I've been on this fruit/veggie challenge for one day now and I'm already planning out my meals. I think I should be able to hit the five daily servings most if not all days, and those are two important elements of the challenge: to plan your meals out and incorporate fruits/veggies into them.
I just happened to pick up some sweet potatoes at the store earlier this week and then I made a quick trip to the store on Thursday evening so I picked up some carrots to add into the mix. I also got some sesame oil to try this recipe. It looks so good. I have everything else... except the cabbage. Forgot to get that. It says I should poach some chicken but I'm not the greatest at that so I will have to figure something out about that.
As far as today goes, I started breakfast off with a banana and a cup of milk... actually it was less than a cup, I'm guessing .65889 of a cup or so... and then for snack the usual apple. So that was two servings of fruit in my first two meals.
For lunch, I put a half-cup of baby spinach on my sandwich and had a half-cup of cooked and mashed sweet potatoes on the side. It was quite a filling lunch, and I found out that a half-cup of mashed sweet potatoes is satisfying and filling as well.
After I write this I'll be on my way out to a pair of soccer games. I have two girls games to officiate so I probably won't have a true dinner. I will take two apples with me though, one for in between games and one in case I'm hungry after my last game. So I should hit my totals for today. And of course I kept my calories under 1,800. I can't lose track of that.
But five servings of fruits/veggies on my first day... that's a great way to start!
UPDATE: I did have an apple but only one. I wasn't hungry at all in between games so I saved the apple until after I was done with the second game. So all told I had one banana, two apples, 1/2 cup baby spinach and 1/2 cup sweet potatoes while staying under my calorie limit. Again, not bad.
Showing posts with label food journal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food journal. Show all posts
Friday, January 9, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Food journal, Jan. 5
Well, this is certainly taking the feel of a daily thing... ugh. I guess I should embrace it. What I found after logging my food for two days and then not logging my food for two days was this - when I log my food, I don't go over my calories; and conversely, when I don't log my food, I tend to go over my calories.
I think.
I can't say for sure if I went over on Sunday but I think if I didn't go past the 1,800-calorie mark, then I was up against it. On Saturday, though, I can say with almost certainty that I went past my limit, maybe not 2000 calories over but I was over nevertheless. I'd probably say I was around 2,000 calories on Saturday, give or take.
And that's the problem. If you log your food and you are honest about it, you know exactly how much food you are putting in your body. You also become more accountable to yourself since if you have an extra portion or have a cookie or something else you shouldn't, you know you will have to account for it later.
When you keep enough food journals - and I probably journaled about nine months worth of food when I first started my weight loss program - it sort of becomes second nature. You know exactly how many calories things have because you've researched them time and again. You know an apple has around 70 calories depending on size (and 30 without the skin), a banana has about 100, a couple handfuls of baby carrots has around 40, a plum has about 30, a cup of milk has 120, three tablespoons of peanuts/cashews/mixed nuts/etc. has around 140 calories... and so on.
With that then, I've kept this journal for my food intake for Monday. Now, this is an incomplete list of course. I've just finished lunch so I will update this after my snack and/or dinner.
* Breakfast
> Fiber One cereal (180 cal, 13g fiber)
> 2 percent milk (50 cal, 5g protein)
* AM Snack
> apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)
* Lunch (Pepperoni Pizza Wrap)
> Wrap (210 cal, 3g fiber, 6g protein)
> Pepperonis (130 cal, 7g protein)
> Mozzarella Cheese (~150 cal, 14g protein)
> Spinach, Marinara sauce (~30 cal)
> 1/2 banana (53 cal, 1.5g fiber)
[I skipped snack, slept right through it]
* Dinner - Pasta, Pesto and Peas
> Farfalle pasta (200 cal, 3g fiber, 6g protein)
> Pesto/spinach sauce (~250 cal)
> Peas (150 cal, 4g fiber)
* After-Dinner coffee (50 cal)
Totals: ~1522 calories, 21g fiber, 32g protein
I'm planning on some sort of pasta for dinner as my wife requested some pesto for dinner tonight. I don't like pesto so I might... well, I'll probably... aw crap I don't know what the heck I'm going to do... but I'll do something.
UPDATE: I did not snack. I took a nap with my daughters and woke up after 3 and not hungry so no snack.
LAST UPDATE: I made this Pesto, Pasta and Peas recipe. I probably am way off on the calories but even still I have a couple-hundred calorie cushion to play with.
And my conclusion was right on. I logged my food and I was under my calorie totals. Of course, that's not necessarily good news as I may have to start logging my food now. Great.
I think.
I can't say for sure if I went over on Sunday but I think if I didn't go past the 1,800-calorie mark, then I was up against it. On Saturday, though, I can say with almost certainty that I went past my limit, maybe not 2000 calories over but I was over nevertheless. I'd probably say I was around 2,000 calories on Saturday, give or take.
And that's the problem. If you log your food and you are honest about it, you know exactly how much food you are putting in your body. You also become more accountable to yourself since if you have an extra portion or have a cookie or something else you shouldn't, you know you will have to account for it later.
