Week #5: Fruit Challenge
The challenge this week is to jump start your fruit nutrition per day but not to go overboard with them if you want to lose weight. If you eat fruits only rarely my easy 3-step habit change will help you “lean jumpstart” and automate your fruit consumption.
Fruits give you an instant boost!
Fruits are handy since they can be eaten even on the move. A fruit will boost you instantly. It is something that can quench your thirst and satisfy your hunger at the same time.
Nobody is denying fruit’s health benefits. Like vegetables they have hoards of phytonutrients - powerful substances that cannot be packaged as a pill or bottled. These phytochemicals collaborate, often in mysterious ways, to potentially decrease the risk of specific health problems. They defend against cancer, act as an antibacterial and decrease bad cholesterol (LDL) levels. Like vegetables, they are also a good source of vitamins and minerals.
Why Fruit nutrition is good for Weight Loss
As most fruits have a low glycemic load, the carbohydrates in fruit do not have a huge impact on your blood sugar levels. Those sweet delights can also supply a significant amount of fiber to your diet, which will slow digestion and make you feel fuller.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest two cups of fruit each day for a person on a 2,000-calorie diet. This is something you can achieve quite easily. You may eat up to four portions a day if you are at a healthy weight. But, if you want to drop pounds – you should watch the amount of fruits you are eating.
Why Fruit Nutrition Might Hinder Weight Loss
Fruits contain plenty of sugar in contrast to vegetables - albeit in a natural form and in very different concentrations. Consuming one pound of fruits can happen very quickly as fruit tastes delicious and is easy to eat.
Of course this is not a really big problem – it is better to be nibbling too many cherries than Cheetos or M&Ms.
And yet - do the math: Fruit is about 80-100 calories per serving, packed with fructose (fruit sugar).
Additionally, only very few fruits have a high satiety effect like apples for example. Veggies vary in their calorie counts, but 35 calories per serving is a general guideline. Also, vegetables produce greater feelings of satiety. Even a small serving can go a long way when it comes to you feeling full.
That’s why weight loss programs seldom endorse bananas, grapes, pineapples or dates. Those fruits are very sweet and rich in fruit sugar. If you are eating five portions of these fruit types and do not eat your veggies, then you can in fact gain weight – especially if you prefer eating it in the evening. At the end of the day those calories are not needed, thus they move into your fat cells.
Bottom line: It’s important to understand that fruits are not ‘free’ foods. Treating them that way could quickly sabotage your weight loss efforts. 2 portions a day – for example one for breakfast in your muesli, a second one as healthy snack or as dessert after lunch is more than enough for a healthy weight management.
Baby Action Steps
Here comes a simple 3-step habit change that helps you in automating your fruit nutrition. If you do not eat fruits daily, you want to try to eat at least 1 serving of fruit per day.
Start again with a tiny behavior you want to automate:
Have always one serving of fruit like apple, berries, etc. as snack. For a lean jumpstart I recommend an organic grown apple! One medium apple satisfies your immediate sugar craving and ensures that you are not starving by the time you sit down for lunch or dinner.
Step 1: Use post-workout, pre-lunch or pre-dinner time as trigger. It depends on your specific situation
Step 2: Develop the routine of eating one portion of fruits as post-workout, pre-lunch or pre-dinner snack.
Step 3: The reward could be the satisfaction that you replaced an unhealthy snack with fruit. If that doesn’t work as a reward maybe again self-talk does. You could just say to yourself “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”;)
Tell Me How the Fruit nutrition challenge Is working For You
How is this week’s Fruit Challenge going? Tell me what kind of fruit you are eating below in the comments. Tell me also how you are rewarding yourself.
Take your fruit consumption to the next level with the Advanced 2-Week Action Plan: Best fruits to eat!
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