My 5 a day experiment-join me!

[dislvr74]

Hi! My name is Meghan and I'm tired of trying to diet and lose weight. I have terrible eating habits-way too much processed foods, frozen meals, and bread. I really love bread. Anyway, I hate to admit it, but I will go for days without eating fruits or vegetables and I am setting a terrible example for my kids. So, I'm throwing out the diet books. I'm not going to count calories or fat grams. I'm simply going to make it a goal to eat 5 servings of fruit and/or veggies a day. If I'm eating that much produce, I can't imagine that I'll be as hungry for junk food, so I'm hoping that I will feel stronger, healthier, and maybe finally lose the 20 pounds I've needed to lose for as long as I can remember. I would love it if others would join me on this plan. I need all the encouragement I can get!

 

[mom0299]

That's a great idea. I hate dieting too. I worry that it has a negative effect on my kids. I think just eating healthier is the best way to go. I've been trying to eat more whole grains and less sugar. My goal is to be more active too. I know HOW to lose weight and be healthy I just have to make myself do it.

 

[redlight]

I like your plan.

 

[princessfionasmom]

I am guilty too! I can go a few days without a fruit or veg and I'm horrified. I'm always at my kids about eating healthy and making good choices, what a bad example I'm setting. I'm joining you starting first thing tomorrow morning. I am going to track my daily water fruit and veg on a little dry erase board I have on my fridge by putting a blue star for each glass of water, red star for fruit and green star for veg. We can do this! I have more than you to loose, at least 30lbs. This will help us!

 

[dislvr74]

Thanks for the replies. It helps to know that I'm not alone in this as you will be able to see from my Day -1 post (next) my regular eating habits are not great. I like the idea of keeping track of my fruit/veggie intake on the fridge. I work outside of my house, so I'm just using my memo pad on my phone. I'm setting a grand goal of eating 5 servings a day for at least 90 days. At that point, I'm going to re-evaluate the plan. I'm shooting for 3 servings of veggies and 2 servings of fruit, but I'm going to be flexible about that. Too many rules will make this seem like a diet instead of a healthy eating plan.

 

[dislvr74]

I made the decision to try this at 4:30 pm yesterday and I felt like it was a little too late in the day to try to cram in 5 servings of fruit/veggies, so I'm calling yesterday day -1.

I hate food journals. I always get frustrated by trying to calculate the nutritional information for casseroles or by trying to guess at serving sizes. With this plan, I'm going to write down everything I eat, but just so I can see what I am generally putting into my body. I'm not going to worry about the exact serving size (except for veggies) or anything like that. I think this will help me to develop the habit of writing down what I eat, which should help me to identify trends and times when I overeat.

Breakfast: 2 pieces of wheat toast with peanut butter.
Thoughts: this is my favorite pre-run food and I can't tolerate much else until I am done running.

During run: 3 clif shot blocks.
Thoughts: I ran 6 miles and I need fuel during a run to prevent muscle cramps.

Lunch: a little less than half of a frozen pizza
Thoughts: pizza is my favorite post-run food. Notice that I didn't have any produce with it!

Dinner: I made a hamburger-rice skillet and ate a serving of frozen peas on the side.
Thoughts: Normally, I would have just made the main dish and wouldn't have added anything else. One serving of peas is 3/4 of a cup. That's a lot of peas. As I suspected, they filled me up pretty quickly and I only had one serving of the hamburger/rice stuff. But, I was starving 4 hours later. I decided that I would just be hungry and managed to avoid an extra snack.

As you can see, I have a lot of room for improvement!

 

[redlight]

I'm getting my fruit in today.

 

[dislvr74]

Great job on getting your fruit in redlight!

This may be a little more difficult than I thought. But, I stocked up on fruits and veggies yesterday at the store. I think this will be easier during the week because my day is more structured.

Breakfast: veggie scramble with 1 c. of cauliflower and broccoli and toast

mid-morning: very hungry for some reason - had an orange

lunch: two soy "chicken" patties with cheese, baby carrots and dip

mid-afternoon: banana

dinner: chicken and noodles with a serving of corn

So, I got in three servings of veggies and two servings of fruit.

TMI alert, the extra fiber is being a little rough on my tummy. I hope my body adjusts quickly!

