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Another critique my eating post
Since I'm struggling right now, I figured I'd ask you ladies to take a peek at what I'm eating. I think the easiest way to do this is with MyFitnessPal. I've made my food diary public for a limited time:
***deleted link***
I know there are some things I can improve on, so I'm really open to your thoughts. And yes, I know I ate a Spicy Chicken Sandwich from Wendy's yesterday (and simultaneously posted a whine about my cholesterol); my car died and I was eating my frustration.
Couple notes about my diary... I don't weigh food (like oz of things), so those are approximations. I do measure (tsp, tbsp, etc.). I have little desire to weigh food because I feel like, for me, that could be a slippery slope of obsession. And really, I feel like my questions are centered more around what I'm eating, rather than how much of it I'm eating...if that makes sense, though I know those things are related. Also, when I eat out at a local pizza place or something and get a slice and a salad, I often will pick from MFP a Panera salad or Papa John's pizza just to approximate calories since the local place doesn't have nutritional info available.
You have access to 341 days of what I've been eating. Help me fix it!
(P.S. I'm also talking to my doctor about a referral to a dietician again.)
Re: Another critique my eating post
Just from glancing at a week's worth of food you seem to eat a lot of processed foods. You also visited Wendy's twice, had Panera a few times (from what I know about Panera the portions are pretty big). Had Thai food a few times, was that going out or was that a frozen meal?
Maybe if you do go to Panera to get a salad, get your dressing on the side. You also seem to be low almost every day on protein.
I would try to focus on less processed meals and if you do go out hit up something other than Wendy's.
I actually think this last week was pretty atypical for that. Wendy's twice in one week is pretty rare...and actually I went for a very long time w/o eating fast food at all. It's crept back in lately. And the thai twice is pretty rare too, the 2nd meal was with coworkers and I was running late so I just had them order pad thai to not hold everyone up.
(I haven't actually been to Panera -- that is me using Panera to approximate something at a local place.)
Less processed meals is good feedback. I have gotten MUCH better over the past year, but there is room for improvement.
Your snacks aren't healthy. Switch from the cookies and other processed items to nuts, fresh fruit, and fresh veggies.
Sub fresh smoothies instead of relying on your milk snack.
Sample snacks: peanut butter with apple, orange with 1 oz. almonds and unsweetened tea, smoothie with flaxseed or protein added or smoothie with nuts, carrots with humus, celery with peanut butter
Start thinking you need protein and fresh, natural items for the majority of your snacks and only allow yourself one bad item a day (save the chocolate/cookie for dinner dessert but don't eat it for a snack).
Good suggestions, thanks. Yes, I am totally 100% more likely to grab a cookie than fruit for a snack. I do eat an apple almost every day at work (typically a mid-morning snack). It's the one thing I eat and don't track...my psychological rebellion or something.
Smoothies are a good idea!
A few thoughts:
-when you eat oatmeal, do you need peanut butter + honey & sugar? If I add peanut butter, I skip the sweetner
-It looks like you eat out a lot. Is that an anomaly for last week, or accurate? Is there a way you can cut a few meals out & replace with a packed lunch?
-Can you focus on more natural snacks (fruit, vegetables, nuts)?
-How many servings of fruit & vegetables ae you getting/day?
It is very hard. DH has to remind me all the time that when I say I need chocolate, it's just my mind and I can beat it. I am not going to die without having chocolate and if I don't let myself succumb I feel awesome about it the next day. LOL Not right then, but definitely the next day.
Try packing healthy snacks or leaving the fruit out in the open ready to grab. I also don't allow junk in the house. If it's here, I eat it so I just can't. Whatever works, right?
You need more veggies. Try adding a small salad at lunch instead of the fries or in addition to your pizza.
Change up your snacks. I am looking at one day and you had:
Classic Zone Perfect All Natural Nutrition Bar
Ghirardelli Chocolate - Intense Dark Twilight Delight 72% Cacao Individually Wrapped, 2 piece
Late July Organic - Mini White Chocolate Sandwich Cookoe, 5 cookies
I try and eat a fruit or veggie and protein for a snack. (Banana and almond butter, carrots and hummus, celery with cheese)
One more thing - I think some of your calories may be off. A Greek salad has more than 63 calories. The feta cheese, dressing, and olives add a fair number of calories.
Yeah, you're totally right on the snacks. Good suggestions (though I'm not a celery fan!)
And I won't be eating those cookies again. They were DH's and I thought they were a waste of calories. (The 5 cookies are like the size of a nickel each!)
And if there's ever more than 1 piece of chocolate in a day that = a bad day at work!
Add spinach to your smoothie.
