Add what is lacking!

Step one in changing my habits for a lifetime was to add water to my essential list.

Step two is adding fruits and vegetables!

Notice the 'add' in both of those?

It is so much easier to add stuff to our diets!  There is no sense of deprivation!

Eat whatever you like, but make sure you get your minimum requirements of fruit and vegetables!

The Australian guidelines state a catchy '2+5' as a minimum - 2 serves of fruit, 5 serves of vegetables.

But what is a 'serve' exactly?

One serve of fruit is roughly 150g, except for dried fruit which is 30g.  It's certainly not precise though!  One medium sized piece of fruit (about fist sized), two small fruit like plums or kiwi fruit, a cup of larger fruits like melons or pineapple, or a cup of very small fruit like grapes or berries.  Vegetables are about half the size of a fruit serving at 75g, usually half a cup. Leafy greens are a full cup per serve, but cooked greens are half a cup.

Variety is essential to ensure you get a full range of vitamins and minerals and fibre and all the other compounds in plants that make them so good for us!  Eating to the season helps with cost, quality, and freshness.  There are so many delicious fruits it should be pretty easy to get in the minimum 2 serves, but vegetables seem to be difficult!  It can be daughting to know just which veggies to eat!  There's your leafy greens, brassicas, pod greens (beans and peas), fruity vegetables like zucchini and pumpkin, capsicum, cucumbers and tomatoes, root vegetables, and grains like corn!  

Right now, I'm just going for variety within the season!  It's spring, going into summer so there should be lots of choice!

There is also a huge potential for waste here, although any waste can go into the compost or used to grow more food, many throw their waste into the bin.  So to minimise waste I will be shopping every three days under the previso that I use everything I buy!  I'll be shopping at the supermarket and not buying organic to start with but eventually I want to shop at the local farmers markets and take my own bags.  I will need to learn how to wash and store everything correctly as well!  Quite a steep learning curve for me on this one!