Turn around stir fries, every now and then I feel a part (of a mango)

[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 by following the link at the very bottom of the page

Mrs Carrot, that is appalling. I am so sorry it was so much more traumatic than it should have been. at doctors like this. They just have no idea, do they?

I don't like Fried Eggs either.

Don't know if this will help, Dinny, but I have this stuck on the inside of one of my kitchen cupboards, so I can check how much counts as a portion (it's from the Dept of Health guidelines):

Fruit (Portion equivalent to 80g)

Apple, dried rings 4 rings
Apple, fresh 1 medium apple
Apple, puree 2 heaped tablespoons
Apricot, canned 6 halves
Apricot, dried or fresh 3 whole
Avocado Half an avocado
Banana chips 1 handful
Banana, fresh 1 medium banana
Blackberries 1 handful (9 - 10 blackberries)
Blackcurrants 4 heaped tablespoons
Blueberries 2 handfuls (4 heaped tbs)
Cherries, canned 11 cherries (3 heaped tbs)
Cherries, dried 1 heaped tablespoon
Cherries, fresh 14 cherries
Dates, fresh 3 dates
Dried Fruit 1 heaped tbs
Fig, 2 figs
Fruit juice 1 x 150ml
Fruit salad, fresh/ canned 3 heaped tbs
Fruit smoothie 1 x 150ml
Gooseberries 1 handful
Grapefruit,canned 3 heaped tbs (8 segs)
Grapefruit, fresh Half a grapefruit
Grapes 1 handful
Kiwi fruit 2
Kumquat 6-8 kumquats
Lychee, canned or fresh 6 lychees
Mandarin,canned 3 heaped tbs fresh 1 medium
Mango 2 slices
Melon 1 slice
Nectarine 1 nectarine
Orange 1 orange
Passion fruit 5 to 6 fruit
Paw paw (papaya),
fresh 1 slice
Peach, canned 2 halves or 7 slices
Peach, dried 2 halves
Peach, fresh 1 medium peach
Peach, ready to eat 2 halves
Pear, canned 2 halves or 7 slices
Pear, dried 2 halves
Pear, fresh 1 medium pear
Pear, ready to eat 2 halves
Pineapple, canned 2 rings or 12 chunks
Pineapple, crushed 3 tablespoons
Pineapple, dried 1 heaped tablespoon
Pineapple, fresh 1 large slice
Plum 2 medium plums
Prune, canned 6 prunes
Prune, dried or ready to eat 3 prunes
Raspberries, canned 20 raspberries
Raspberries, fresh 2 handfuls
Rhubarb, canned chunks 5 chunks
Rhubarb, cooked 2 heaped tablespoons
Satsuma, tangerine, clementine, 2 small
Sharon fruit 1 sharon fruit
Strawberry, canned 9 or 7 fresh strawberries

Vegetables (Portion equivalent to 80g)

Artichoke 2 globe hearts
Asparagus, canned 7 sprs, fresh 5 spears
Aubergine 1/3rd aubergine
Beans, (black eye, broad, butter, cannelloni, garbanzo, kidney), 3 heaped tablespoons
Beans, (French, Runner), 4 heaped tbs
Beansprouts, fresh 2 handfuls
Beetroot, bottled 3 ?baby? whole, or 7 slices
Broccoli 2 spears
Brussel sprouts 8 Brussel sprouts
Cabbage 1/6th small cabbage or 2 handfuls sliced
Cabbage, shredded 3 heaped tablespoons
Carrots, fresh, slices 3 heaped tablespoons
Carrots, shredded 1/3 cereal bowl
Cauliflower 8 florets
Celery 3 sticks
Courgettes Half a large courgette
Cucumber 5 cm or 2-inch piece
Curly kale, cooked 4 heaped tablespoons
Leeks 1 leek (white portion only)
Lentils 3 tablespoons
Lettuce (mixed leaves) 1 cereal bowl
Mangetout 1 handful
Mixed vegetables, frozen 3 tablespoons
Mushrooms, button 14 or 3 handfuls of slices, 3-4 heaped tablespoons
Mushrooms, dried 2 tablespoons
Okra 16 medium
Onion, fresh 1 medium onion
Parsnips 1 large
Peas, canned, fresh, frozen 3 heaped tbs
Pepper, Half a pepper
Radish 10 radishes
Spinach, cooked 2 heaped tablespoons
Spinach, fresh 1 cereal bowl
Spring greens, cooked 4 heaped tablespoons
Spring onion 8 onions
Sugarsnap peas 1 handful
Swede, diced and cooked 3 heaped tablespoons
Sweetcorn, baby 6 baby corn
Sweetcorn, canned 3 heaped tablespoons
Sweetcorn, on the cob 1 cob
Tomato puree 1 heaped tablespoon
Tomato, canned plum 2 whole
Tomato, fresh 1 medium, or 7 cherry
Tomato, sundried 4 pieces

I scanned down too far and saw your list, UnderRated, and thought Holy Shit she's done well today. [relieved]

I see how it is Franny. You entice people in with your mesmerising thread titles and witty banter and then brainwash them into eating healthily. You're like one of those flirty fishers.

AdamAnt, If you notice my posts they very rarely include mention of F&V. There's a reason for that

But I do have the list. That's a start .

Um, raisins.

Thanks for kind messages on my cervical trauma thread!

