Heaven Knows I'm Vegetable Now - 10 / 10 club - all welcome

[FrannyandZooey]

For anyone who wants a boost to their general health. The suggested goals are:

EAT 10 PORTIONS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES EVERY DAY - if you don't usually eat much fruit and veg I would build up gradually or you could upset your digestion.

DO (AT LEAST) 10 MINUTES OF EXERCISE EVERY DAY - can be yoga, stretching or something more energetic. The plan is that the idea of doing 10 minutes is not too daunting, and having started you may well find you want to do more.

There are no restrictions on what you eat so long as you get your 10 fruit and veg as well. The focus is not on weight loss but on improving our energy levels and hopefully our general mood and well-being. Sign up below and post here to tell us how you're getting on and how you are feeling.

Basic guidance on what constitutes a portion of fruit and veg here and you can download more detailed information if you follow the link at the very bottom of the page

Oh how funny what a lot of fondues this week. We're having one tomorrow for a friend's birthday with my NEW chocolate fountain courtesy of MN

HC lovely to see you. Do you want recipes for vegetableish meals, or ways of serving veg on the side, or just ideas of different vegetables to try?

Anorak your mushrooms sound heavenly

Aviatrix no hog thank the lord, but only meat on the barbie. We had to all have 3 different types of cake and scone instead in lieu of lunch. Hence not much reporting back at the weekend .

TooT do you spread the pb on the celery? That does sound quite appealing. In an odd way.

I have eaten beetroot (lots) and a smidge of butternut squash in an M+S salad, then spinach salad, chickpeas and coleslaw again for tea.

Have also cycled 7.625 miles, according to dp. He did it with a piece of string on a big map

Yes Franny, spread the pb into the hollow and then stick raisins in it. It is delish. I believe some people call it ants on a log.
Made a multi-veg pie this evening and even managed to sneak (peeled and chopped!) broad beans in without detection.
Am now finishing ds2's bedtime carrot.

It does sound good...except for the ants on a log thing, that is vile

celery is one of the few veg ds won't eat, but as he also only eats peanut butter, and raisins, under duress, I guess I shall save this treat for myself

Have eaten dried apricots, peach, kiwi, apple, pear, raisins. God I feel full

Is nobody going to be admiring and encouraging about my 7.625 mile bike ride? Who was it that wanted a kick up the arse about exercise? Was it you MrsC? Because I am in the zone now

Most impressive your ride! About the same as Mr anorak does when you add his morning and evening rides to and from the station. Used to be completely knackered when he first started but he's getting used to it now. Good body!

Another great dish came out of my oven last night. Layered:

1st layer fried aubergine slices.
2nd layer passata with fried onion and garlic and seasoning.
3rd layer cooked and seasoned spinach.
4th thin layer grated mature cheddar.
5th more aubergines
6th more passata mix
top with good layer melted cheese.

Bake till golden brown

Eat with garlic bread...mmmm

top with grated cheese I mean...

Anorak you can take over as resident thread cook while Overrun is away

My dp also commutes by bike (bloody miles and miles, I have forgotten how many he does) but still manages to be a big chubber He's pretty healthy though, he does 10 k runs and stuff

I had an appointment with a lovely BUPA consultant yesterday who told me that he had his own personal view on what constitutes a healthy diet.

he says we should all have 26 different kinds of natural foods, of all different colours, every day.

I asked what made him decide upon the number 26 - and he said it is the average number of natural foods eaten each day by the healthiest types of people in the world - Japanese, Chinese, etc, those who don't have cancers or heart troubles.

Franny has 26 different coloured fruits just for breakfast!

Oh how fab

more counting for me to do

what counts as a natural food? Grains, seeds, nuts etc?

I didn't get all the details but he was hinting at herbs, fruit, veg, rice, fish, nuts, - all sorts really.

Big salads with a small amount of lots of different ingredients.

Hello everyone.

Have been at work so rubbishy diet (coffee and stress) only redeemed by eating an astonishing amount of strawberries from the local farm.