I noticed a lot of packaged and processed foods as well. Do you have some constraints to overcome like having to eat out for work/nowhere to store a packed lunch, need cooking tips or recipe sources, short on time and such? I'd make it a point to cook from scratch as much as possible. That doesn't mean it has to be complicated or take long, but you could benefit from knowing and selecting exactly what goes into your meals.
Another thing you could do is institute "food rules" that you stick with very firmly. ie, no high fructose corn syrup. Or, no white flour. So anything that contains those things is out and you'd have to find a substitute. One by one, that could steer you towards better, less processed choices.
If I pick a random day like 3/20, the lunch could use improvement. 37g of sugar for such a small amount of food is quite a lot. What if you made your own chicken + veg + brown rice in a batch over the weekend and froze a few lunch and dinner portions. It could be as simple as marinating & grilling some boneless skinless chicken thighs, chop and toss with bags of frozen stir fry veggies (no sauce). Instead of the honey for breakfast, mix it with some soy sauce, lime juice and grated ginger and use that as a dressing for your chicken dish. That will have way less sugar and other mysterious junk. Try to wean off of sugar-sweetened beverages like the chocolate milk altogether. It's not a whole lot better than drinking a soda (same amount of sugar or more). An in-between thing you could do is plain whole milk + cocoa powder and sweeten with something like stevia and/or xylitol.
I swear I'm not a stalker
Just very interested in the topic you brought up.
Thank you! Very helpful. I really appreciate all of this advice!!!
I do read them sometimes, but I should try to do that more regularly and participate more!
My calories are approximate for eating out. It's like nailing jello to a wall and I realize that. I'm honestly ok with approximate. And I do tend to half portions at restaurants, etc., so I'm eating smaller portions. But at some level I have to be ok with approximating. I feel like this has been a slippery slope for me and I can very easly become obsessive.
I do old fashioned oats and milk and nuke for 2-3 minutes. I'm not 100% sure of the nutritionals of the instant oatmeal but the OF oats are less processed and still easy. I do have a few packets of oatmeal in my desk at work if I need a snack or didn't have time to make breakfast. Is the h&h for your coffee? Can you switch to whole milk? Have you tried a natural pbutter? Yum, plus no added sugars. Have you tried plain yogurt and adding your own flavoring, fruit, honey, etc? I do WW and I'm not willing to eat a low fat, fruity sweetened yogurt when I know I can do Greek yogurt, a squirt of honey, and a bananna or berries for the same number of points.
I only looked at a few days but I did think they had a little too much added sugar & processed foods. I know you said that's not normal for you but are there ways you can avoid some of that? Maybe stock your freezer or fridge with less processed versions of the convience foods, keep some healthy(ish) foods in your car or at work? A couple of little tweaks can go a long way for setting yourself up for sucess or not having a bad food day on those days when everything goes wrong. For example, I put a bunch of yogurt, a few of my fav salad dressings, and a bag of carrots in our office fridge. I think there might even be a jar of peanut butter somewhere in my desk.
So, if this was my food diary I'd try to make a few little changes at a time. I'd pick one thing to improve every week (for me that's been more water, packing my lunch, trying to plan at least a couple of dinners for the week, trying to add more fruits & veggies, seeing if I can get by with less calorie dense foods like sugar & pbutter). I try to make just one or two changes at a time so I don't get discouraged or give up. I know I'm eating too many "treats" every day, things like potato chips, cookies, ice cream, etc. I'm trying to pick just one thing that I really want and only have that one treat every day. What's the one thing you are not willing to give up? Maybe it's yogurt, your half & half, a bit of extra sugar. There's no reason any of us can't have and enjoy something special every day.
GL!
Helpful, thanks!
OK, I didn't read every last reply before I posted so my suggestions aren't all that new. You have a sweet tooth, don't you? Me to! What if you try a new, healther sweet every day? Experiment and find the sweetest variety of apple. Pineapple, cherries, and watermelon are super sweet fruits. Melt a square of chocolate and dip some strawberries into the chocolate. I know I said I mostly do plain greek yogurt but I will indulge in vanilla Greek yogurt. Try it over some sliced strawberries or raspberries-so, SO good! Layer them with some healthy granola for a parfait.
I had to force myself to eat more veggies so I tried new ways to prepare them (never cared for asparagus until I roasted it in the oven with a little olive oil, salt & pepper, then sprinkled on some parm cheese). I love bleu cheese dressing so I'd use a tablespoon as veggie dip.
Gah. You're right, very sweet tooth. I've definitely tamed it down lately. If I tracked the year before this, you would see A LOT more cookies and brownies on any given day.
Do you work out?
