Week 2's Tally

Last week I consumed 29 cups of varied fruits and veggies, missing my goal of 35 by 6 cups. Not bad though, I'm up 6 cups from last week so I'll consider it a success. My observation of the week is that 35 cups a week isn't really as outlandish as I thought it might be. You just have to, a. Make sure you buy plenty of produce so it's easily accessible, and b. Snack on fruits and veggies throughout the day. I'm not going that far out of my way to get my servings, I'm just being more conscious of it. It's actually been kind of a relief to realize that I'm not as far off as I thought I would be and that with minimal effort I can actually do it. Horray!



Think I should make an iphone app out of this?

The 5 to 9: Week 1

For week 1, I decided to eat normally so I could see how far off the mark I am on the average week. The verdict? Well, not as bad as I thought, but I definitely didn’t get the recommended 35 servings. I came in at around 23, so yeah, not so bad, but still lacking.

Since I’m a graphic designer, I made myself a weekly fruits and veggies intake chart broken down into the categories that MyPyramid suggested: 3 cups of dark green veggies, 2 cups of orange veggies, 3 cups dry beans and peas, 6 cups of starchy veggies, 7 cups of other veggies, and 14 cups of varied fruits. Every time I had a serving, I marked it on my chart (shown by the kitten face) and tallied it up at the end of the week. Here’s what last weeks chart looked like:



Observations: I managed to miss the most starchy vegetables which was really surprising. Aren’t Americans supposed to be the champions of eating corn and potatoes? I’m also pretty disappointed that I missed a serving of dark green veggies, sorry kale! But I’m happy I at least ate all 7 servings of “other” veggies. Does anyone have any good recipes with peas? I’ve been struggling with that category as well.

So how’s week 2 going? Pretty well, but I still have a ways to go if I want to meet my goal. I will say that having the chart really does help. It’s an easy way to keep track and I look forward to adding a kitten face after each meal. If anyone wants a copy of it just send me an email!

100 Hammers Update

My fellow M'ers and I officially launched 100 Hammers a few weeks ago and are psyched with the positive response that we've received. Not only are over 50 hammers currently rented out, but we got a few shout outs on some awesome blogs like Good and most recently, Best Made.

If anyone is interested in renting a hammer just sign up through our website and spread the word to whomever you think might be interested.

Definitely check out what the SWEAT workshop in Ohio did with our hammers too on Eleven Dozen. Awesome, awesome, awesome. 3 of the guys even got their hammers tattooed on them. Love it!

The 5 to 9

Since I’m a vegetarian, one would assume that I eat my fair share of fruits and vegetables. For the most part, I consider my diet to be healthy and well rounded, but I’m pretty sure that I still miss the mark when it comes to the daily-recommended value of fruits and veggies. My Pyramid, brought to you by the United States Department of Agriculture, and revamped from the traditional food pyramid that we saw in school as children, says that I should be consuming 3 cups of vegetables and 2 cups of fruit daily (the older version preached 5 to 9 servings, hence the name of this month, in reference of course to Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5). What’s kind of cool is that the servings are personalized, based on your age, gender, height, weight and activity level. You can go onto the website, www.mypyramid.gov and enter your information to find out your own recommendations.



In addition to outlining my own personalized daily recommendations, they also gave me a weekly goal: 3 cups of dark green vegetables, 2 cups of orange vegetables, 3 cups of dry beans and peas, 6 cups of starchy vegetables, and 7 cups of other vegetables. I like thinking of it in terms of weekly rather than daily, because let’s face it, some days I’m going to be under and hopefully some days I’ll be over. So, I’m making myself a nice little star chart and tallying up my score each week. Maybe I’ll buy myself the kale necklace from last post if I manage to meet my goals for the whole month.

What’s always been a little bit confusing is what constitutes as a serving. Here are a few examples, but check out this website for a much longer list.

What is a serving of vegetables?
-1 cup of raw, leafy vegetables
-1/2 cup of other vegetables, cooked or raw
-3/4 cup of vegetable juice
-5 broccoli florets, 10 baby carrots, 4 slices of onion

What is a serving of fruit?
-1 apple, banana, orange, or pear
-1/2 cup of chopped, cooked or canned fruit
-3/4 cup of fruit juice
-1/4 cup of dried fruit
-6 strawberries, 15 grapes

So, that’s my August challenge. I’ll post a photo of my star chart at the end of this week and any interesting findings as they come.