It is officially July and the start of my new “a month of” project. I have been talking to so many bloggers and businesses who have all been so excited the format of blogging about a challenge every day a for month. The interesting thing was how so many people were interested in the topic 5 a day. Thank you to everyone who has already sent me recipes  – I am really excited to try them out!

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So it is already day one and already I have had to make a lot of changes. I had to sneak out to the shops yesterday to grab fresh fruit and veg still exhausted from only getting home from Barcelona at 2.30am and being woken up at 8am as the BF had to leave for work. This morning I was planning on blending 80 grams of raspberries and mixing it with my porridge. Turns out that the surprise holiday to Barcelona made this morning’s networking event completely slip my mind – this is why I love Google Now as it tells me when I need to leave to get to events in time! This did mean that rather than a healthy breakfast of raspberries and porridge that I nommed bacon butty. That is why I love this challenge though – it is not about being on a “diet” but the goal to manage 5 in a day. I do admit to grabbing an apple with the idea to eat it on the way home until I realised that I should check out the Boost Juice Bar in the Churchill Square shopping centre.

Since the Juice bar opened about a year ago I have never stopped and tried one nor been interested in what they sell. Their prices of £4.30+ seemed high to me when I could get a shakeaway of a similar size for £2.50. This is part of the issue though, when it comes to grabbing something convenient and cheap, it is not the healthiest of food!

This morning as my first portion or so I decided to start with a smoothie, juice or other shake from this health conscious company as I made my way back. Normally Boost has a big crowd waiting for their orders so being there at 9.30 on a Wednesday morning meant that I only had to wait for 2 other people to be served. Handing over £4.30 I got something called a Berry crush made up of various berries, ice, sorbet and juice. It was tempting to get their “5 a day” drink made up of carrots, oranges, apples, beetroot and celery as I knew exactly how many portions I would have but the idea of drinking something fruity won out (though I will return to try it out!)

Normally I find things like this overwhelming but it seems that this company has managed to workout how to balance all of these fruits to make a wonderfully refreshing drink. The only issue that I found was while I know there was 3-4 different fruits in that drink, I don’t know how many portions of fruit and veg it makes up officially. I have tried tweeting at Boost for an answer but I’m still waiting for an official answer. It really was delicious and it is fantastic to know that I’ll have a good place to get at least one portion of fruit and/or veg when I am out in town.

Playing it safe I decided to round it down to 2 portions just in case.

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So it is day one and already I can not find out how many portions of fruit or veg is in something healthy that I have purchased. Although there is a government scheme in place to encourage people to eat fruit and veg, it was clear that the logo I remember as a kid has disappeared leaving me and many others confused. It is going to be an interesting month constantly trying to work out portion sizes when out and about it seems. Hopefully this won’t force me to only have portions of fruit and veg at home to make it easier to work out sizes.

I’m not afraid to say that I planned day one to be easy – a pre-package mixed salad  of lettuce, carrots and red cabbage waited for me at home along with a lemon to be freshly squeezed for the dressing. Again, even at home, the issue of finding out portion sizes was the biggest issue with even quickly googling not providing an easy solution to how much lemon counted as a portion. Using a whole lemon on the salad was a good and bad idea. On one hand I looked constantly like a baby eating a lemon yet it also made me have to slowly consume the basic salad for 45 minutes. I guess if you love rich flavours this might be a great way for you to eat greens – it was so overwhelming that I didn’t notice the red cabbage!

Already half way through my first day and I am having to make a load of changes to what I eat to ensure that I manage portions of fruit and veg. My actions of the morning did however mean that I only have 1 portion of fruit or veg to add to complete the day.
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I guess Day one was always going to be interesting – it is the start of a challenge and I knew it was always going to be hard. Come the end of the day ordering Dominoes to help the BF destress to comfort food was a must – despite having next to no sleep the last few nights he was up in London today for a business meeting in the blistering heat. Luckily I have plently of handy “portion” sized package handy so I can still keep to my challenge and enjoy a relaxing meal with my BF. It bring up the questions though of how many portions of fruit or veg my pizza would be classed as with doubled up tomato sauce. I can already see that after day one I am just coming across the same question again and again – how many portions is really in our food!

So day one was always going to be an easy and slow day with the  more exciting recipes making an appearance from now on! I have a rather exciting salad to try tomorrow from Waitrose magazine that I can’t wait to share with you.

It really has been a hectic day – not only have I started a challenging blog project but I have finished a wedding stationary project, and been networking. It seems I have made 5 portions in some way but only 1 portion of veg today compared to at least 4 fruit portions, I really need to up my game!

What should I try tomorrow? Do you have a favourite smoothie or juice company? How do you work out how many portions you have had each day? I would love to hear from you so leave a comment below!

 


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.

2 Comments

Rachel Cotterill · July 2, 2015 at 7:29 pm

I know what you mean about portion sizes. They usually say “about a handful” is a portion, so I guess I’d expect a large smoothie to have 2-3 portions? If it’s thin juice you’re only meant to count that for one, as you’re not getting a lot of the good fibre etc. from juiced fruit/veg.

I have a bunch of recipes that might be useful; I don’t have a specific page for gathering “loads of veg” recipes but I have one for intermittent fasting which is often veg-heavy as it’s quite low calorie: http://blog.rachelcotterill.com/2013/07/veggie-recipes-for-intermittent-fasting.html

Good luck – I can’t wait to see how you get on through the month! 🙂

    Annabelle Spender · July 2, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    Wow these recipes look amazing! It seems a lot of people I have met and talked to have come across the same issue. It is only day two for me and already it is already pretty mind boggling – I thought it would be easier but I’m finding each portion so filling that I might have to completely rethink food after this project!

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