 

[dislvr74]

Got in my 5 servings again today. Two days down, 88 to go!

Breakfast: veggie scramble with egg beaters
Thoughts: this was good, but my ratio of egg to broccoli was off

Snack: Banana

Lunch: Lean Cuisine, baby carrots with dip, 2 (yes 2) brownies
Thoughts: I'm good at adding fruits/veggies to my meals, but not so good at using the to replace foods.

Snack: orange and animal crackers
Thoughts: I tend to get a little sick feeling in the afternoons due to some medicine I take. The animal crackers were an attempt to prevent that and it basically worked

Dinner: sloppy joes, oven fries, baby carrots and dip
Thoughts: I just didn't feel like heating up a veggie and the carrots/dip were a good alternative. I ate them while I was baking the fries because I was starving after my run. Usually I end up making toast or something and this was a better choice. I did end up eating way too much of the sloppy joes/fries. This is why I have a hard time losing weight when I am training!

Running note: I walked 5 minutes, ran 7 minutes, walked 5, ran 7, walked 5. I'm currently working through the pre-training workouts in preparation of for the "non-runners marathon training" plan. I'm not running a full, but I'm looking to work more running into my half marathons. I'll use a 1:1 ratio at the princess half in March and then I hope to run 4/walk 1 at the two half marathons I'm doing in May. Right now my short runs are all about increasing my running intervals. I'm still using 1:1 on the weekends for my long runs.

 

[dislvr74]

Yesterday was a bad day. I got my fruits and veggies in, but was heavy on the fruit and I ate way too much junk food. I was stressed and tired, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I ate two servings of raisins, a banana, carrots, and an orange. I may turn orange soon!

I'm home with a sick kid today and I'm planning for a better day full of veggies!

 

[dislvr74]

Not a great day because I decided to get fast food for lunch, but I was home with a sick kid and that threw off my entire routine. I did eat 3 servings of veggies and 2 servings of fruit, so at least I got some nutrients with all of that grease.

I'm back at work today and think I will get back on track again!

 

[FeelsLikeHome]

Just wanted to send some encouragement your way!!! Great job! Have you noticed that you're feeling more energized eating more fruits and veggies?

 

[dislvr74]

Thanks for stopping by! I haven't really noticed a lot more energy, but I'm only on day 6, so maybe I'll start feeling the benefits later? I am finally starting to feel like my appetite is diminishing. It doesn't help that I am totally PMSing this week and want to inhale everything in sight. I also find it really difficult to lose weight when I am training for a race, so I'm trying not to measure success by my weight and instead focus on how I'm feeling.

Breakfast: veggie scramble (broccoli with egg beaters and cheese) and a banana
Thoughts: it is getting easier for me to make the time to cook in the morning and I don't seem to be starving an hour later like I was the first day.

Lunch: Lean Cuisine, baby carrots and dip

afternoon snack: banana and potato chips

Dinner: saltines
Thoughts: I take some medication that can make me feel yucky in the afternoon.

I missed my goal by one serving, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. Today is a new day and, hopefully, I will feel better tonight and will be able to get all of my servings in.

 

[dislvr74]

I had a bit of a breakdown this weekend, mostly due to a lack of sleep. My DH was moved to 2nd shift in December, which means that he gets home from work around 3:30am. I'm a very light sleeper and have been averaging about 5 hours of sleep since he switched. It finally dawned on me that this lack of sleep is causing a lot of trouble for me. I am so exhausted when I get home from work that I just don't want to do anything. This means that the house is a disaster and I feel bad about that. Anyway, DH and I came up with ideas to improve the situation and I'm feeling much more optimistic about the whole thing.

Given my rough weekend, I did a lot of stress eating and very little fruit/veggie eating. I'm just going to consider the weekend a brief break in my experiment and I'm going to count today as day 6. I did manage to get a good night sleep last night and woke up ready to make breakfast and pack my lunch. Lately, that has been a real chore.

I know the purpose of starting this wasn't about weight loss, but I am happy to report that I lost 2 pounds last week!

 

[FeelsLikeHome]

Sorry to hear about your DH's work shift and the lack of sleep that has come with it! I know I don't feel like exercising when I don't have my basic (sleep) need met. It feels like I need to have that first before anything else sometimes. How have you been feeling lately, and how have things been going with you?