![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Embarkation point.
This winter and spring, it seems as though I've had a continual series of colds. I've also been fighting tiredness and low energy. It seems likely to me that the general unhealthiness of my living habits has something to do with all of this. In combination with my desire to get gradually stronger and increase my endurance, I've become motivated to make some changes in my life.
I'm going to try following a weekly plan they've been outlining in the Washington Post. They call it the Lean Plate Club, and the idea is that you gradually develop positive health habits by adding a new goal every week. It's not a diet, although they acknowledge that you may lose weight. It's more about adding things to your life that are going to make you healthier, rather than restricting or eliminating unhealthy things from your life. I really like that focus. I have a hard time with Puritanical, pleasure-phobic health arguments. I'm never giving up ice cream and butter and chocolate.
The first week's goals are: (1) 10 minutes of physical activity per day, and (2) five servings of fruits or vegetables per day. The first one's going to be a lot easier for me than the second one - I can easily fit two five-minute walks into even the busiest of my days. But five fruits and vegetables... that takes planning. That takes hassle. That takes working around my vegetable-averse husband and my allergy to raw fruit. That takes shopping more frequently, so there will be fresh fruits and vegetables in the house.
On the other hand, maybe all those vitamins will keep me from getting another lousy two-week cold like this one. Which would definitely be worth it.
I'm going to try following a weekly plan they've been outlining in the Washington Post. They call it the Lean Plate Club, and the idea is that you gradually develop positive health habits by adding a new goal every week. It's not a diet, although they acknowledge that you may lose weight. It's more about adding things to your life that are going to make you healthier, rather than restricting or eliminating unhealthy things from your life. I really like that focus. I have a hard time with Puritanical, pleasure-phobic health arguments. I'm never giving up ice cream and butter and chocolate.
The first week's goals are: (1) 10 minutes of physical activity per day, and (2) five servings of fruits or vegetables per day. The first one's going to be a lot easier for me than the second one - I can easily fit two five-minute walks into even the busiest of my days. But five fruits and vegetables... that takes planning. That takes hassle. That takes working around my vegetable-averse husband and my allergy to raw fruit. That takes shopping more frequently, so there will be fresh fruits and vegetables in the house.
On the other hand, maybe all those vitamins will keep me from getting another lousy two-week cold like this one. Which would definitely be worth it.
no subject
no subject
It also helps if one and one's friends and partners are good about washing their hands. I have been very unhealthy lately, and have avoided most sickness in the past couple of years, but I have also hardly touched anyone. :-/ Hrmph.
I like what you're doing. (also, the other day, someone told me it's *nine* fruits and veges now! Ha!)
no subject
* Growing my own. OK, probably right out for you at the moment - it's a bit late to plant things, and your living circumstances might not allow it. But you'd be surprised how much Good Stuff you can grow even in a couple of containers. File this one away for later. Gardening is therapeutic, it gets you outside, and it's amazingly satisfying to eat food you grow yourself.
* Farmers' markets. Now's the time of year for them, too. I'm sure there are some in your area, and they're *fun* - plus the growers often have all kinds of nifty stuff you won't find in your supermarket, and they'll even tell you how to fix 'em.
* Do-it-yourself salad bars. On the weekends, I'll buy a ton of interesting salad stuff, wash it, cut it all up and put it in those disposable faux tupperware containers in the fridge. That leeps me in salads all week (a good-sized salad can account for several of those requisite "servings".) Getting the prep work out of the way ahead of time makes it much more likely that I'll actually *eat* all those veggies before they turn into green slime. (You can do this with fruit, too - fresh fruit dressed with a little lime juice, ginger and honey is a fabulous salad!)
* Fruit as topping. Put it on hot or cold cereal, put it on yogurt, put it on ice cream. If it's fresh and ripe, you'll find you don't even need to sweeten it. Fresh strawberries on vanilla ice cream are every bit as good as strawberry shortcake. (I can't remember exactly which raw fruits you're allergic to - most of them, right? - but sliced fruit, "stewed" with a little sugar and cinnamon, can also go in the fridge and be used as topping ... or instead of jam).
* Tart apple slices are great in sandwiches (I like tuna and apple, or cheddar and apple).
* Ripe melon (cantaloupe, honeydew) makes a pretty terrific edible ice-cream bowl. (-:
no subject
no subject
We have a farm stand right across the street from our apartment complex, and they're just starting to have vegetables for sale as well as seedlings. Early summer is obviously the best time of year to start getting in the fruit and vegetable habit - it's very easy to just stop off at the farm stand on the way home from work. Sweet corn and fresh tomatoes... Mmmmmm.
Do-it-yourself salad bars. On the weekends, I'll buy a ton of interesting salad stuff, wash it, cut it all up and put it in those disposable faux tupperware containers in the fridge. That leeps me in salads all week (a good-sized salad can account for several of those requisite "servings".) Getting the prep work out of the way ahead of time makes it much more likely that I'll actually *eat* all those veggies before they turn into green slime.
Do cut-up vegetables stay fresh all week in tupperware? Hm. This is definitely a good idea. Also, one of the places I work is about a mile from a Giant (supermarket). I should see if they have one of those pay-by-the-pound salad bars, and go there for lunch if they do. That would probably offer more in the way of vegetables than McDonald's does.
no subject
Most of a week, if your fridge is cold enough. A few things tend to go a little brown from oxidation, but a squirt of lemon juice will take care of the aesthetic bit.
We also buy bags o' lettuce - the pretorn assortments - when our garden isn't giving more than we need. Less waste, and they keep really well.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
For that matter, once around the interior corridors of the IHV is probably a five-minute walk. This first ten-minute goal isn't going to be difficult, but as things add up...
no subject
One of the tricks that has worked well for me in the past is to cut up a bunch of veggies - carrots, celery, broccoli, cucumber are my favorites - and every day, with dinner or while preparing dinner, just pull it out of the fridge, restocking when necessary. A little bit of low calorie dressing for dip, and all of a sudden you're eating way more vegetables than you thought possible, cause they're just there.
Sounds like a great plan - you should list the weekly goals in your LJ, so we can all play along
no subject
They don't have to be 5 different fruits and veggies on the same day. As long as there is overall variety you're ok.
I also agree with WCG about the exercise...as someone who was diagnosed with diabetes 4 years ago, I faced the challenge of exercising 30 minutes each day, 5 days a week. Yeah, right...but the trick to it is integration and opportunity.
Integration: putting a recumbent bike in front of the TV set. Or even better (especially if you're cramped for space) Brookstone's or Sharper Image's walker/stair-stepper (around $100, cheaper than a health-club membership).
Opportunity: parking the car at the far end of the parking lot, or taking an extra spin around the building. Walking to the store to run that little errand.
Those two principles have saved my sanity. I hate exercising, and I hate gyms.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Pleasure-o-philia
Oh, my. Do you mean, that you are actually allergic to raw fruit (that's hard!) or are you just being metaphorical?
Re: Pleasure-o-philia
I was exaggerating slightly. I'm allergic to most raw fruit, but there are some I can eat. What I can't have: apples, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and the like. (That's anything with a pit, anything with a core, and all compound berries.) What I can have: grapes, melons, blueberries, citrus fruit, tropical fruit.
If I take a bite of a fruit that I'm allergic to, my mouth and throat itch and swell. Hypothetically, enough of an exposure and my throat would swell shut, killing me. I've never felt like testing that. I can have all of these foods cooked, so pies and cobblers and so forth are still okay.