You need some way to keep count, because by Thursday nobody remembers whether they had leeks on Monday. Here are the three usual options.
Paper on the fridge
A sheet with 30 lines. Write each new plant as you eat it.
Good: free, visible, the whole household can see it. Not so good: no history, duplicates slip in, and it doesn't come to work with you.
A note on your phone
A running list that you clear every Monday.
Good: always with you, quick to add to. Not so good: you end up scrolling to check whether something's already on the list, and the count is manual. Anything clever, like quarter points for herbs, is up to you.
A dedicated app
This is the one we build, so take this with the obvious pinch of salt. Eating30 is an app for iPhone and Android that does the counting for you. You pick plants from a database of more than 400, it ignores duplicates, it resets when your week starts and it keeps your history.
The bits that make the difference day to day:
- Quarter and half amounts for herbs and spices
- A barcode scanner that finds the plants in packaged food
- Colour tracking for "eat the rainbow"
- Quick logging from Siri or a home screen widget on iPhone
Whichever you pick, the method matters less than doing it for a few weeks in a row. That's where the number starts to move.
The longer read
A Simple Food Diary Without Calorie Counting
Many people want a food diary, not another macro app. Simpler tracking can be easier to keep up with.
Eating30 is an app for iPhone and Android that counts the different plants you eat each week, with 30 as the target. The core tracking is free. It's a habit tracker, not medical advice.
Count your plants with Eating30
Tap the plants you eat and watch your week fill up towards 30.