Hello Adamant - some days I eat barely any vegetables but I am one of those who can put away a vast amount of other stuff as well as the ten but it's harder.

Today has been quite good for food. Pears for breakfast, pea and mint soup and Brandon Rost salmon while I warmed it, and dinner, kindly made and dropped to my door by a friend, was a stew of sweet potato, butternut squash, turnip, leek, carrot, pepper, fennel and chilli topped with stir-fried bacon, greens, broccoli and mange tout. I was dubious about the combination but it was delicious.

MrsC, your experienc eis terrible, I hope that you feel better soon.

That list os fab, though scarey!

Pepper and courgette frittata.

Pasta and tomatoes amd peppers.

Lots dried apricots.

So crap gaian.
Oh well, am used to it now!!

that's my list that I am always banging on about, the one in the OP

Adam arf arf at flirty fishing. I like that.

ooh ooh there is a thread about not understanding us

"the thing where they always make a song out of fruit and veg" LOL

I haven't read it, i just rushed here to tell you

Lol at Franny's ownership of list issues!!

I don't understand us sometimes

I have had grapes, raisins, blueberries, cucumber and lettuce. Oooh not good enough. It is so much easier in the summer

thanks! have many of you lost weight doing this, as a pleasant side-effect?

Twiglett called us a bunch of hippies

Oh Franny, I'm dreadfully sorry for stealing your list. I copied it from the very useful link, pasted it into Word & edited it slightly so it fit nicely in 2 columns on 1 piece of paper [anal] I thought it might be helpful. Sorry.

I have lost NO weight doing this and am rather pissed off about it actually. I keep trying to convince myself that my body will be grateful anyway, but I was secretly hoping to be able to fit into my smaller clothes by now

Does dessicated coconut count? (the unsweetened stuff)

Thanks for your supplement suggestions - I am going to write them down in my diary, I can feel a trip to the health food shop coming on...also will print out the list (declining to mention whose list - think it a really good idea to have stuck on a cupboard door.

Very diplomatic, Anorak

LOL at all list issues
it's a ruddy good idea to paste it on every now and then, UnderRated, I am just sulking because I didn't think of it

Have you been exercising UR? that might shift things a bit

Coconut doesn't count, sorry

Have had melon, raisins, kiwi and raspberries

am tired (see thread re: ds's nappy free night time)

hello lovelies

oh i hate that i can't keep up - have tried the odd skim but got lost.

what news?

what is the thing with carrot?

have you met yet?

has the wizard sorted boco yet?

I happy to be considered a hippy by Twiglett. There are worse things.

Dinny, you need to spill some juice about your life so we can identify and empathise and embrace you fully into our fruity fold ?

1. Where do you stand on mangoes? Are they too often cunting disappointing or are they gift of the gods?

2. Do you have interesting neighbours who paint dead trees blue or similar?

3. Do you take any exercise so that some of us can feel inadequate and have to mumble defensively that we, y'know, walk a lot

4. Are you a Smiths fan?

5. Are you prone to having slightly surreal impulses such as, ooh, let's say ordering a pedal boat from the council as a sandpit...randomly appearing with a puppy called Johnny Jet, or accepting a canal boat in lieu of redundancy payouts.

6)Do you have any medical problems which might be solved by homeopathic wizards?

6. Your views on Cake. (essay required, 2000 wods minumum)

Think that covers everything

Good list Filthy, also
Can you drive?

Hello Bee. Wizard not sorted me, but now I have to call her twice a day! Twice. And it's just getting on my nerves now. I called today and said that i've scratched the skin off my hip bones and it's raw and my trousers hurt, and she said 'ok, well, good, i think we're holding you through this, I think it's holding the rash', in a hypnotic voice and I said 'NO it's NOT, it's not doing anything anymore at all!' and she wants me to pick up another remedy, the 15th. And yesterday dd2 ate a whole packet of rhus tox and I had to call her a third time to ask what was about to happen to her. She said nothing. Hmm.

hmm Boco, generally I treat homeopathy in a benign, ''I'll try anything and it can't hurt'' sort of way, but if it is so not working after all this....

I suppose you try a chinese herbalist. And then a shaman. And then prerhaps a spiritual healer. And if all else fails, send me £100 and I will banish the evil spirits which are inhabiting your stomach with mystical cake and some chanting.

Really sorry for you, it must be awfully uncomfortable and dispiriting.

i haven't read this thread, but the title made me lol!

I only tried the homeopath after trying steroid creams, antibiotic creams and several types of antihistamine tablets - and being told after a month of pills that didn't work that I should try them for another 3-4 months. And the homeopathic remedies were the ONE thing that worked, for a whole 2 months. Might have to go back to GP and get referred to dermatologist I guess. It's annoying and if i don't get proper sleep soon I will turn into a very unpleasant person to be around. And very odd. I cried three times yesterday for ridiculous reasons, including hearing about a blue tit that got stuck in a feeder and died, I cried, and everyone laughed at me. I'm losing my mind!

Hi allie - if you can make sense of any of the thread, you're doing well. But you are welcome to stay and talk bollocks fruit if oyu wish?

Boco, you are not losing your mind, you are just at a very low ebb after what seems to have been a stressful past several months. {{Quick, imperceptible hug while no-one is looking}}

Thanks, no, you're right, I'm not, just tired and melodramatic. Going to go out and do things.