Week 9 should feel like a fun challenge I hope. As per last week's instructions you are still to increase your activity level by 10% this week and next week and so on. This week though is really about learning more about your eating habits.
Hopefully you are diligently recording what you eat. Now I'd like you to start grouping things. Take a look back over the past 2 or 3 weeks and see what and when you eat. The when might be harder if you haven't kept track of times of day that you eat. However I'm sure you know your own snacky times and general meal times.
Once you look at each day, figure out how many of each food group you generally eat in a day. If you look back at Week 4 you will see a break down of what is considered a serving for each food group. Once you get a couple of weeks broken down into how many servings of what food group then I want you to look for patterns.
In general, what food groups do you eat the most of and what do you eat the least of? I'd like you to start shifting your food group eating into specifics. The aim for this week and really for the rest of the time is to start shifting your day into eating for specific food groups. You should have a minimum of 5 grains, 5 veg, 2 fruit, 1 - 2 meat and alternatives, 2 - 3 milk products. This is about the proportion that your foods should take on. So if you are having a lot more meats or milks compared to veggies then you need to make a shift. See if you can manage your days to fill in those categories proportionately. The bottom line is that in the course of a whole day you need to be eating more grains and veg than other categories. By grains I am referring to whole grain not white grains or flours.
So be a bit of a food detective and then shift things as you need to during your day. If you haven't eaten any veg by dinner time but have filled all your servings in other categories then you are going to have a pretty veggie heavy dinner right?
Have fun working on your food servings and categories this week! At the end of this week feel free to remeasure your body and hop on a scale for an update. I don't want you to obsess on those things but sometimes it's nice to know where you're at when you've been working hard for a month. Don't forget to post your progress.
5 comments:
I have a question. As long as I'm getting 5-7 fruits/veggies, is that not the goal? Why are veggies more important when generally, it's the deep coloured stuff that is the best for you? (blueberries etc)
Is there something about veggies that makes them superior to fruits?
Good question. You are correct in general. Please remember this blog is going out to the general public and I am speaking of general rules not specifics to guide anyone.
Whether you are eating fruits or vegetables you should be picking colour dense ones as they are more nutrient dense as a whole. However, if you were to only eat fruit as opposed to veggies to make up your 5-7 servings you would also be taking in a fair amount of sugars. Natural sugars, yes, but still sugars which can cause spikes in blood sugar levels and aggravate cravings, etc. It's not that veggies are superior to fruit but rather that they generally have less sugar (although that depends on the veg) and a bit longer burn. I think most people can find a good variety of veg at a lower cost per day than fruit. Hope that makes sense.
That makes very good sense. I didn't think about the natural sugars involved. Thanks for the quick reply!
I have a question ... I am on a gluten-free, dairy free diet. The bread I make is made from almonds and flax seed which would put it in the meat alternatives category. As a result, my grain intake is low. Are there nutrients I may be missing out this way. It is challenging to keep my fat and calorie intake down eating all these nuts and seed but other than that, I don't think it is a harmful way of eating. I also eat a lot of beans and lentils which are low in fat. Any comments?
First off, I am in no way an expert in nutrition, however, most of the nutrients that are higher in grains will also be found in dark leafy greens, nuts, seeds, legumes and meat. If you have a varied diet then you should be getting those nutrients without grains. However, gluten-free usually means a person is still eating other grains (i.e. brown rice, corn, quinoa, etc) which all have the nutrients that gluten grains also have just without the gluten. If your diet is an area of concern then I highly suggest speaking with a holistic nutritionist to help you with your overall food choices.
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