Game Theory

Trying to figure out how to get all my vegetable servings in for the day has almost been like a game. I look at my tally calendar and see that it's already well past midday and I still have 5 more servings I need to get in! Then I have to do some major strategizing. It's actually kinda fun. It takes some planning indeed. Here's some of the strategies I have found to be helpful in meeting my vegetable daily intake goals:

1) I like to try to fit as many servings into breakfast as I can, so that I don't get myself into a bind later (for example, I am a nursing student and get home on Monday and Tuesday evenings at 11pm. I don't like to have to eat 4 servings of fruits/vegetables right before I'm about to try to go to sleep) What do I eat in the mornings to pack those servings in? Well, fruit smoothies work the best. I can get 4 servings in right there. I use a whole banana (which is 2 servings), and then a cup of frozen berries (another 2 servings). I put a scoop of Kashi chocolate powder in, a tbsp of ground flax seed, and then a cup of milk, soy milk, yogurt, or kefir and blend it all together. I also cook eggs often in the morning. I'll pour in a 1/2 cup of zucchini, spinach, and or bell peppers. Then I'll have a serving of fruit like cherries, grapes, or a grapefruit as a side dish.

2) Keep oranges, apples, frozen berries, frozen veggies, and dried fruits in the house. They keep for a long time and help out in those times when I didn't have time to get to the farmer's market or the grocery store.

3) Make a ritual of chopping vegetables for the week. I do my grocery shopping on Sunday mornings (when it's the least packed! and you don't have to fight for space in the aisles). Then I get home, do some things around the house, etc. Then at noon, the Splendid Table comes on NPR, so I put my portable radio on the kitchen counter and listen as I chop vegetables for the week. Caveat: Now that the local farmer's market is open, I go there on Saturday mornings, which means my Sunday grocery shopping ritual doesn't happen. I'm still in the development phase of a new ritual around the Saturday morning farmer's market encounter, but I'm thinking I could probably just listen to Splendid Table archives from the website on Saturdays while I chop veggies I just bought at the farmer's market. Other barrier to this weekend chopping ritual: I have found that in the summertime, I am out-of-town for most weekends, so I'm thinking about shifting my shopping and chopping days to weekdays.

4) Plan ahead for travel. For some reason, I always have in my head that I can only bring "snacky" things like granola bars and packaged items in my purse for plane travel. NOT TRUE. I flew back to Oklahoma last weekend, and I brought an orange and a banana in my purse, and they worked great. I thought ahead and remembered to bring an empty plastic ziplock to put my orange peel in. So yeah, fruits with sturdy peels like oranges, grapefruit, and bananas come already packaged, don't require rinsing, and smell better to your neighbor than a tuna sandwich. ;)
Helpful tip: so oranges can be particularly juicy. I always travel with a sarong/scarf around my neck, so that I can use it as a blanket on the plane, but it also came in hand for using as a towel to wipe all the orange juice from my fingers, face, and lap.
More notes on travel....It goes back to my treating-this-as-a-game approach. I've noticed this approach helps me make better choices at airports and restaurants. Instead of looking at a menu and being faced with the question of "What best satisfy what I perceive that I'm craving right now?", I now look at a menu and think, "What is going to give me the most fruit and vegetable servings?" It somehow becomes easier to choose the salad over the fries as a side or to choose a cup of fruit at the airport food kiosks or the banana near the cash register at the convenient store.

5)Eat your fruit/vegetable servings first at a meal. That way you don't fill up on the other stuff first and then aren't hungry for your fruit/vegetables and you may just find yourself so satisfied from the fruit/vegetables that you don't end up eating the chocolate chip cookie.

Success

While at times I feel like I'm not making much progress (my weight has gone up rather than down), then I look at my calendar on which I tally my fruit and vegetable intake and see that I have made tremendous progress there. Increasing my fruit and vegetable intake was a primary goal; weight loss was a secondary goal, so then I feel don't feel so down on myself and my project design.

When I started this project back in February, I was generally eating about 2-3 serving of fruits and vegetables per day. Now I consistently eat 7-9 servings per day, so I am really excited about having made plants a bigger priority and a habit in my daily diet.

While I am glad to see one of my primary goals being met, it might be time to do some redesigning of my project to speak to the weight loss component, since the literature shows a correlation between being overweight and developing breast cancer. So I'll be looking into making some adjustments in that realm of my plan.