Monday, March 8, 2010

Week 1: Make it Easy and You'll Do It

This is the first week of Walk Kansas and we're going to take it easy - no major out-of-my-comfort-zone stretches this week.  I know last week I kept saying get some freggies, get some exercise.  Well, this week it counts.  Your challenge for this week is to figure out 2 things you can do to make eating fruits and vegetables easier and two things you can do to make it easier for you to exercise.

  • In terms of fruits & vegetables, one thing that has really worked for me is to prep anything that is grab and go and place it at an easy to take point.  This means that grapes come home from the store, are washed, and the vines get cut into smaller sections (I'm not to the point where I de-vine the grapes for the whole family).  Apples and pears are washed and are in a bowl on the counter.  Oranges take a little more effort to eat, so they're in a bowl near the stools so you can peel an orange while you are sitting down.    
  • I have a harder time with vegetables, but I try to add vegetables to every dish I make.  Frozen peas and carrots added to the rice cooker are a great addition to steamed rice,  a bag of seasoning vegetables while I'm browning meat makes our main dish taste even better.  Even my meatloaf generally has a serving of extra veggies, generally cut up very small so the youngest eyes at the table don't pick them out.  

When it comes to exercise, the following tips have worked for me:

  • Find a workout buddy.  In 2009 I walked daily and conference called two friends who live in another part of the country.  Sometimes they walked on a treadmill, sometimes it was outside, but we knew that when that phone rang, we needed to be exercising.  Because there were three of us, even if one was sick there were still two of us who could walk together.  It also worked well in our schedules because you just had to call in, you didn't have to meet at a certain place at a certain time.  
  • Exercise during kid's activities (if you're one of my umbrella/froggie/shark friends, shush now-that was in the winter!) As kid activities pick up I end up as taxi mom.  It's hard to run errands or do much productive during the 30-60 minute activities that most kids have... but if the weather is good, it's the perfect amount of time for a good walk.  The key to taking advantage of found time like this is being prepared.  I'm usually wearing good walking shoes, and now that I've gotten to know Lawrence it's fairly easy for me to come up with a decent walking route that fits the open block of time.  
Those are my tips, now it's your turn.  What do you plan to do to make eating fruits and vegetables and exercising a part of your life?

5 comments:

  1. I took my dog for a 40 minute walk yesterday! I think it was too much for her arthritis, though, she's limping a little now and I feel bad.

    My best tip for exercising: I like TV. We splurged on an extra DVR box for the spare bedroom, put the treadmill in there, and the only way I can watch some of my TV shows is if I'm on the treadmill. That doesn't help me when it's nice outside, though.

    I'm going to try some of your fruit & veggie tips. We need all the help we can get!

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  2. This is from one of our team members, received via email:

    My trick for getting the whole 5 of F/V in a day is to start the day with a fruit smoothie. Two servings of fruit and a fresh-squeezed orange along with plain or vanilla nonfat yogurt. I like it with an apple and some kind of berry, frozen or fresh. I find that if I eat almost any other breakfast I have a sugar crash around 11:00 am and am famished for lunch. I have a moderate appetite at lunchtime with this breakfast. Don't quite understand the physiology of this but it works for me. I am really going to start doing this today. Must go to store and get berries....

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  3. I'm going to try actually BUYING vegetables. Weird, huh?

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  4. Ha! Buying veggies is a good start to eating them!

    I love the smoothie idea and I love eating them. But I don't/won't get up early enough in the morning to make one. Wonder if you can pre-make them the night before? Are they still good the next day?

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  5. Hi Debbi-
    have you tried a magic bullet blender?
    I use one for smoothies (and many other beverages that require a blender). It's worked well for me for over a year now. You're welcome to try mine out next time you come over.
    link to the blender on amazon: Magic Bullet Express 17-Piece High-Speed Blender Mixing System

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