When you keep enough food journals - and I probably journaled about nine months worth of food when I first started my weight loss program - it sort of becomes second nature. You know exactly how many calories things have because you've researched them time and again. You know an apple has around 70 calories depending on size (and 30 without the skin), a banana has about 100, a couple handfuls of baby carrots has around 40, a plum has about 30, a cup of milk has 120, three tablespoons of peanuts/cashews/mixed nuts/etc. has around 140 calories... and so on.
With that then, I've kept this journal for my food intake for Monday. Now, this is an incomplete list of course. I've just finished lunch so I will update this after my snack and/or dinner.
* Breakfast
> Fiber One cereal (180 cal, 13g fiber)
> 2 percent milk (50 cal, 5g protein)
* AM Snack
> apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)
* Lunch (Pepperoni Pizza Wrap)
> Wrap (210 cal, 3g fiber, 6g protein)
> Pepperonis (130 cal, 7g protein)
> Mozzarella Cheese (~150 cal, 14g protein)
> Spinach, Marinara sauce (~30 cal)
> 1/2 banana (53 cal, 1.5g fiber)
[I skipped snack, slept right through it]
* Dinner - Pasta, Pesto and Peas
> Farfalle pasta (200 cal, 3g fiber, 6g protein)
> Pesto/spinach sauce (~250 cal)
> Peas (150 cal, 4g fiber)
* After-Dinner coffee (50 cal)
Totals: ~1522 calories, 21g fiber, 32g protein
I'm planning on some sort of pasta for dinner as my wife requested some pesto for dinner tonight. I don't like pesto so I might... well, I'll probably... aw crap I don't know what the heck I'm going to do... but I'll do something.
UPDATE: I did not snack. I took a nap with my daughters and woke up after 3 and not hungry so no snack.
LAST UPDATE: I made this Pesto, Pasta and Peas recipe. I probably am way off on the calories but even still I have a couple-hundred calorie cushion to play with.
And my conclusion was right on. I logged my food and I was under my calorie totals. Of course, that's not necessarily good news as I may have to start logging my food now. Great.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Another journal entry?
I know, I know... I said this wasn't going to be an everyday thing, but I've fallen into a trap for the second consecutive day.
I kept tally of my food intake on Friday as well, for the second straight day. On Thursday I logged my food and found I had 1,234 calories with a sufficient amount of water. That worked well, forced me to think out my meals and snacks and kept me under my target for the day - although I should have consumed a bit more calories.
So I figured I'd have a repeat performance.
* Breakfast - Fiber One cereal
> cereal, 1.5 servings (270 cal, 13.5g fiber, 4.5g protein)
> 2 percent milk (75 cal, 7g protein)
> coffee (75 cal)
* AM snack - Apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)
* Lunch - Turkey sub, mashed sweet pototoes
> Sandwich roll (220 cal, 2g fiber, 6g protein)
> Turkey - (~60 cal)
> Mashed sweet potatoes w/milk, sugar (300 cal, 8.2g fiber, 4.5g protein)
* Dinner - Denny's Grilled Chicken Sandwich (490 calories, 4g fiber, 39g protein)
> coffee - (~30 cal)
Total for the day: ~1600 calories, 31g fiber
The only thing I missed on a day ago was my fiber intake. I was well short of the 25 grams I liked to get on a daily basis. So I started the day off with a 13.5-gram dose of fiber. Now, I'd planned on snacking on apples for both my AM and PM snacks - a combined 6.6 grams - so I knew that I'd only need to find a way to get about five grams of fiber between lunch and dinner to meet my goal.
As it turned out, I ate a heavier lunch than I'd anticipated so I skipped my PM snack. I had a soccer game to officiate so that was a reason to skip it as well. Anyway, after lunch I'd consumed about 1,072 calories or so, which frankly is a lot. If I'd have realized that I would have had a 500-calorie plus lunch, I probably would have gone with one serving of cereal instead an extra half and may have gone with a bar altogether. The sweet potatoes after all had a lot of fiber in them, which brings me to the positives. By lunchtime I'd consumed 27 grams of fiber, more than my daily goal. I exceeded that by lunchtime!
It's just sort of hit and miss then, really. I focused on the fiber from the start of the day and I got it but after lunch, with the rest of the day staring at me, I had less than 800 calories to play with.
After my game, I didn't feel much like cooking so we went to Denny's, about the only place we can go with our little ones. I checked the trusty calorieking.com web site and found a couple of good options but I went with the Grilled Chicken Sandwich which has under 500 calories. I opted to get the applesauce but I didn't eat it after all. I knew I had enough calories to splurge so I got some coffee.
Anyway, probably more in detail than you needed but just wanted to walk you through my thought process.
I kept tally of my food intake on Friday as well, for the second straight day. On Thursday I logged my food and found I had 1,234 calories with a sufficient amount of water. That worked well, forced me to think out my meals and snacks and kept me under my target for the day - although I should have consumed a bit more calories.
So I figured I'd have a repeat performance.
