April Veggie Challenge! (#85)

I am taking over for this challenge this month to give nomoreexcuses a break of all the tallying!

Maybe you've been trying to increase your servings of veggies for a long time and just need a concrete goal and tracking system.  Maybe you hate veggies and this will be a BIG challenge for you.   Whatever the case, if you know you're not getting the recommended 5-A-Day with a variety of veggies, this is your chance to change that.

Actually, 5 servings is the minimum you should get each day.  The range is 5-9 servings of veggies.  So if you want to sign up for more than 5-A-Day, that's cool too.

What's a serving?

• 1/2 cup of fruit
• 1 medium piece of fruit
• 1/4 cup of dried fruit
• 3/4 cup (6 ounces) of 100% fruit or vegetable juice
• 1 cup of leafy vegetables
• 1/2 cup of cooked or raw vegetables

Trying to visualize the serving sizes? This may help:

• 1 medium apple or orange: the size of a tennis ball
• 1 cup vegetables or fruit: the size of a baseball
• 1 medium potato: the size of a computer mouse
• 1 cup of lettuce: 4 leaves

How do I select, store and prepare vegetables?

For the very veggie-challenged, perhaps a fruit & veggie approach is the way to go.  [And it should go without saying, if you count fried vegetables in your total, while technically true, you are doing your body no good and cheating only yourself.]

How does the challenge work?

Just come here each day and post how many servings you had the previous day.

You might put it like this

• I had 4 serving of veggies and 2 servings of fruit

You can spell out which veggies you had if you like, but you don't have to.  If you try an unusual veggie, it might be cool if you share that with everyone.  =)  But if you do spell it out, please summarize it like above so as to make it easy for me to keep everyone's tally.  I'll convert everyone's daily goals to a monthly total in the OP so you can see how much progress you're making.

If you want, you can make a ticker at www.tickerfactory.com

I also found this cool article about the importance of veggies in a diet and it tells you about certain kinds. You can find that here.

Week One Bonus Veggie And Fruit: Avacados and Cranberries

So state your goal!

5 veg or fruit a day >>>  that's 150 veg & fruit for the month

frogdancer.......................... 27

6 veg or fruit a day>>> that's 180 veg & fruit for the month

orangeloft........................... 89 (Bonus: Wk. 1 Fruit)

lareina................................  41 (Bonus: Wk. 1 Veg & Fruit)

3monkeysmom.................... 51

6/day but no Day 1 >>> that's 174 for the month

undergroundkween............. 32.5

mauntler.............................. 61


7 veg or fruit a day >>>  that's 210 veg & fruit for the month

thesilverstar121.................. 59

vrykolia................................ 58

5 veg & 3 fruit a day >>> that's 150 veg & 90 fruit for the month

wants2lose.......................... 30 / 19 

9 veg & fruit a day >>> that's 270 for the month

silk.......................................&n bsp;101 (Bonus: Wk. 1 Fruit)

I will post the first bonus veggie tomorrow on April 1st. (and for a twist I might add a bonus fruit for those of us with fruit goals.)

And since this is up late, sign ups will close on April 5th. No exceptions!

Good luck.

(edit: had some numbers to change)

I would like to join for the month of April which has 30 days.

6 veg or fruit a day>>>>that's 180 vegs and fruit for the month

Thanks for taking the time to do this.

oops... i just copied and pasted from last months and forgot i had to change some #'s...lol

I wasn't trying to be a smart___!  Thanks.

It totally fine! I;m glad you said something cause I wouldn't have noticed...lol

I'm in for 5 veg and 3 fruit a day

Is it just going to be us 3?? lol

I am in for 6 veggie or fruit a day  (180 month!)   I DEFINITELY need to take this challenge

I want to challenge myself to a combination of 9 servings of veggies and fruits a day!

I saw a video where women my age should be eating this amount for their health and I am convinced!

today so far:

1 red delicious apple
1/2 cup of diced tomatoes
1 cup raw broccoli (2 servings)
1 cup of celery sticks (2 servings)
3/4 cup raw baby carrots
1 cup light Ocean Spray Cranberry Cocktail - does that count as 2 servings?(Canada's Food Guide counts 1 serving as 1/2 cup of fruit juice)
if not I'll eat another 1/2 cup of celery sticks, I have enough calories available.

I'm in for 6 fruits and veggies a day. Thanks for taking it over!

silk- do you want me to put you under the 5 veg and 4 fruit or make a new category for a combo of both? And I usually count 1/2 a cup as a serving and not 3/4 of a cup, but either way is good i guess.

Oh.. and for future reference for everyone. Could you please give me a total for the day or week and say for example...

I had _ servings of fruit and _ servings of veggies.

Just so it's easier to tally up. You can spell out your day but at the end state it as above! Thanks a bunch!

Do I have to commit myself to how many fruits and veggies I eat? I vary each day to as the amount of fruit and veggies every day... sometimes more fruit and sometimes more veggies...

And the only reason I eat 3/4 cup of raw baby carrots is that's what the serving was on the bag and it was easier to enter the food values into my food log, instead of trying to figure out what 1/2 a cup was.

Sorry if I'm causing a problem...

I had 6 veggies and 2 friut yesterday.  Total 8

I would like to sign up for 7 veg/fruit per day.  Thank you.

April 1st

2 Veg - 1 Fruit

Didnt quite make my goal yesterday.  I knew this was going to be hard for me, but gosh I didnt realize how hard.    I looked back my last 3 weeks of what I ate and I realized that I only average about 2.5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.  HOW HORRIBLE IS THAT!

So anyway, yesterday I got a total of 5 servings of fruits and vegetables.    I don't understand about the bonus veggies or what that means, but one of my vegetable servings was an avocado.

Silk: you are not causing a problem. It's okay...really.  I don't like to have set amounts for each either cause sometimes i have more of one than the other, so i'll just make a new category.. no biggie. and also... do you want that 3/4 of a cup to be 1 serving or 1.5 servings... i'll put down whatever you want to go there, you just have to let me know.

And a note to everyone: You guys are going to have to work with me. This is my first time running one of these challenges so I am pretty much gonna have to wing it. So if I ask you stupid questions I'm sorry...It's just me trying to figure things out.

Thanks and welcome all!!

(updated totals and newcomers)

for me, yesterday i had 2 fruits and 2 veggies.

Oh and another thing for challengers. I am going to be away from my computer this coming up weekend from the 6th to the 8th (Friday- Sunday) so bonus fruits and veggies will either be posted the day before i leave or the day after i get back. it all depends on what happens. Just wanted to give you a heads up!

    Just to let you know I will count my 3/4 cup of carrots as 1 serving to make it easier.

My update for today:

6 servings of fruit and 5 servings of veggies, so a total of 11 servings!
It included 1 cup of light Cranberry Cocktail.(I'm trying to prevent an UTI!)

Wow I am over! :)

OK...I'm in for 6 veggie or fruits a day!!

I hope that April 1st won't count. Hope Everyone does well...see you later with my results!

April 1 - 5 fruits & veggies