Daily Fruits and Veggies Requirements

So at my work we have an opportunity to earn credits in order to get a discount on the following years insurance premiums.  I'm very diligent about getting all of my credits in nice and early.  No waiting until the last minute for me.  We have to earn 25 credits.  Already I have earned the following:

5 pts     Personal Questionnaire
10 pts   Officially Tobacco-Free (that was a hard one .. NOT)
5 pts     Maintaining or Losing Weight between Thanksgiving and New Years.  I maintained.

So I only have 5 points left to get.  Easy peasy and we're only 2 months into the year.  This months healthy challenge is to strive to get 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day for a total of 80 points for the month.  Now if you do the math you only actually have to accomplish the 5 servings 16 days out of the month. However, basically as long as you have a total of 80 servings you're golden and get another 5 credits. 

I like to think that I eat relatively healthy.  I am currently obsessing over the 3 pounds I gained in a single week last week .. seriously WTF??  But, I know I can drop them all again this week with a little focus.  Let's just say that I refuse to buy any Cadbury Mini Eggs because I know I don't have the self discipline to not eat them sparingly.  It doesn't help that my mother sent home with me the leftovers of her "better than sex" cake she made for dessert last night. It happens to be my very favorite dessert.  It's not going to be easy to not eat more of it when it's calling my name from the fridge.

So anyway, I thought it would be a fun challenge to try and get all those fruits and veggies in for a month. As I looked at the tracker the following was staring at me:

What counts as a cup of fruit of vegetables?

• 1 medium piece of fruit or vegetable - about the size of a baseball (apple, pear, tomato, potato)
• 2 cups of raw leafy vegetables - about the size of two handfuls (lettuce, spinach, kale)
• 8 strawberries; 2 large plums; 2 large stalks of celery; 10 broccoli florets; 12 baby carrots
• 1/4 cup of dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, apricots)

It sounds kind of simple.  But then when you really think about it, two cups of leafy vegetables isn't really a "side salad" but more like a full plate of salad!  10 broccoli florets, sounds like half a plate.  Same with the 12 baby carrots.  And poo on the dried fruit, that's a lot of calories for such a small serving.  Then combining all those servings to add up to FIVE!  That's a lot of food.  And I always tend to look at my fruits and veggies as kind of filler foods, they don't really ever seem to satisfy actual hunger.

I however shall not be discouraged.  I think it's a great habit to form.  And it will be a challenge.  I like challenges.  The funny thing is that I like fruit and I like a lot of varieties of vegetables. So this shouldn't really be THAT hard.  We shall see.  To assist with my goal I purchased some V8 this weekend.  I'm not really that big on drinking my calories, however I might make an exception here.  And at only 50 calories per glass I think I can afford it.  I tried the Pineapple Mango Green Tea first and let me tell you it's YUMMY!!

I also have a half a container of V8 soup every day with my lunch. So I'm almost half way to meeting my goal for the day.  I was already doing this before and love that it's a full serving of veggies.

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Do you get 5 servings of fruits and vegetables in each day?  Is it easy?


Any tips or tricks?