* Breakfast - Fiber One cereal
> cereal, 1.5 servings (270 cal, 13.5g fiber, 4.5g protein)
> 2 percent milk (75 cal, 7g protein)
> coffee (75 cal)
* AM snack - Apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)
* Lunch - Turkey sub, mashed sweet pototoes
> Sandwich roll (220 cal, 2g fiber, 6g protein)
> Turkey - (~60 cal)
> Mashed sweet potatoes w/milk, sugar (300 cal, 8.2g fiber, 4.5g protein)
* Dinner - Denny's Grilled Chicken Sandwich (490 calories, 4g fiber, 39g protein)
> coffee - (~30 cal)
Total for the day: ~1600 calories, 31g fiber
The only thing I missed on a day ago was my fiber intake. I was well short of the 25 grams I liked to get on a daily basis. So I started the day off with a 13.5-gram dose of fiber. Now, I'd planned on snacking on apples for both my AM and PM snacks - a combined 6.6 grams - so I knew that I'd only need to find a way to get about five grams of fiber between lunch and dinner to meet my goal.
As it turned out, I ate a heavier lunch than I'd anticipated so I skipped my PM snack. I had a soccer game to officiate so that was a reason to skip it as well. Anyway, after lunch I'd consumed about 1,072 calories or so, which frankly is a lot. If I'd have realized that I would have had a 500-calorie plus lunch, I probably would have gone with one serving of cereal instead an extra half and may have gone with a bar altogether. The sweet potatoes after all had a lot of fiber in them, which brings me to the positives. By lunchtime I'd consumed 27 grams of fiber, more than my daily goal. I exceeded that by lunchtime!
It's just sort of hit and miss then, really. I focused on the fiber from the start of the day and I got it but after lunch, with the rest of the day staring at me, I had less than 800 calories to play with.
After my game, I didn't feel much like cooking so we went to Denny's, about the only place we can go with our little ones. I checked the trusty calorieking.com web site and found a couple of good options but I went with the Grilled Chicken Sandwich which has under 500 calories. I opted to get the applesauce but I didn't eat it after all. I knew I had enough calories to splurge so I got some coffee.
Anyway, probably more in detail than you needed but just wanted to walk you through my thought process.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Logging on
Well, I didn't want to commit myself to this but I'm going to log my food for today.
Repeat: for today.
I know if I say I'll do this every day I won't and then I'll just let myself down.
But here goes:
* Breakfast - Zone Energy bar (210 calories, 3g fiber, 14g protein) Coffee (120 cal)
* AM snack - Apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)
* Lunch - Wrap w/sliced deli meat - 360 cal
> Wrap (210 cal, 3g fiber, 5g protein)
> Monterey Jack cheese (~60 cal, 4g protein)
> Deli meat (~60 cal)
> Thousand Island dressing (30 calories)
* PM snack - Apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)
* Dinner - Turkey sandwich
> Sandwich roll (200 cal, 1g fiber, 6g protein)
> Turkey meat (~100 cal, 21g protein)
> Thousand island dressing (30 cal)
> Coffee (70 cal)
That's what my New Year's Day consisted of. All told, I got in 1,234 calories and 15.6g fiber. I was well under my 1,800-calorie limit for the day but I fell well short of my 25g fiber I'd targeted for the day.
As far as water goes, I wanted to get at least 80 ounces and I'm pretty sure I got more than that. I didn't keep track of the water per se but I was drinking throughout the day and having kept track of it closely in the past am fairly certain that I exceeded the 80-ounce goal.
We'll see what Friday brings. Hopefully I can get in some more fiber grams. I picked up a Fiber One cereal box recently and one serving has about seven or nine grams of fiber so that would be a great way to start off the morning.
Repeat: for today.
I know if I say I'll do this every day I won't and then I'll just let myself down.
But here goes:
* Breakfast - Zone Energy bar (210 calories, 3g fiber, 14g protein) Coffee (120 cal)
* AM snack - Apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)
* Lunch - Wrap w/sliced deli meat - 360 cal
> Wrap (210 cal, 3g fiber, 5g protein)
> Monterey Jack cheese (~60 cal, 4g protein)
> Deli meat (~60 cal)
> Thousand Island dressing (30 calories)
* PM snack - Apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)
* Dinner - Turkey sandwich
> Sandwich roll (200 cal, 1g fiber, 6g protein)
> Turkey meat (~100 cal, 21g protein)
> Thousand island dressing (30 cal)
> Coffee (70 cal)
That's what my New Year's Day consisted of. All told, I got in 1,234 calories and 15.6g fiber. I was well under my 1,800-calorie limit for the day but I fell well short of my 25g fiber I'd targeted for the day.
As far as water goes, I wanted to get at least 80 ounces and I'm pretty sure I got more than that. I didn't keep track of the water per se but I was drinking throughout the day and having kept track of it closely in the past am fairly certain that I exceeded the 80-ounce goal.
We'll see what Friday brings. Hopefully I can get in some more fiber grams. I picked up a Fiber One cereal box recently and one serving has about seven or nine grams of fiber so that would be a great way to start off the morning.
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