It is already day three and I am starting to get my head around things… just. It is also the first Friday of the month so it is the first Change 4 Life e-mails of the month.

When I started this challenge I knew about Change 4 life but I had never check out the website as it always felt like it was parent orientated rather than the whole population. It is also a scheme about starting a lifestyle of exercise and healthy food.

Just before I started this challenge I thought it would be best to visit their website as it should be a great place for ideas, tools and information. There is a 5 a day section which I thought would be perfect and it even had a fruit and veg e-mail newsletter that you could sign up to!

 

Change for life e-mail for fruits instead of snacksI thought that this would be amazing – I get a chance to be sent useful information straight to my inbox. On the website you have to choose a small challenge to try and meet – whether it is swapping snacks for fruit, adding fruit to breakfast or adding veg to dinner. The idea of these e-mails are that you try to do a small change for 28 days with an e-mail every Friday giving you encouragement and tips. This seemed too perfect to pass up so using two e-mails addresses I signed up for fruit instead of snacks and veg to dinner and waited for today.

The e-mails arrived at almost exactly the same time wit my phone buzzing and my excitement brimming as I saw “Change 4 life” in senders bar. The vivid yellow branding with simple cartoon style flowed throughout the e-mail trying to make the whole thing more fun and exciting. As an initial e-mail it was very simple – I basically got a break down of “don’t shop hungry”, “these are what count as fruits and veg” and leave a sticky note to remind you on your fridge or cupboard.

As you can imagine from someone who has been asking around and investigating as much as possible that it was a little disappointing. The e-mails seem to be a tool to encourage people to follow their Facebook and use their apps more than anything. I did have to remind myself though, this is a general e-mail that is trying to make it simple and fun to the average Joe who has decided to make a positive step forward. Really this is perfect as an introductory step for someone.

I am though hoping that next week’s will be more useful – and longer. Until then I will be looking over their app and Facebook page to see what I can gain from that. They have a recipe app so I will definitely be checking out some of the recipes on there as it appears to be very kid friendly recipes – hopefully this will also means that they will be supertaster friendly too!

Today food wise has been yummy but again very fruit intensive. I really need to up my game on the veg front but still I am finally managing to get some healthy food into my diet.

After a very useful appointment first thing this morning I rushed back home to make my normal bowl of porridge. Today though rather than my normal smothering of honey it was time to mash up some raspberries with my new handy pump action hand whizzer thing I got a few months ago from a food fair. I never realised just how many seeds where in raspberries! I really should have only used 80 grams but I ended up with 140 grams that I blended in literally 30 seconds. It seemed a lot before I added it to the porridge but swirled in it seemed the perfect amount. The rich colour whirled seemed to look so yummy. The photos didn’t seem to be able to capture the almost glistening nature of my breakfast and it was too tempting to wait any longer!
raspberry porridge in a pink bowlIt was nothing like I expected – yes it was rich and powerful but the sharp tang added to the porridge worked. With such overwhelming taste it did make me have to eat it slower – resting between tiny mouthfuls was a must! Normally it takes me 5 minutes to eat a bowl of porridge that size but here I was 20 minutes later still slowly making my way through. I am not sure if it was the added fruit or how slowly I had been eating it but I felt so full. When I first started eating porridge it felt like it was never quite enough – I sometimes felt like I wanted to eat more! It was hours before I even felt a little hungry again and even by lunch I was wondering how I was still feeling so full.

After yesterday’s Toad in the Hole dish, there was still a small portion left – I never manage a whole portion so there often is. Adding a portion of salad to the microwaved leftovers seemed a perfect lunch! Now having had lunch at 2 today you would expect me to be a little hungry by now but I really am not that hungry. It seems that eating fruit and veg seems to curb the hunger pangs. The addition of another innocent smoothie has probably helped but normally I’d be craving something to nom on or to cook food quickly so that I could curb a grumbling stomach.

As day three comes to an end I am left with two more portions of fruit or veg to add and I am not feeling hungry. It seems this challenge is going to be tougher than I thought and in a completely different way than expected! I need to find a way to eat 5 portions and not feel like I’m going to explode! I guess it does explain though why Change 4 life makes you focus on only one small change – challenging yourself to just add one portion extra a day is going to be a big shift let alone 5!

Have you ever used anything from Change 4 life? What do you think of their tools, e-mails and website? Do you think you will challenge yourself to a small change? Or do you plan to throw yourself in the deep end like me?

I would love to hear from you so leave you comment below!

raspberry porridge for a month of 5 fruit and veg a day


Annabelle

Annabelle has lived in Exeter, Bournemouth and London but now live in Brighton as a freelancer. With a love of baking, sewing and social media, she is now starting her own blog.

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