Stuck in a Rut.

I'm in a rut.  I remember going to my WW@Work meetings throughout the summer and being hearing so many of the ladies complain about how hard it is to follow a good eating plan throughout the summer because of the cookouts, etc.  Personally, I think that it's so easy to eat healthy during the summer!  Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Strawberries, Blueberries, you name it, I love to eat it!  My challenge is the fall and the winter.

In all honesty, I've found that as I've gotten older, my love for apples has gone from so-so to completely non-existent.  I can go to the grocery store and buy a half-dozen apples, and throw all six away three weeks later.  I just don't like them, or I at least don't like the idea of eating them.  Unless they're in pie.  And I'm sorry....it's a little difficult making an entire pie for just me and Scott.  It doesn't work out too well.  Maybe I ate too many apples as a child...

Throughout the fall and winter, you have Halloween (candy), Thanksgiving (turkey, pumpkin pie, apple pie), Christmas (Antipasto, Ham, Roast Beef, pure deliciousness).  My argument is that it's much harder to follow a good eating plan throughout the fall/winter.  Plus, no more of the delicious fruit selections (at least for me).

I posed the question in my WW@W meeting yesterday:  What are some good fall fruits??  

I unfortunately didn't get a lot of good answers....Most people were astonished that I'm not a fan of apples....And they just started shouting out names of fruit for the hell of it, as well as saying that I should just eat canned fruit instead.  So I did some research.  According to this website, here are in-season fruits for the fall (most of these are the same for winter, too):

Apples, Bananas, Clementines, Cranberries, Grapes, Grapefruit, Kiwi, Kumquat, Oranges, Pears, Persimmons, Pomegranates, Quinces, Satsuma Mandarin Oranges, Tangerines.  

My opinion on this list:  I don't like apples, I like bananas, I like clementines, I have never eaten cranberries outside of muffins, I love grapes (I thought they were a summer fruit), I like grapefruit, I have never really eaten a Kiwi so I may need to experiment with that, I have never even heard of Kumquat, I like oranges, I'm so-so on pears, I have never had a persimmon, pomegranates are good but they take too much effort to eat, I have never heard of quinces, I have never eaten a mandarin orange and I like oranges better than tangerines.

How's that?  I guess I have a bit of mind-broadening to do....And should try a few new things.

The other thing that the ladies at WW@W suggested was that I just have jarred/canned vegetables.  I'm sorry, but I really have a problem with these.  They're just mushy.  And syrupy.  And totally not my thing.  

I was also told that I can lump "Fruits" and "Vegetables" together.  I always have a habit of thinking that I need to eat a substantial amount of BOTH every day.  But in reality, I don't need to have 2.5 of each every day.  I just need to have 5 of some kind of combination of fruits and vegetables.....I can even have all fruit OR all vegetables.  

In season vegetables?  (Same website....)

Avocados, Beans, Beets, Bok Choy, Broccoli, Rabe, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery Root, Chestnuts, Collards, Garlic, Jerusalem Artichokes, Kale, Leeks, Lettuce, Parsnips, Pumpkin, Rutabaga, Salsify, Snow Peas, Spinach, Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Swiss Chard, Turnips, Watercress

I'd say my choices with vegetables are much higher.  There are some even on that list that I've never heard so, so I'll try some of those, too....But the

Let's see how this week goes (for weight loss) - it will be interesting after tonight's dinner at Spikes.....  I'll report in on Tuesday with my results, especially with how I did with eating more fruits and vegetables....