eat more fruit and veggies

Well, I am still eating some every day, but I really am not getting all my servings in. I need to add one serving of veggies and one serving of fruit to each day. That is what I will be working on this week.

On Saturday and Sunday, Mark made plantains with breakfast and I had veggies on my subway sandwich on Sunday. Today I’ve had a banana, a veggie mix with lunch and some cut-up apple. It’s harder to meet this goal over the weekends, but I did get some in this weekend, since it’s easier when Mark’s around and we cook regular meals.

I read that for someone of my age, weight, and activity level, I should eat 3 servings of vegetables and 2 servings of fruit (minimum) per day. The fruit servings are so much easier than the veggie servings. I will have to work harder on eating veggies.

One way that I’ve been working on my weight is to eat Healthy Choice pre-packaged meals. Since Mark is working out of town for now, it really isn’t worth cooking for myself, and if I buy them on sale, they are 2.50 to 3.00 each. That means I can eat for $6-7 dollars a day with little effort. Anyway, the Healthy Choice meals I bought on sale this week all come with a fruit dessert and a steamed vegetable. There are no preservatives, and it gets 2-3 of my fruit/vegetable servings out of the way. In addition, I eat a snack of a piece of fruit or crunchy vegetable, so I’m getting closer to eating all of my daily servings. The other beneift of the Healthy Choice meals is that they’re only 250-350 calories each, and 6 grams of fat or less. I’ve been able to drop 3-5 pounds a week just by eating those for lunch and/or dinner. It’s awesome!

I’ve been eating stir fry lately. It’s a start.

I went to Walmart on Monday night and bought enough fruit for two each day for two weeks. I already have a stock pile of frozen vegetables, so I should be all set until my next shopping trip. The fruit really does help me stay away from naughty sweets. As always, I’m still not eating as much as I should, but I’m doing much better than before, when I wasn’t eating any at all.

Last night, I ate mixed veggies with dinner. They were pretty good. Another grapefruit on the menu today (I have to eat them before they go bad!) and probably some red beans and rice. I know that those aren’t veggies, but they’re plants, so I’m letting them count today. :) I could be eating more, but I haven’t been to the grocery store lately, and I probably won’t until next Tuesday, since I’m going out of town this weekend.

Two days ago, I had a kiwi and some broccoli, but yesterday I was bad and didn’t eat any fruits or veggies. Today, I am having grapefruit with breakfast and lunch. I must remember to eat some veggies with dinner!

Today, I had half a grapefruit with breakfast and the other half with lunch. I have some kiwis that I need to remember to nosh in the near future.

Yesterday, I ate an Asian Pear. It was quite good.

I’m finding that it’s easier to avoid sweets when I eat fruit with my meal. Since I have a sweet tooth that needs to be pulled (as I’m diabetic now), this is helping me in the right direction.

I think I’ll have broccoli and cauliflower with my dinner tonight. I love those steam bags they sell at the grocery store. Pop them in the microwave, and they steam the veggies in just a couple of minutes. I see nothing wrong with convenience vegetables if it helps me eat more of them!

Yesterday, I had green beans and carrots with lunch and a pear-apple with dinner. The pear-apple was very sweet and juicy and I didn’t want dessert after dinner. Yay! Today, I’m going to have veggies with lunch and dinner. I will have a grapefruit as a snack, then maybe another pear-apple with dinner. Yum!

Over the past few years, I have made a lot of nutritional changes. I am eating a lot healthier now but I still find it difficult to get my fruits and veggies in. I’m pretty good about having veggies with dinner, but I’m not so good about doing it at other meal times. I hardly ever eat fruit, even though I like it a great deal. Since being healthy is my top goal and we’re planning to have kids soon, I really want to get a strong nutritional routine that I can pass along to my kids so that they don’t struggle like I have my whole life.