why so many fruits and veggies?!

when i made my diet plan i knew i needed to be eating more fruits and veggies. i looked at the mayo clinic website and it said i should be eating 3 fruits and 4 veggies (and that was to lose weight--the least amount that i should be eating). i don't think i've EVER eaten that many fruits and veggies in one day!! another one of my goals is to not eat after 8pm. well, last sunday (the first day of the challenge) at a quarter to 8 i still had to eat 2 fruits and 1 veggie to meet my goal. i had to cram down 1 cup of apple sauce (which was from the fridge and super cold to down it fast!) and 1 carrot. i was so stuffed! there have been several days that i've had to do similar things to get my fruits and veggies in. it sounds pretty reasonable... just eat a fruit for every meal and veggies for lunch, dinner, and snacks....but it's not that simple! i've learned that i need to be getting up earlier... not at 9:30, because by the time i have breakfast, it's lunchtime and by the time i eat lunch, it's almost time for dinner.... and then i have to cram in all the fruits and veggies i can by 8pm! all in all, i'm glad i chose to do this because i feel so much better eating healthy. now i need to work on timing it all so i'm not stuffing myself at the end of the day. last night i made monte cristo sandwiches for dinner. they were so good!, but i knew i still had 2 fruits and 4 veggies to eat as well. i only ate half of the sandwich (i REALLY wanted to eat it all!!) and the rest of my meal was 1 fruit and 3 veggies. at 7:30 i had vanilla yogurt with frozen blueberries (YUM-O!! the frozen blueberries freeze the yogurt, so it's like you're eating ice cream) and a carrot. i've learned that i need to eat the required foods first, then i can reward myself with the other stuff.... if i'm still hungry, which i'm usually not. i've also been working out everyday for at least 30 minutes. i know it's only been a week, but i feel great!! and my clothes are fitting much better!! i have tons more energy. i definitely want to keep this up after the 10 weeks! it's also fun because the kids see us eating healthy and they want to eat what we eat. (it helps that we don't have lots of junk-food snacks in the house.) if the kids want a snack, they get to eat fruits and veggies. even though the kids aren't doing the challenge, they are being effected by it. whoa! this post ended up being pretty long! i'll stop now. good luck. love you all! -hayley