Eating Your 5 A Day
A Day In The Life of a PT
Posted on April 03, 2014 by Jenny Cromack
Wow today has been a mad , crazy but productive day! This morning started with three personal training sessions back to back, a strength training session with one of my female clients, a group personal training session followed by another strength training session with another female client.
Following my personal training sessions I had my own workout. My session started with 15 x 1 minute hill sprints, 2 of each sprint on a 4%, %%, 6%, 7% and 8% incline. I then did a strength session of circuits of 4 compound exercises focusing on pull ups, chest presses, squats, deadlifts, and lunges. The session was then finished of with some tyre flip and core drills. Tomorrow is a 8 mile run, which will include some short intervals. I think I forgot to mention in my last blog that when I was out running I saw an advert for a take away shop selling deep fried mars bars! Eurgh, I didn’t think these still existed?!
Today one of my clients asked the question about the recent articles in the press about that you should be eating 7 a day rather than eating your 5 a day. What’s worth noting here is that although for the past few years the government has heavily promoted eating your 5 a day, 5 a day was actually the minimum you should be aiming for, not an actual maximum amount of fruit and veg! I personally think it’s quite easy to eat 5 a day, yes I know I’m a vegi and so you’re probably thinking it’s easier for me, but really, how hard can it be to eat 5 a day. 1-2 pieces of fruit as a snack throughout the day, a nice big salad at lunch counts for 1-2 portions and then some protein and veg with your evening meal…..happy days! I personally have at least 3 different veg on my plate with my evening meal and am confident I eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, if not nearer 7 portions.
I think that rather than just get bogged down about just eating your 5 a day (or even 7 a day!) and eating fruit and veg for the sake of it, it’s also important to consider the following.
– Aim to get your fruit and veg from a variety of colours and types for a wide range of vitamins.
– Consider what your goals are? If you’re looking to improve your body composition limit your fruit to 1-2 pieces a day with a good focus on berries.
– If you are looking to lower body fat, minimise root vegetables and focus on filling up on veg with which are not very calorie dense…..spinach, peppers, etc.
– How can you increase your intake – could you snack on veggies more? Could you add more veg to your lunch or evening meal….or even your breakfast. Go on, I dare you…..try something less traditional than porridge for breakfast, you might like it !
– Are you eating more fruit and veg to help combat any particular diseases or illnesses? If so, which will be most beneficial?
For more information about the benefit of Eating 7 A Day versus Eating your 5 A Day check out these articles:
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/04April/Pages/Five-a-day-should-be-upped-to-seven-a-day.aspx