Day 5: Eat Three Balanced Meals #30DaysofGOOD

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Welcome to The GOOD 30-Day Challenge (#30DaysofGOOD). Each month, we challenge our community members to do something that will improve the world around us—and our own lives. The challenge for September? To connect with other people. In an effort to help us all rise to the occasion, we're going to assign one small task every day. Each morning, we will post the challenge on GOOD.is and Twitter, along with a testimonial from someone on the GOOD team who's already completed it. We invite you to complete all 30 mini-challenges with us! Today, we challenge you to:

Eat three balanced meals.

Unless I'm in the depths of a work bender—when I base my food choices on how well they can be eaten with one hand as I type with the other—I live under the impression that I have a rather balanced diet. Nonetheless, there's always room for improvement. So I went into the day with a bit more thoughtfulness and a bit less autopilot.

For breakfast, I had a simple bowl of granola and yogurt with strawberries. The difference in this breakfast was the presence of strawberries and the absence of coffee. Delicious slices of fresh fruit would normally have been omitted solely based on morning laziness. Coffee, today, was unscientifically deemed out of "balance." I'm not sure if that choice had any nutritional significance. But, in the spirit of attending to my habits, it seemed like a good decision.

It was a busy day at work, and I had a big meeting to get to, so lunch had to be take out. However, instead of a sandwich or burrito, I opted for some fork-and-knife fare from a nearby deli case. I had a bit of salmon with sesame and miso, a Greek salad of bell pepper, onion, cucumber and feta, and some tomatoes with balsamic and burrata.

Dinner was cooked by a friend and fortuitously rounded out my day's intake. She'd procured some zucchinis and beautiful red corn from the market that afternoon. With them she whipped up some very delicious pasta with a garlic, corn and zucchini cream sauce. (Just a dab of cream.) I opted to have water with my meal instead of a glass or two or three of wine.

I'm not sure how precisely balanced my day's diet was, but I'm confident it was notably healthier than it average. In balancing my food choices I, again unscientifically, observed no carb comas and no caffeine crashes followed by a good night's sleep. I hope to do the same tomorrow.

-Ben Callaway\n

Ready, set, go! Good luck completing today's challenge. Share your experience on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook by using the hashtag #30DaysofGOOD, or let us know how it went in the comments section below.

Tomorrow's challenge: Stand up at your desk.