Fruit & Veg record - anybody care to join?

[Shoeshelpplease]

I have recently read How Not to Die (well, on Audible actually) and its absolutely fascinating. All the different benefits different veg have and the different benefits each has depending on raw v cooked.

It advocates a plant based diet, but that wont happen for me. I am however committed to reducing meat and increasing the amount of veg (mainly) and fruit in my diet.

Would anybody be interest in joining in recording the different veg they have managed to achieve each day and in what ways? I'm talking pretty hard core here - aiming for 9 a day with a big variety.

I'd find it really interesting to see how others are achieving it.

Shoes, your lunch sounds delicious! Is it 3:1 oil to tahini? This thread has made a huge difference to me actually eating all these things that I love but don't always make time for, getting in the habit makes it much simpler.

Hi, the dressing I just make up but its probably more 1:1 ... I adore tahini!

Oh and here is the photo of lunch ....

and just looking at that photo, I realise I forgot to add the

20. Tomato .....

So a whopping 20 in only 2 meals.

Plus I did a really high energy workout class this morning at 06:15 ... Yes, 06 bloody 15. Now that is hardcore!!!

Elementtree, I hope the surgery went well and you are recovering as expected. I can imagine the amount and quality of nutrients racing round your system after these last few weeks have prepared your body well.

Take it easy for your recovery and keep going ... I too worry that this is a bit of a fad as it is very time consuming. I am loving it though and would far rather spend my time prepping and cooking these delicious meals and enjoying these energising yoga and exercise classes so I cant think why I would ever want to stop!

I have until September before I need to go back to work (following a back injury) but am working part time now and feel very lucky to have this time to nourish myself and my family.

And this thread is helping enormously too!

Op how the heck are you able to do a high energy work out if you have a bad back that means you’re off work for most of the year?!

Your salad looks delicious! Exactly up my street.

Limited pics today as couldn’t find phone for most of day (kind of liberating).

Breakfast
Moma berry porridge with water (1 portion)
2 large tomatos sliced with pepper (2 portions)

Lunch
Good few slices of M&S roast turkey with a huge mound of lettuce tomato cucumber and spring onion
And some Branston pickle (4 portions)
2 apples (2 portions)
Large Bowl of melon (2 portions)
Greek yoghurt

Snack
3 medium raw carrots

Dinner
Huge bowl of courgetti and cabbage with soy sauce and wasabi
Bowl of steamed cauliflower and broccoli with handful of cooked prawns and some sweet chill sauce
Greek yoghurt
Bowl of 1 punnet of raspberries and 1 punnet is blackcurrents (pic attached. How beautiful do the blackcurrents look. They tasted even better!)

About > 20 portions

Not judging OP btw!

Hi shoes,

Yes, it went fine thanks. I feel ok considering- I'm famished though. Can't wait to start eating again although it'll be a while to get back up to standard.

That salad you posted looks gorgeous. I'm going to start grating carrot into my salads- I don't get enough colour in mine.

More than twenty portions high horse? Wow - have you got a veggie tan yet?

Elementtree

I have always eaten like this, even as a child so I think I have a permatan!

Highhorse, it's a very long story! Really it's not so much an injury as an ongoing back problem. The aim is to come off my strong pain meds in Sept. building up my core and losing weight will be a big part of this plan so it is a self exposed deadline by myself and docs to achieve this. Then I need to go back to he workplace as it will be suitable for myself and my family life.

Exercise, even if painful will not make things worse, only better. But the more I'm going at it, the stronger I am getting and the less the pain.

Until an MRI revealed the cause, I had avoided exercise for a long time so my core is really shot which has been making my problems a whole lot worse.

Today's exercise will be a body pump class and 40 lengths of the pool.

Elementtree, the carrots were shredded using a peeler. One side is a regular potato peeler and the other a peeler which also shreds. Gets through a whole carrot in seconds, can be used for all sorts.

So I've been busy prepping for the day.

For breakfast I have made my flaxseed muffin with

1. Pecans and walnuts (as we are now counting nuts / seeds as 1)
2. Raspberries

My smoothie with usual spices, fresh ginger, fresh turmeric and

1. Handful corriander
2. Beetroot
3. Celery
4. Carrot
5. Cavolo Nero
6. Brocolli stalks
7. Berry Active

Lunch is made, consisting of chicken salad with a tahini and olive oil dressing and

1. Avocado

10. Tomato 11. Green beans 12. Leftover roasted aubergine 13. Red pepper 14. Pomegranate seeds

Tea will be a new recipe from the Gwyneth Paltrow Goop Clean Beauty Book. Its steamed Sea Bream and Soba Noodles with a base of Dashi which I have made up this morning includes, among other things.

15. Wakame (seaweed)

Served with

Cavolo Nero
16. Chard
17. Spring Onions

If it turns out lovely, I shall post a picture!

Have a great veggie day all!

@HighHorse1981 - Your daily food looks and sounds delicious. You say you've always eaten like that.

I'm interested - do you have loads of steady energy?
Do you get energy dips?
Where are you on the BMI scale?
Is it really expensive and time consuming buying and prepping all that veg?
What do your DC eat?

I babysat a friend's child yesterday. He's sporty (our DC are not). We played on the trampoline, played football, did some other ball skills. Then he went inside, said he was hungry and ate six cherry tomatoes. My DC would have done half the exercise and eaten a huge bowl of cereal. I want to rethink how we eat.

