Week 1 begins Sunday, July 3rd. Goals may be completed in any order and don't give up if you miss one. The ultimate goal is to make healthier eating choices by making a habit of intentionally including fruits and vegetables in your diet. If you're already doing this, why not increase your variety? Dietitians recommend selecting a wide variety of colors in your fruits and vegetables to benefit from different nutrients.
Weekly goals:
1a. Buy and eat local produce. Visit a farmers market or a fruit stand.
1b. a red fruit/veg
1c. a fruit or vegetable that has pointy things on it
1d. a melon
1e. a fruit/veg you haven't had in at least a month
1f. a creative salad
1g. share a pie with a friend
Thursday, June 30, 2011
62-Day Fruit and Veg Challenge Kickoff Days
So in addition to having a different fruit or vegetable each day for the next two months, weekly goals could help move things along and keep it fun. But the challenge begins on a Friday, which is a horrible day to begin a week. With a deep-seeded conviction that a week should begin on Sunday, I hereby proclaim that Friday 7/1 and Saturday 7/2 shall be kickoff days with week 1 to begin on Sunday, July 3rd.
Fri 7/1: Start out right with fruit in your breakfast.
Sat 7/2: Share a vegetable dish with somebody else.
Fri 7/1: Start out right with fruit in your breakfast.
Sat 7/2: Share a vegetable dish with somebody else.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
62-day Fruit and Vegetable Challenge Preview: Fruit - Pluot*
My wife and I decided to check out the supermarket in Niles, MI the other day to see what we might find for the fruit and vegetable challenge. One thing that caught our eye were some pluots. They had the skin coloration of a Washington apple with greens and reds mixed in and they had the texture of a plum. She mentioned that her mom likes these and has been wanting to purchase a tree so she can grow them. I'd never heard of them and they looked like they'd be fun to eat.
As we drove home to Berrien Springs, she demanded that I hand her a pluot. I argued, "But if we eat them now I can't use them for my fruit and vegetable challenge at the start of the month." She responded that they were already quite soft. Logic and curiosity got the best of me and soon we were biting in to our juicy pluots.
The inside also had the texture of a plum and the coloration was deep purplish red. It mostly had the feel and taste of eating a plum and what stood out was the intense sweetness on the outside and the sourness close to the pit. Soon I was finding myself out of dry places to hold onto the pluot so I shoved what was left of it into my mouth and chewed around the pit. The sourness was strong but in a way that reminded me of the sour straw candies we used to eat as teenagers which are now making a comeback. I whittled down the fruit until there was nothing left then rolled down the window and spit the seed out once we were past the Sheriff's office on Old 31. I'm pretty sure it's legal to spit biodegradable pits out the car window but I wasn't eager to have that conversation with the local law enforcement. Once we got home I went to research the fruit to find out what it was.
A pluot is a trademarked hybrid between a plum and an apricot. They have a few different varieties and the ones we had this week are the Dapple Dandy variety, which come early in the season and are harvested in June. Other varieties will be harvested through September so we might get to try some more later this summer.
*Pluots are the registered trademark of Zaiger Genetics of Modesto, CA. I have no financial relationship with any company that sells these other than being a consumer who found the fruit interesting enough to buy, but since I'm talking about their trademarked fruit I'll acknowledge that I'm using a trademarked name.
As we drove home to Berrien Springs, she demanded that I hand her a pluot. I argued, "But if we eat them now I can't use them for my fruit and vegetable challenge at the start of the month." She responded that they were already quite soft. Logic and curiosity got the best of me and soon we were biting in to our juicy pluots.
The inside also had the texture of a plum and the coloration was deep purplish red. It mostly had the feel and taste of eating a plum and what stood out was the intense sweetness on the outside and the sourness close to the pit. Soon I was finding myself out of dry places to hold onto the pluot so I shoved what was left of it into my mouth and chewed around the pit. The sourness was strong but in a way that reminded me of the sour straw candies we used to eat as teenagers which are now making a comeback. I whittled down the fruit until there was nothing left then rolled down the window and spit the seed out once we were past the Sheriff's office on Old 31. I'm pretty sure it's legal to spit biodegradable pits out the car window but I wasn't eager to have that conversation with the local law enforcement. Once we got home I went to research the fruit to find out what it was.
