Things have been really busy lately, and they’re not slowing down any time soon. I felt like I’d slipped into a bit of a downspin where I was missing meals because I was so busy. Then I was less productive because I didn’t have the focus or energy I might have if I’d stopped to eat a nutrient dense meal or snack.
So I decided to stop trusting that I was a generally healthy eater, and spend a full five days trying to do Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen challenge.
I love the Daily Dozen because it’s not about what not to eat, it’s about finding creative ways to fit healthier foods into your day. I’ve always approached food with an attitude of abundance and not deprivation, so I love this way of eating healthier.
I tracked my progress using the Daily Dozen app, which is free and really easy to use. It lets you see serving sizes, lists the foods in each category (no trying to guess which vegetables are cruciferous) and you can even scroll down in the info sections to see videos on the health benefits of each food. I love that – nothing like seeing that shiitake mushrooms are linked to reduced cancer rates right before you eat them!
Day 1 – SUCCESS! Here’s what I ate:
Breakfast:
A strawberry banana smoothie with flax seeds. Berries, 1/2 a fruit, Flax seeds.
Second Breakfast:
Quinoa bowl with hummus and steamed kale. 2x whole grains, 2x beans, 1 x leafy green, 1 x cruciferous vegetable.
Lunch:
“Green Dream” smoothie with spinach, strawberries, banana and soy milk. 1.5x fruit, 1 x leafy green.
Second Lunch:
Lentils with chopped carrots and onions. 1x beans, 1/2 vegetable.
Snack:
1/2 cup of snow peas. 1x vegetable.
Dinner:
Quinoa, sauteed shiitake mushrooms in vegan barbacoa sauce, tomatoes, kale, cashew sour cream, guacamole. 1x leafy green, 1 x bean, 1x whole grain, 1 nuts/seeds, 1 other vegetable (tomato)
…after dinner snack
1/4 cup of dried apricots, shot of orange juice with turmeric, pepper and ginger. 1x fruit, 1x spices.
Exercise: 2.09 mile run with the kids, plus active housework to get up to the required amount (I think it counts, I was hustling.) The recommendation is 40 minutes of strenuous exercise or 90 minutes of moderate exercise – can be broken up during the day. I think between the 35 minutes of walk/running with the kids and the errands and cooking I did today that I hit the mark.
Beverages: Coffee, coffee, water, decaf earl grey, water, herbal tea, water water… I stopped counting.
Sitting down after dinner to check off the remaining boxes in the app, I realized that despite my fear I wasn’t going to hit the cruciferous vegetable mark (I had used my kale to count towards leafy greens, but then realized my spinach smoothie at lunch could count as one of those, add more kale to dinner… ok we’re good), I had only fallen short in two areas! I hadn’t consumed any turmeric, and I was being conservative with my estimate of how much fruit I really consumed in two smoothies and might have been missing a serving of fruit.
So for dessert, I had a shot of orange juice with 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric and ginger mixed in with a touch of black pepper to aid in the absorption of the curcumin in the turmeric, and then some dried apricots. It was lovely. I should eat dessert more.
Favorite things about this – I ate more food and more regularly than I often do when the kids are at school. Sometimes the morning gets away from me and it’ll be 11 a.m. and I won’t have eaten a thing. But when I kept entering in what I’d eaten and seeing how many checkmarks I was missing, it motivated me to add a smoothie here, a cup of snow peas there…
At no point during the day did I feel hungry, but because I was eating such healthy stuff I never felt overly full or sluggish either.
A lot of the benefits of healthy eating are long term, but feeling motivated to eat nutrient dense snacks and not letting myself forget to eat lunch is something that feels pretty great right away.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings…
I batch cooked beans, grains and hummus this morning in my instant pot so there will be some repeats! But I’ll let you know how I spice them up.
…it’s a big secret.
……..you’ll be so blown away!
……………ok fine it’s buffalo sauce. That’s the secret to ALL LEFTOVERS.
