Eat produce for breakfast

A little resolution that might change a lot

I don’t set too many New Year’s resolutions. That’s because if I set them, I truly do intend to keep them. So if I take something on, I want to make sure it is achievable, and that I actually want to do what it takes to achieve it.

That’s why I haven’t set a resolution to, for instance, lose weight. I’m sure I would benefit from losing a few pounds, but I do not find that goal motivating enough, or enough within my control, to commit to that.

However, I do think that there’s reasonable evidence that eating more fruits and vegetables is a good thing for one’s health. When I tracked my eating for a week in the fall, I saw that despite my general sense that I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, some days I just don’t.

“Eat more produce” is vague. “Eat 5-9 servings a day” might be tough to stick with on days when I’m not entirely in control of what I eat. So I decided to go with a different resolution: “Eat produce for breakfast.”

Every day, I will eat some sort of fruit or vegetable with breakfast. This is not a meal that I’ve traditionally eaten much produce with, so this will often be in addition to what I have been eating. And since I’ll need to have something palatable in the house to eat for breakfast, this resolution will probably encourage me to eat more produce during the rest of the day too.

If you’re interested in trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, maybe you’d like to try this resolution as well! As resolutions go, it’s got a lot going for it. It’s specific (I know if I did it or not!). It’s pretty easy (I mean, I could just eat a single strawberry…). It’s generally pretty enjoyable (a lot of produce is tasty!) and I think the upsides will be good.

I also happen to know it will be doable, as I like to test drive my resolutions, and I’ve been doing this one for the past month with no real difficulties. So I’m excited to see what kinds of breakfasts I come up with over the next year! I just had a mushroom omelette the other day and…yum…

Have you set any specific New Year’s resolutions? I’d love to hear about them! Just post them in the comments, or if you receive this newsletter as an email, you can hit reply.