One week ago I began and shared about the 40 plant foods challenge.
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Today I’m coming full circle to talk about the variety I ate and my general thoughts on the challenge. Here’s a list of and look at the plant foods I ate.
Monday: rolled oats, banana, sunflower seed butter, apricot, raisins, celery, apple, kale, green onion and grapes
10/40
Tuesday: chia seed, avocado, brown rice, broccoli, white onion, carrot and tofu
17/40
Wednesday: swiss chard, red potatoes, russet potatoes, cucumber, strawberries, peas and black beans
24/40
Thursday: nothing new that day
24/40
Friday: pear, tomato, pickles (homemade!) and peanut butter
28/40
Saturday: cocoa powder, coconut oil, poppyseeds, nectarine, green bell pepper, chickpeas, olive oil and peanuts
36/40
Sunday: white beans
Final count: 37/40
So close! Personally I think I did great.
A closer look breaking what I ate down into three categories: vegetables, fruit and all other plant foods
Vegetables
kale
broccoli
celery
green onion
white onion
carrot
cucumber
swiss chard
red potato
russet potato
peas
tomato
pickles
green bell pepper
Fruits
banana
grapes
apricot
apple
raisins
avocado
strawberries
pear
nectarine
All other plant foods
rolled oats
sunflower seed butter
chia seed
brown rice
tofu
black beans
peanut butter
cocoa powder
coconut oil
poppyseeds
olive oil
chickpeas
peanuts
white beans
Thoughts and conclusion
It was tough getting tons of variety in! I know everyday I eat veggies, fruits and other plant foods, but I tend to rotate through the same things. I had the challenge on my mind more than I had planned to… like one morning I was making oatmeal and instead of just going for my normal banana and peanut butter, I added in cocoa powder and subbed the PB for coconut oil. Just a little change that helped me get a little more variety in.
When the fridge is getting more bare and I need to go to the grocery store (how Thursday was) getting a lot of variety in turns into more of a challenge, hence nothing new that day.
I’m so glad I did the challenge. I’m hoping that I can stay mindful of changing foods around a little more. One trick I’ll use is to just buy more variety, just smaller amounts at the store. Really it comes down to what I have in the house… if I have it around, I’ll eat it!
A big thank you Maryea for the challenge. I had fun with it and would totally do it again!
Did anyone else take it on? I’d love to hear how you did! How much plant food variety do you think you get in during a week?
Heather