Veg-Out

I love food. Bad food. I've said before that I exercise and play so many sports so that I can eat whatever food I want.

About a year ago, I decided to clean up my diet to get the most of out of my workouts and increase my performance in soccer. I made a conscious effort to avoid prepared foods, read labels and not eat a whole bag of cookies in one sitting.  That said, getting the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables has always been a challenge for me.

I shy away from resolutions, but this year I made a big one - I was going to increase my fruit and vegetable count from basically non-existent (some days the most I was having were those dried strawberries in Special K Red Berries!) to five to ten a day.  Just like those kicky little Health Canada ads say.

So far, I have been so good. I make sure that I have a piece of fruit with breakfast and/or snack. I include vegetables in my lunch and afternoon snack.  I have even ground up carrots and spinach and put them in brownies. Let me tell you, this is not the stuff I used to add to brownies to make them special!

Now here's the part you might to avoid if you're faint of heart or easily grossed out.

The gas. Oh, the gas. My stomach is killing me and it's kind of off-putting to try to get your husband in the mood when you can clear a room.

Turns out, as I read in my latest issue of Oxygen, that you're supposed to increase your fiber intake gradually. Duh. The article actually made a whole lot of sense. Wish I had read it 5 weeks ago!

Comments

[ali]

oh my god..i can so relate...i've done the same thing. upped my veggie intake and reduced my carb and sugar intake...it's been shitty on my stomach. bwah.

[meanie]

i received as a gift for xmas that jessica seinfeld cook book - it's pretty awesome, all about sneaking veggies into recipes. we all eat it now (well, except edie, but she seems to prefer a diet of air molecules over anything else these days!)

[alison]

Bwahahaha. Funny. But I can so relate. I remember after Christmas I was determined to start eating better after a two-week binge of cheese and kielbasa and dips and Christmas cookies. I took a big tupperware container full of carrots, celery, cucumber and cauliflower with some ranch dip for lunch one day. By 2 p.m. I was in agony. All the gas was trapped under my rib cage and it hurt! I had to close my office door and undo the zipper on my pants in order not to die. Very professional. Not.

Gradually. Yep, that's the ticket.

[Carolyn J.]

The farts are bad enough - but alison is right, it's the feeling that you're going to explode out of your clothes that's worse.