For most of my adult life, I have tried to be conscious of what I was eating. Never too much dairy because it was bad for my skin, try an moderate my bread intake and now I don’t eat sandwich bread. From tracking my dietary intake throughout the course of the semester, I found that I was not always focusing on consuming, good nutrient dense food but rather focused on not eating “the bad stuff.” This was to the point I was not meeting my basic dietary nutrient requirements. I started to switch my eating around to make myself better.
At the beginning of the semester, I was not meeting my caloric goal nor my basic nutrient and vitamin levels. I barely ate the proper amount and from what I’ve learned in this semester, that has a bit to do with why I haven’t been losing weight. I started to focus on eating better all around. I incorporated multivitamins every day as a helper to reaching my nutrient goals. In addition to these vitamins, I also started focusing on “better” food for me like sweet potatoes and kale in my salads.
Chapter 10 talks about weight management and what makes a successful diet. I have been implementing the “10-calorie rule” into my days now which involves 10 calories for every pound of weight. This guide from chapter 10 allows for losing 1-2lbs a week while still supporting basal metabolism. For me, I am looking to consume about 1400 nutrient-rich calories a day.
127 our experts are availableright now
Another issue, for me, is achieving variety in what I eat. With the patterns of everyday living, we all fall into the habit with our schedules of work, school, family, et cetera, so maintaining a wide variety and balance to be difficult. Not packing the same lunch every day or falling into the habit of eating at fast food out of convenience. Instead of a basic turkey sandwich every day, making a wrap with grilled chicken or a salad with a protein. Chapter 4 outlines The ABCs of Eating For Health and really drilled in the importance of variety fostering good nutrition.
I have learned a lot about how to focus on proper nutrition over the course of this semester and have really started to take my health into my own control. I feel better from eating better. When I had a lapse in healthy eating during a difficult time this semester, I found my poor eating only made what was going on worse because I felt worse. Because of that, I really took a step forward away from that and have found myself improving dramatically. I intend to keep that up.
