Most folks have a crisper in their refrigerators. I have a rotter. That drawer at the bottom of the fridge that’s supposed to keep your veggies nice and fresh, in my house, is the place where my produce goes to whither and die an ignominious death after weeks of being ignored or forgotten. More than one fresh, green head of lettuce has gone into that drawer and weeks later emerged a brown, moldy corpse oozing in a plastic bag coffin.
I never meant for it to become the place where greens go to die. I always have such high hopes for myself when I fill my basket in the produce aisle, yet eating five servings of vegetables a day is a habit I still can’t quite hit. In the same way my brain sees a cookie and is programmed to want it, when it registers a head of romaine it automatically blanks it out.
Happily, I’ve discovered a bridge between my good intentions at the store and actually eating the veggies I purchase: preparation.
After a very optimistic shopping trip a few weeks ago I found myself with three romaine lettuce hearts, a bag of celery, a bunch of asparagus, some sweet potatoes and two onions. After looking at my bill (cheap food isn’t good, and good food isn’t cheap) I realized I was going to be really wasteful if I didn’t make some plan of attack.
So I did what any smart cook did but I’d always put off, I prepped everything. Immediately. I washed and cut the lettuce and celery, trimmed the ends off the asparagus, wrapped everything in paper towels and put them in bags, so when I needed a vegetable it was ready at a moment’s notice.
It was so simple, so obvious, and yet so not natural to me. But I did it and it worked.
Knowing I had so much to use I actively planned meals with lots of those veggies, and by the end of the week almost all of my produce had made their way into that happy paradise that is my healthy diet. I had four to five servings each day that week. My rotter was denied its victims.
This time.
It’s another habit I’ll have to grow into. Prepping and planning for vegetables worked last time only because the shock and awe of so many at once pushed me to action. A recent bunch of asparagus wasn’t so lucky. It should be so easy, but then so should not overeating, and heaven knows that’s been out of my reach for ages.
Again it comes down to getting organized. Like everything else in Weight Watchers the more often I do it, the more normal it will feel, and the stronger I’ll be. Eventually, even strong enough to save all my veggies from the Crisper of Doom.
*Archived from July 2010