More Fruits and Veggies, Please!

We've reached week three!

The three completed weeks haven't passed without their challenges. As I said at the start--- I'm trying. Trying with the realization that I will occasionally fail. Like when I was nibbling on a Twizzler the other night and realized, Wait a minute, I'm pretty sure that Twizzlers have 'Low fat' printed on their packaging. And sure enough, there was "LOW FAT" printed bold for all the world to see.

I'm finally reaching a point where I am truly listening to my internal cues and stopping eating when I feel full. There are only two times I still struggle with this: 1. When eating pasta, and 2. When eating out.

I don't think I need to explain the deliciousness of pasta. The issue with eating out is that I know the leftovers won't taste the same reheated and, chances are, I probably won't end up eating them anyway. If I don't eat the entire meal, or a major portion of it, I feel as though I've wasted my money.

This is a mind over matter battle that I'm fighting.

Week Three: Eat a minimum of two different fruits and/or vegetables with every meal.

Week three was a toughie, too. Mostly because it required buying a lot of fruits and veggies and making sure those that needed prepping were ready. Our breakfasts and lunches are pretty much grab-what-you-can-on-your-way-out-the-door. This doesn't work too well when you need to have two fruits or veggies as part of your meal. We had carrots, but they needed chopping. We had mangos, but they needed slicing. Two days in, I went to the grocery store and grabbed a bag of clementines and a bunch of bananas. At least they work with the grab-what-you-can approach.

Though I love fruits and vegetables, the issue I've always had with them is their short life span.* Of course there are ways around this, i.e.: canned, frozen, etc.**, but again, I haven't been the model planner over the course of the past three weeks of challenges.

*Of course, I realize, that means they are actually natural--and good for you!
**Yes, these would also be ways around all the chopping and slicing barriers I faced. Don't judge me.

The thing I love about fruits and vegetables is their low calorie count. I've started tracking what I eat in My Fitness Pal, again. I did this about a year or so ago and lost about 15 pounds. When I have a meal that consists of mostly fruits and vegetables, I find my calorie count is usually slashed in half.

This gives me extra calories for coffee and chocolate.

I'm kidding.

Okay, maybe not.

While every single meal I ate last week didn't always have two  fruits or veggies on the side---Valentine's Day was this weekend, after all---I certainly ate more of these two food groups than I usually do.

For a better part of the week, I either skipped breakfast (the horrors, I know) or ate a clementine and a banana. Lunch was the most difficult meal to incorporate two fruits or veggies, and again, if I had been a better planner it wouldn't have been. Most often I ended up having another clementine and a small leftover portion of veggies from dinner as my two fruits or veggies.

For dinner I wanted to make a major effort to incorporate two fruits or veggies, but I also wanted it to be in an out of the ordinary way.

Here are two of the most unusual combinations:

This melon salad with Parmesan and prosciutto was the edgiest dinner. Luckily, Hubby ate it without complaint! The steak I served with it was a little tough, convincing me that some exploration in the world of steak is a necessary part of my future.

The below salad pushed the limits of our usual at home salads. We aren't fancy salad people, at least at home. I love the varieties and flavor combinations that I've tasted in salads in my foodie travels, but at home some romaine, cucumber, tomato, and a little vinaigrette is about as far as I usually take it.

This salad consisted of mixed baby greens, diced pear, cheddar cheese, and a cranberry dressing. The cranberry dressing called for a few tablespoons of cranberry sauce. Since I knew that there was cranberry sauce in the dressing, it was a little difficult for my brain to push past that as I ate the salad. The flavor wasn't horrible, it was just a thicker texture than is expected in dressing. Next time I think I would boil some cranberries until the liquid reduces and use that as my cranberry flavor. It would certainly give the dressing a thinner consistency.

Having two fruits or veggies with every meal isn't an easy transition for someone who usually averages one or two fruits or veggies in an entire day. My goal is to at least have one with every meal and to really focus on making dinner more fruit and vegetable oriented.