What a fabulous time of year ....

not really doing the health thing.....so i'll make it brief.......just wanted to say... love the title of this thread

Hello talcy - come and join us, you know you want to

Lionheart eating strawberries fresh from the field (preferably in the field, let's face it) has got to be one of life's great underrated pleasures

Anorak I love the idea of this random seeming number with the kind of rational back up. Am going to try to work out what I have on a typical day and may report back if not too miserable a number. I am kind of sceptical that it needs to be every day, though. I did read something somewhere about the average number of different foods most people eat in a day and it was something scary like 6. Wheat and cow's milk account for a huge proportion of our daily diet and not much room for variety.

Avi if you start a school could you please do it near me? I only ride slowly so don't be too impressed at my bike ride. It took me about an hour and I wasn't out of breath or sweating, so more of a gentle jaunt than anything.

Have eaten rhubarb, a banana (dipped in melted chocolate ) but the children ate all the strawberries before I got a look in Am lacking a few to make 10, aren't I? I didn't really have dinner as was full of chocolate banana, that was the trouble.

Have been to the gym and done 10 mins on the cycle machine and a paltry 5 mins on the rower (was tired). Then weights. My arms are looking better again

Have been eating fairly pathetically and feeling sorry for myself. Someone please come and give me a kick up the proverbial. Haven't even walked today as things were complicated.

Oh TooT I am sorry I know you know this, but exercise and eating well will make you feel noticeably better about virtually anything. I hope today is better for you anyway. Would you like to splurge on here about it?

I have had peach, pineapple, apple, kiwi, raisins for breakfast

then for lunch, beetroot, pepper, tomatoes, and a big pear

long stroll by the river while ds rode his bike

at your walk. It is still monsooning here for the 3rd day runni9ng. Any novelty of splashing in puddles and enjoy the sheer enormity of rain has well and truly worn off.
I want to go to my alloment.

I want to go and pick strawberries (which weren't ready last weekend) at our lovely nearby strawberry farm

I want to take ds to the park to play on his new bargain rollerblades.

Instead I am cooking and eating too much.
Though today I have had muesli with bananas, some plums, some homemade broclli and stilton soup with that fabulous seedy bread (is it called burgen??) and home made rice pud with fresh raspberries.
No excercie today . But I did walk for miles yeserday)

Started the day with a 2 and a bit mile walk. Ate muesli with pumpkin seeds and fresh apricots, did some serious weeding in the swede patch, dd2 did a poo on the path, had tahini, tomato and falafel sandwiches for lunch, watched dd2 eat an orange.
May I splurge? It's horribly dull really. We're just so bloody skint. Had to withdraw full month of rent from credit card and pay into bank to avoid disaster. Need to earn, blah blah blah, but don't want to be away from dd2. Feel very strongly about this. There, splurge over.

Oh, and I'm thinking of selling my [sob] Karlsson books by Astrid Lindgren. Regulars on this thread get first dibs. Oh, and my violin...

Oh TooT I am extremely sorry. Not having enough money is so worrying, and kind of wears you down physically and mentally with the dreary misery of it all.

Very sorry to hear about the Karlsson books possibly having to go. How are you pricing them? Don't undervalue them, will you? Don't sell your violin if it could be useful to you earning money in the playgroups as we discussed. A children's music group where someone plays a real instrument is bizarrely rare, and would be a real draw IMO.

FMF sorry to hear of rain. Your allotment will be loving it though, I hope? If it is any consolation I had a crap time at work with poor ds and my feet ache like buggery after all that walking.

Have eaten butternut squash with lentils and quinoa, and a big (never big enough) pile of asparagus, which has cheered me slightly.

Right I tried that thing anorak's consultant was talking about, and I ate 22 different natural foods today

hmm

will check again at random intervals

I didn't count my algae btw - that would have made it about 63

Seems it's just thee and me today Franny.
I was optimistically (and desperately) thinking around £50 for Karlsson on the Roof and Karlsson Flies Again together, to include secure delivery. Do you think this sounds reasonable? I did pay more than this...
And the violin - well, dd1 will let me use hers and in fact a 3/4 is a little more comfortable than a 4/4 anyway.
Have been eating truly heavenly ratatouille and forced myself to save some for tomorrow.
Anxious tummy syndrome comes and goes.

What condition are they in? That sounds too cheap to me