Eat your colors and the new plate

In the last 24 hours, there have been two particular events that spurred me to go on a fruit and vegetable buying spree.

First, while I was waiting to take my fit test, I noticed all these posters about eating your colors. In my house, we do a pretty good job with the greens (spinach, broccoli), oranges (carrots, sweet potatoes), and reds (tomatoes, strawberries). But yellows (yellow squash, peppers), blue (blueberries), purple (eggplant), and white (cauliflower, mushrooms)? There are a ton of articles about the health benefits of these “colored” foods. Here’s one http://www.vegnews.com/web/articles/page.do?catId=7&pageId=2560
Time for me to start branching out.


Secondly, the USDA has gotten rid of their food pyramid and has adopted a plate as their new icon. The most notable change is that fruits and vegetables make up HALF the plate. I don’t know about you but my plate doesn’t look like that most days. That’s a lot of veggies! The website choosemyplate.gov has more detailed information about the recommended dietary guidelines for different ages and fitness levels within the population. Under INTERACTIVE TOOLS, you can create a customized eating plan. At the very least, it provides a good starting point.

All I know is that I’m glad it’s summer and all these fruits and vegetables are available! Happy eating!

Woohoo!

My baby girl is 6 month old now which means my fit test was also coming up. Today was the day.

You can tell by title of this entry that I was very happy with my results! I surpassed my goal of an 85 and I did well enough that I don’t have to test for another year! Truth be told, I’ve been nervous about this since I scheduled my test several weeks ago. I checked the weather for this day and strategically planned my last few workouts giving myself a couple days to rest before the big test today.

As I walked out the door this morning, my husband wished me luck and reminded me that you always do better on test day. He was right. Gotta love that adrenaline! I was shocked when my first lap was under 2 minutes. I NEVER did that while working out. In fact, my first lap when running on my own was always around a 2:30. My pushups and sit-ups were much better than expected as well.

I also found the FAC testers were very fair. In fact, we counted pushups and sit-ups for each other and the FAC monitors corrected various individuals. The score card clearly stated the requirements and had the Fitness Assessment Charts printed right on them.

All in all a good experience! And I’m relieved. It’s a little hot to keep running outside for me. I might do a little swimming this summer and do some indoor cardio. I also started exercise TV on demand. More to follow on that one.