Five servings, 10 minutes

This phase of the crusade for good nutrition -- what we call the Everyday Challenge -- encourages you to adopt healthful eating habits, not "diet" or even restrict the amount of food you eat. Each week, one new habit will be introduced.

If you stick with the challenge, by the end of this eight-week project your eating and activity levels will be very close to the recommendations cited by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, the surgeon general and many independent experts on nutrition and exercise as likely to improve health and reduce risk of disease.

By following this program, people who are overweight or obese may lose weight. But you must be warned about losing at a rate that suggests your changes are unsustainable, perhaps even dangerous -- such as those called for by fad diets, unusually intense physical activity programs, excessive calorie deprivation and so on. Research shows that losses of more than 2 pounds a week (except under medical supervision) are regained more frequently than losses of one-half to 1 pound a week.

Weighing yourself is optional, and most advocates of long-term habit change encourage weighing in no more than once a week or even once a month.

And now, this week's challenge -- and goals: Eat five servings a day of fruit and vegetables. If you think five servings is a lot, you're wrong. Have a handful of berries on your cereal and 6 ounces of orange juice at breakfast, a small salad with lunch, an apple as a snack and a serving of broccoli at dinner and you've got it. A serving equals one medium-size piece of fruit; a half-cup of raw, cooked, canned or frozen fruit or vegetables; 6 ounces of 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice; a half-cup of cut-up fruit; a half-cup of cooked or canned beans or peas; one cup of raw, leafy vegetables; or a quarter-cup of dried fruit. For more serving information and recipes, log onto www.5aday.gov/whatsaserving.shtml).

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