Everyday Systems

I like to use Jorge Cruise's plate suggestion of filling it half with vegetables, one quarter with protein and one quarter with a carb. However this means that apart from breakfast which usually consists of fresh cut up fruit topped with plain yogurt and fibre bran cereal, I never get to eat fruit at the other meals. I can't see any way round this apart from balancing an apple or orange on top of the veg, which sounds too weird to contemplate. How do you all eat fruit?

Shirls,

I am not a big fruit eater. I don't know why. I used to eat much more. I eat my fruit at breakfast and take 4 oz of MonaVie a day ... which is Acai berry plus ninteen other fruits in a whole juice, those are pretty much two servings of fruit a day.

That being said it is Cherry season so I think on occasion over the next two months I will just have to make room on my plate for a few.

Anyone, please correct me if I am wrong, but in the book I think Reinhard suggests that we do put our fruits and salads all on one plate.
That has actually helped me as I tend to make huge salads. by keeping it all one plate my salads are not so huge and I probably get as much as I need.

The other thing was YEARS AGO when I was doing a zone modified diet I would use my fruit as my carb ... that kind of worked I would either have whole grain or potato or fruit depending what the meal was.

I do not follow anything like that now. I know a lot of people like to divide their plates up like that but I just kind of eat what I like together so each meal is not perfectly balanced but I suspect that day in day out week in and week out I am probably getting a pretty healthy mix as my energy mood slepp etc is all good.

SORRY SO LONG Interesting question!

Blueskighs

Thanks Blueskighs - good idea. Good thing I never eat gravy (not for diet reasons, I just don't like it). Of course that makes perfect sense.

While I do plate portions too, I consider fruit/veg kind of interchangeable. So my half-plate might be broccoli on one quarter and cantaloupe on the other. And I use it as a guideline, not a rigid rule, because I do a lot of combination dishes.

I also like a lot of salads that consist of mixed greens topped by a fruit and some nuts, with maybe some cheese. Example: Field greens, mandarin orange slices, almonds or pecans, and perhaps a bit of crumbled feta. Yum!

Shirls wrote:apart from balancing an apple or orange on top of the veg, which sounds too weird to contemplate. How do you all eat fruit?

Shirls, I am still laughing because I have a visual of an apple atop aa plate of food. I actually did balance an apple on top of my plate!!

Since my first balancing act I have been cutting my fruit in chunks and artistically arranging them around the edge of my plate! I have also skewered my fruit and placed it on my plate. I think my greatest creation was the line of pineapple chunks that ringed my plate today. LOL

On a more serious note, lately I have been able to add fruit to my dinner plate. My portion sizes have decreased and I find that I don’t need as much food as I did at first.

I do subscribe to the ¼ whole grain, ¼ protein and 2/4 vegetables school. I have a rather loosy-goosy approach to how I define those veggies. And I will mix those fruits in at will.

I just bought a watermelon, my favorite summer fruit, and it is going to be really interesting to see I how assemble those wedges side by side so they don’t overtake my broccoli!

Shirls -- like you, I am not getting enough fruit in. I do sometimes eat an orange or banana for breakfast but not always. Sometimes I have fresh orange juice. At lunch I try to work in a fruit but (again with the but) not always. I have this thing in my head that I should have 3 fruits a day and am not sure why that doesn't happen. I could move my veg over and save space for some fruit. I am so used to eating fruits as my snacks that they just seem to get missed.

You have given me a great idea and this week I am going to work at getting in those 3 fruit a day. Maybe I will do a habitcal for a couple of weeks. I hope it goes better than the one I started for getting to bed by mid-night (oops, it is 12:05).

Goodnight everyone. I will be interested to know how you do with the fruit.

For me, the point of the "no seconds" rule is to have a sense, in advance, of what I'm eating and to stop when (or before!) it's done. If I want an orange with my meal, I don't stress about it actually fitting on the plate. But I do put it next to my plate at the beginning of the meal. I see it and mentally acknowledge it as part of "firsts."

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Instead of dividing the plate into 3, I divide it into 4. 1/4 protein, 1/4 carb, 1/4 veggie and 1/4 fruit. Hope this helps. God Bless.

Otherwise what would you do with soup?

I get very technical and put it in a bowl and put the bowl on my plate if I am eating anything else with it

If I am not, then just the one bowl rather than just the one plate

Blueskighs

I also think you're getting too technical. I take a fruit cup to work. I don't eat from a plate when I carry my lunch. Think of it. My plate may be huge while yours might be small. Balance your food. Don't get hung up on the plate.

I count fruit/veggies as interchangeable. If my apple won't sit on the plate, I just set it on the table

Don't overthink it too much.

I like to use Jorge Cruise's plate suggestion of filling it half with vegetables, one quarter with protein and one quarter with a carb.

I'd say just modify Jorge's suggestion and make fruit interchangeable with vegetables. I don't want to put words in my fellow diet guru's mouth, but I assume the idea is not that this portion rule is Holy Writ, but a helpful structure. If it isn't helpful, (at the very least) modify it.

I personally don't have any rule about how to divide my plates. That's a micro-decision I delegate to my mealtime self, who tends to do a pretty good job, thanks to the spotlight of limited opportunity. I eat plenty of fruit. I don't worry about these "daily servings of whatever" pronouncements from on high either.

Reinhard

I don't worry about these "daily servings of whatever"

Me neither, I think as long as you eat healthy real food, some wholegrains, and include fresh fruit and vegetables daily, then it's all good

I also think frozen veg is the best convenience food - I made my lunch today by throwing some brown rice, frozen mixed veg and frozen edamame soya beans in a pot of boiling water - as easy as putting a sandwich together (as long as you have time to wait for it all to cook!).

As for fruit with meals, I occasionally like some sliced apple as either a starter or a dessert, in which case I make the meal a tiny bit smaller to compensate, but I don't worry about whether the apple actually fits on my plate

I think I 'virtual plate' most of the time because putting my fruit and my main meal on one plate at the same time is just too strange for me.

For those of you who DO put everything on the same plate, how do you keep things from touching?