Also, like most people are saying, you've got waaaay too much processed food going on there. I think you need more protein. When I eat more protein, I crave less sugar and I'm a girl who ate almost a dozen pb cookies a few days ago, so I know sweets. I've found also that it only takes me about three days of dropping candy and cookies before I really don't "need" them anymore. So cut the chocolate milk, unless you're using it to refuel after a long endurance workout.
Can you try to make some lifestyle changes first? Like only eating out once a week for lunch or dinner? It sounds to me like you want to hang on to a lot of not-so-healthy choices and you've got to just make the cut.
Yes,I'm smiling...I'm a marathoner!
Bloggy McBloggerson
CO Nestie Award Winner-Prettiest Brain-Back to Back!
2011 Bests
5K-22:49 10K-47:38 Half Mary-1:51:50
2012 Race Report
1/1-New Year's 5K-22:11
2/11-Sweetheart Classic 4-mile-29:49
3/24-Coulee Chase 5K-21:40
5/6-Colorado Marathon-4:08:30
5/28-Bolder Boulder 10K
Well hello there!
First and foremost, i've been a bit 'forced' into eating far cleaner than ever before. SO has been diagnosed with numerous food allergies - including wheat, barley, soy, dairy, chocolate, coconut, chicken and beef. It's a blessing and a curse. The positive, however, is that it has us eating a LOT healthier.
I don't have any of my recipes with me (i'm at work), but I have some that you may really enjoy! First and foremost, I have a sweet tooth. Chocolate is an undying love of mine, however, I suffer from GERD (a reflux disorder) and chocolate is one of the things that makes me feel not so wonderful. Of course, this doesn't mean that I avoid it altogether (far too difficult for me apparently). A dietician friend of mine has a recipe for 'healthy' brownies. No, they are not the ooey-gooey wonderfulness of packaged brownies - but they do taste pretty good! The positive in my opinion is that they make me crave them less. A small portion is plenty for me, when I need some sort of 'dessert' to feel fulfilled. If you're interested, I can get the recipe and send it your way!
Next, snacks have been a big deal for me as well at work. Part of GERD and managing heartburn/nausea etc. is to eat frequently (every 2 or 3 hours). I've always been horrible at this. I could easily go half the day without eating, until SO began to really push the issue. I'm a big fruit person - strawberries/bananas/kiwis(surprisingly good for you!) are my favorites. Fruits can be a lot more 'pleasant' in my humble opinion than veggies, at least when it comes to snacks. SO eats nuts frequently (almonds tend to be his 'go to' choice). As others stated, apples and peanut butters are SO wonderful. Used to be one of my favorites until peanut butter gave me horrible heartburn (thank you GERD). I'm trying to brainstorm here what else i've brought to work for 'healthier' snacks... Cottage cheese, low fat vanilla yogurt (which i used to mix in with wheat germ, very tasty).
Drink a lot of water. I have a hard time with this but it's so so SO good for your body. I don't think you had any mention of soda (from what I saw) but if you do - i'd suggest cutting it out.
As far as meals go, I know that I noticed beef in a few locations. Mainly due to the fact that SO is allergic, we cut it out and replaced with turkey. Turkey burgers? Taste the same (in my opinion) as regular burgers and are better for you. The leaner the ground turkey you buy, the 'better' for you essentially. Last night, I added onions and spinach to our patties - they were great! We don't use buns (again, SO is allergic to wheat and barley) and have essentially cut bread and pasta from our diets (with the exception of gluten free pasta). I think you used wheat (which is the healthier choice) so that's a great start! I've been making a lot of stir fry recently - with various veggies (an easy way to add veggies to your diet) and seafood. They're tasty, quick and you can easily make more so that you have leftovers for lunch. We've also begun using a lot of the steam fresh veggies bags - they're quick, convenient, and again, enough so that you can bring some for work the next day. We've taken to also doing a lot of spinach salads - spinach is far tastier to me than iceberg lettuce now that i've grown used to it. I have recipes for an altered, healthier green been casserole, turkey meatloaf, 'healthy' apple muffins, etc. if you're interested.
I do. With the exception of one apple a day that I don't track. I've realized I'm not getting enough veg and this post has really made me focus on prioritizing it.
I'd also be interested in the several recipes you mentioned! Feel free to post them or PM me.
Ladies, this has all been crazy super helpful. And all the recs are actually in-line with a quick 10-minute freebie consultation a RD did with me over the phone (the one I saw 1 year ago).
I really can't say thank you enough. You've called out some things I knew (but didn't want to admit), some things I've admitted (but been stubborn about changing), and some things I didnt't realize and need to work on. I really, really appreciate the time each of you took in reading my food diary and responding.
You're awesome women, all of you.