It's a program that teams you up with others and a team lead to provide a common goal of exercising regularly and eating better. This includes points for (daily) eating (at least) five fruits and vegetables, drinking 64 ounces of water, exercising regularly, and attending seminars to learn all these elements in other contexts.
Most of this is stuff I already do but following this makes me hyper-aware of what goes in my mouth (snicker). Veggies are not a problem for me. I love all veggies!
Well, the last time I said this out loud I started getting quizzed:
Others: Beets?
Me: Um, no.
Others: brussel sprouts?
Me: Nope.
Others: Rhubarb?
Me: NO!
OK. So I don't like all veggies and they managed to find the few that I will not try but overall, I love all veggies that matter.
Fruits I eat too. I loved fruits more as a kid, as most of us did/do. But as I got older, I got to be a lazy fruit eater.
But I started thinking about this more and I think the reason is that as I got older, I moved away from the place that I enjoyed my fruits.
As a child, apples, oranges, grapes were not readily available to me as other fruits. The fruits local to where I lived, which was the Philippines, and later, Guam.
Bananas are my favorite and I eat them constantly. But I did as a child too. Those were native to where I lived. Here are some others:
Lanzones were my very favorite fruit while in the Philippines.
This is about a large grape-sized yellow fruit, which when peeled, reveals translucent wedges that are is the actual edible fruit of this wonderful thing.
The fruit taste is tart, like fresh pineapple: sweet and sour at the same time (which is primarily my choice of fruits - sweet & sour fruits).
Duhat is another fun fruit I enjoyed. This was usually picked off the tree and rarely purchased.
This fruit is pretty unique: once you take a bite, it almost sucks the entire saliva out of your mouth and throat. It's not entirely sour, there is sweetness to it, but it just dries up your mouth. And it also colors your entire mouth, fingers, whatever it hits, in deep purple. But it is sooooo delicious.
One not-so-funny story associated with Duhats for me, is me and some friends of mine were picking and eating the fruit when we saw some men gathered around. They had dug up a hole and were standing over something near the hole. As we moved closer, we saw that it was a big ass lizard. I mean, a good four foot long. I *guess* it was a monitor lizard. But man-oh-man, the sight creeped me out and will forever be linked to my memory of duhats.
Green mangoes. You read correctly: green mangoes. Unripened, extremely sour mangoes.
I *never* enjoyed nor liked the yellow-to-orange mangoes (I do now). In fact, the taste of it was a huge turn off for me. BUT green ones were my second favorite fruit.
This was "street" food: you could buy this from vendors all over the place. The vendors sliced the mango in such a way, that you could pick off slices. Then they wrapped a newspaper piece just so, that it held the fruit and a big scoop of rock salt. So you pick a slice off the mango, dip it into the salt, take a bite and shiver from the tart and the salt, and smile because it's soooo yummy.
This can also be served with, what I know as bagok but everywhere else is known as "bagoong". This is a shrimp paste that is also quite salty. I preferred the salt, but amazingly, I enjoyed the bagok as well.
Baby coconuts is another favorite. We had coconut trees everywhere and at least two outside of my childhood home. This is a great fruit in general as there are so many ways to enjoy it.
Fresh young coconut fruit is translucent and mildly sweet. It is indescribable. I don't know why anyone would want to eat the hard coconut pieces.
The coconut "milk" is so good too. So a common way to eat fresh coconut is to chop the top off of the coconut, bearing the fruit, stick a straw through the fruit, then sip the juice. Once the juice is gone, split it in half, and take a spoon, and scoop the beautiful fruit into your mouth. HEAVEN.
Coconuts were very versatile too. My Auntie Cely would continually use coconut oil in my hair. The red cement floors were shined with the husks of the coconut shells. And frozen treats were made from the coconut juice and shredded young coconut fruit.
Rambutans were also fun to eat. An unusual spikey looking fruit but the spikes are flexible and not sharp.
The fruit is translucent and just the outline of the big seed. So it's more seed than fruit. These are actually sold in the US in CANS. I have never tried one. It seems a little weird to me.
Monkey bananas...that's what we called them. These were teeny sized bananas in CLUSTERS that were so sweet-and-sour. A banana between unripe and ripe is similar to the taste of a ripe monkey banana. These were up there in my book with green mangoes and lanzones, I ate a mess of these.
I have had many other fruits native to the Philippines: papaya, guava, starfruit, durian, and others. I didn't particularly like these then...not sure if I'd try them now based on my memory of them.
But I now make a more conscious effort of eating more fruit native to _here_. So far so good.
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