I'm coming into the final stretch of the undiet challenge. I crossed the last threshold 2 days ago, bumping up from 4 fruits/veggies per day to 5. It doesn't seem like much, but my 4/day plan was pretty simple - 1 each at breakfast, lunch and dinner + 1 snack. Getting to 5 is going to mean doubling up on some meals.
Planning helped a lot.
I've been cheating a little (they're my rules, right?). Instead of a solid block of 30 minutes, it's made more sense to split up my planning time. Before lunch, I take about 10 minutes to figure out my lunch/snack/dinner plan (breakfast is pretty routine for me). That's made a huge difference. Instead of hitting 8pm and going "Oh crap, I only had 1 veggie today!" it's all sorted out. I just have to stick to the plan.
The good news is that I think I can probably do the ongoing planning in <10 minutes/day, with a little time on the weekend to make a meal/grocery list. I kept putting off the planning because I thought it would take a huge chunk of time - of course, I never actually tried it and found out.
It seems sustainable.
I'm not doing anything crazy. The extra fruits/veggies have pushed out a couple of my bad habits, like going to 7-11 for an occasional afternoon snack (which you'll be shocked to learn never involved vegetables). On the other hand, I don't feel like I'm on some crazy diet that I'm dying to see end. It's not perfect, and I still need to improve some things, but these changes can fit my life long-term.
Don't be so shy.
Any 30-day challengers out there? Speak up – let me know how it's going. This challenge will wrap up in about a week, and I'll be announcing the next one on Tuesday, April 12. I'm going to put an official start date on the next one, just to try to get more people on board.