you know that the little things you do every day can have a big impact on the most important muscle in your body?

We put together a list of the eight habits that may be hurting your heart. You might be surprised how these "little" things add up! Are you guilty of any of these seemingly innocent mistakes?

1. You fly off the handle. Do you suffer from regular bouts of rage or intense anger at home, at work or in traffic? If so, your angry temperament may be hurting more than the people around you. While moderate anger can be a good way to release tension, explosive anger or chronic bouts of rage can increase your risk of heart disease.

A 2000 study published in the journal Circulation found that among almost 13,000 middle-aged African-American and white men and women with normal blood pressure, those who were the angriest had almost twice the risk of coronary artery disease and three times the risk of heart attack when compared to those with the lowest levels of anger. Researchers note that while anger can harm your heart, anxiety and other negative emotions probably also play a role. Anger and anxiety have been shown to increase blood pressure, disrupt the electrical impulses of the heart and possibly speed up the process of atherosclerosis, a fatty build up in the arteries.

Tips to help: Pause and take a deep breath when you feel anger coming on. A simple breathing activity can help, but taking steps to reduce stress—even if you're not feeling angry at the time—are also important.

Read more: 8 Sneaky Habits That Sabotage Your Heart

If you're concerned about heart health, then you probably take steps to reduce your cholesterol and keep your blood pressure in check. But there's another important measure you should be aware of: your triglycerides. People with high triglycerides (called hypertriglyceridemia) often have low HDL ("good cholesterol") levels; this combination is considered by many experts to be associated with an increased risk for heart disease.

Triglycerides are the most common forms of fat found in the food you eat and in your body. The visible fat on chicken and steak, for example, is actually triglycerides. Your body stores the extra calories you eat inside your fat cells as triglycerides. Since your body regularly uses stored body fat as fuel between meals, the triglycerides stored in your fat cells are released into the bloodstream. The more excess body fat you have, and the more extra calories you eat, the higher your triglyceride levels are likely to be.

Read more: Triglycerides and Your Health