I'm interested - do you have loads of steady energy?
Yes. Ish. I work out 5/6x a week. That includes 3 10/12k runs. 2 body pump classes and 1 kettle bells
Class. Generally speaking I’m on very good form but I had a very bad bout of food poisoning early in the year and that knocked me sideways. Digestive system still recovering a bit I think and occasionally that impacts on energy levels.

Do you get energy dips?
No, not really. If I do I’ll have a hot drink or a Diet Coke 😳
I take lots of supplements and my portions are huge. I don’t feel hungry because i stuff myself 3x a day

Where are you on the BMI scale?
Ah, this is not so good. 17/18. I’m underweight. always have been but after the food poisoning I plummeted and I really didn’t have anything to spare. I’m very skinny. Slowly putting on weight. Slowly.

Is it really expensive and time consuming buying and prepping all that veg?
Expensive - yes. Especially as pretty much exclusively organic.
Time consuming - not at all

What do your DC eat?
Very well. They are fruit and veg addicts. But they have lots of salmon, spag Bol, Pizza, tuna, eggs etc.
They are both very slim but incredibly active. They don’t stop moving. Seriously. Ballet, dance, gymnastics, football, athletics etc. Plus trampoline that is used every day after school up until dinner!

It’s not all rosy. I have been ill and should really focus on more fatty food but it’s a struggle because my palate is just not used to fatty food.

Anyway so far today....

Hard run of 12k (struggle to get going but so worth it!)
Big bowl of Moma plain porridge with water (75g of porridge). I added some cinnamon
4 sliced toms with pepper

Lunch I will grill a tuna steak and have with large salad and some sugar free sweet chill sauce (amazing find)

Children’s breakfast this morning

Ps

I’m not pure as the driven snow!
I do indulge with friends of we go out for dinner and will have a couple of glasses of wine. And if I have people over for dinner, whilst I will cook healthily, it will be indulgent aswell

Hi all, hope everyone well, especially you Elementtree

I keep forgetting to take pics before I start eating!

Yesterday:
B: Greek yoghurt, grapefruit, blackberries (2)

L: Leftovers: small bowl of split pea soup (1), plus a salad of spinach, kale, bean mix, beetroot, carrot, tomato, celery (7), then a pear (1)

D: Lamb steaks with an aubergine stew thing (aubergine, tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs, let's say (3)) plus a huge Greek salad (tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, green pepper, black olives, feta)(4), then an orange (1)

19, no actually 18 as I had tomatoes at two meals.

Going out for lunch today but I think to a place where there will be plenty of veg so shouldn't be that difficult.

I was wondering at the weekend how we could possibly get through the 20 tons of veg I'd bought and we seem to have managed just fine! There are plenty left but they're still ok and will do for soups etc next week.

Oh, I have one of those vegetable shredder/peeler things and they are the best cheap gadget ever - perfect for making coleslaw.

Happy Friday, all.

I'm envious of your ability to run Highhorse, something I've never been able to achieve and always work out in classes which is more time consuming (having to get there and back), restrictive (set times) and expensive.

I can just about do 5k but that's pls ty for me

Photo of my breakfast smoothie attached. It tastes about as bad as it looks but I really don't mind getting through it as it is so nutritious.

I was sure to take a before photo which looks far more appealing before it ends up in that state. The liquid is water soaked overnight in Hibiscus flowers. I usually add vinegar too but am out till shopping is delivered on Sunday.

OP
Running is awesome. Yes. But 5k is a very decent distance. If you want to do more what about doing your 5k but then fast walking 1k.
Before you know it you’ll be up to 6k.

I do enjoy classes. Yes they take up tome but I shower much more quickly at the gym so save a bit of time there

Hey there. Mind if I lurk and join you, please? I’m trying to up my vegetable and salad game and need new ideas. I’ll look up some salad dressing recipes as well to get my mind going.

Ha! So much for tuna for lunch

I have just sat at kitchen table and had three coffees and an entire large pack of dried fruits and nuts and a huge bowl of Greek yoghurt and honey

Enjoyed every mouthful!

I'm behind today- 4 fruits but zero veg as none on brunch menu :/ So I'll load up at dinner but it will be 10 and not much more today I'd say.

Can I join please - will post properly later

Right, so I am a veg shirker but when I have done these type of veg threads before it really helped me to increase my intake so if you will have me I would love to post. For the next few weeks I am going to try and keep low calorie for weight loss so wont be eating huge volumes but want as much as pos to be veg. Not planning to do the very low cals for a long time and will try not to mention it from here as don't want to derail thread!

So far today I have had a whole courgette sliced and fried into an omelette and also some parsley so calling that 2.

Thanks Lurking.

Right, I'm feeling more on it today.

Breakfast,
Blueberries and strawberries (2)

Snack
Pumpkin seeds goji berries and raisins (2)
Apple (1)

Lunch
Porridge

Dinner
The spicy Asian vegetable soup from the 'how not to die' cookbook. Between the recipe and the home-made veg broth (veg is blitzed not discarded) dinner includes onion, celery, mushrooms, shallots, bok choy, shredded carrot, spring onions and cherry tomatoes. (8)

Which, tbh, feels a lot like cheating because I didn't have much but the effort is there.