A pluot is a trademarked hybrid between a plum and an apricot. They have a few different varieties and the ones we had this week are the Dapple Dandy variety, which come early in the season and are harvested in June. Other varieties will be harvested through September so we might get to try some more later this summer.
*Pluots are the registered trademark of Zaiger Genetics of Modesto, CA. I have no financial relationship with any company that sells these other than being a consumer who found the fruit interesting enough to buy, but since I'm talking about their trademarked fruit I'll acknowledge that I'm using a trademarked name.
Fruit and Vegetable 62-day Challenge
Update to my goal: While I think the challenge will be manageable to eat 31 different fruits in July and blog about it, I'd like to add vegetables into the mix and make it last through July and August. Part of this is because it will be so much more interesting if I can mix things up in Thailand while I'm on my mission trip. Not sure how my travel days will impact the challenge when I cross the international date line, but I'll keep in the spirit of the challenge as I adjust to my new time zone. The other benefit of adding in vegetables is I don't have to play on the grey areas of what is and isn't a fruit. For instance, botanically there are things like tomatoes and cucumbers that fall into the fruit category that just don't feel like fruits to me. In a crunch the botanical card would have been available if I run out of locally available fruits to eat but now I won't need to.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The Good, the Bad, and the Challenge
So I'm off to a slow start on blogging and here's an update on how things have gone so far.
The Good: I survived a birthday trip to the theme park without gaining weight, joined the YMCA, took a long walk on the beach with my wife and went golfing last week. In about half of my meals when eating out I'm making healthy choices. We opted for state parks passes on our vehicles when we renewed our plates, so there are a few places nearby we could explore for free to keep active.
The Bad: I've only used the gym once. I got some inexpensive gym shoes, a radio tuner so I can actually hear the TVs, and I've spent all of 20 minutes inside the gym since joining 21 days ago. I also got some ear plugs for the pool and I know we need to go to get our money's worth and be healthy. It's probably the wrong time of day to get on a scale but it's about four pounds higher than the last time I checked (259). Need to check in the morning. I'm also not eating enough fruits and vegetables and I'm often choosing french fries, chips (baked if I can), and chocolate as food choices.
The Challenge: I want to eat a different type of fruit every day during the month of July. It sounds fun to me and a bit challenging to go find different fruits to try. It's quite possible just from what's available in the local supermarket if I'm technical about what qualifies as a fruit botanically (tomatoes and cucumbers for example). And frankly if I have to decide between a lemon and durian I'm going to pick durian every day of the week. This would be easier when I go to Thailand next month, and I might have another go at it in August, but I don't want to wait to try this.
So for now my goal is to go to the gym tomorrow (which begins in two minutes) and to start planning my food challenge.
The Good: I survived a birthday trip to the theme park without gaining weight, joined the YMCA, took a long walk on the beach with my wife and went golfing last week. In about half of my meals when eating out I'm making healthy choices. We opted for state parks passes on our vehicles when we renewed our plates, so there are a few places nearby we could explore for free to keep active.
The Bad: I've only used the gym once. I got some inexpensive gym shoes, a radio tuner so I can actually hear the TVs, and I've spent all of 20 minutes inside the gym since joining 21 days ago. I also got some ear plugs for the pool and I know we need to go to get our money's worth and be healthy. It's probably the wrong time of day to get on a scale but it's about four pounds higher than the last time I checked (259). Need to check in the morning. I'm also not eating enough fruits and vegetables and I'm often choosing french fries, chips (baked if I can), and chocolate as food choices.
The Challenge: I want to eat a different type of fruit every day during the month of July. It sounds fun to me and a bit challenging to go find different fruits to try. It's quite possible just from what's available in the local supermarket if I'm technical about what qualifies as a fruit botanically (tomatoes and cucumbers for example). And frankly if I have to decide between a lemon and durian I'm going to pick durian every day of the week. This would be easier when I go to Thailand next month, and I might have another go at it in August, but I don't want to wait to try this.
So for now my goal is to go to the gym tomorrow (which begins in two minutes) and to start planning my food challenge.
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