Today’s topic is Nutrition!
Last Friday I had my first appointment with a nutritionist, and it was quite interesting. When someone else asks you what you eat, it’s kind of like baring your soul. You realize, “Hey, I eat pretty crappy.” After this mutual non-judgmental discussion, we decide I eat too many carbs. So I am on a low carb diet, like a modified diabetic diet. After five days I must admit I feel pretty good.
Right now, the goal is to keep my carbs within the following parameters:
- Breakfast 30-50 grams
- Lunch and dinner 45-55 grams (I think that’s each, not total for both)
- Snacks 20-30 grams
Stay away from tropical fruits, so eat more apples, pears, berries, cantaloupe. Eggs are wonderful and apparently you can have them every day. So I made an egg frittata over the weekend, and bring some to work every day for breakfast. I have to plan my meals or else I will eat crappy food.
Two other good tips I want to share are the following:
- 10 minutes before you eat, drink an ice cold glass of water with some lemon or lime in it. This gets the stomach juices going, signaling the brain that you are eating, thus when you eat you feel full faster. Also the cold water starts your metabolism because your body needs to heat the water up.
- Psyllium husk fiber. I picked mine up at Whole Foods. Two tablespoons contains 8 grams of soluble fiber. We need at least 25 grams of fiber daily, and Americans only consume about 10 grams. Right now I’m only doing 1 TBS in the am and 1 TBS at lunch. Next week I may increase it.
Tracking is also important. When you write things down, it becomes real and accountable. The one tool that has helped the most has been using My Plate on Livestrong.com You can use this to track everything, water consumption, fitness, all your food. Seeing the numbers associated with my meals has been a real eye opener.
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