Goal weight: 140
Pounds lost: 7.2
Pounds to go: 21.5
A few weeks ago, I met with my friend, Michelle Silvia. Michelle has a degree in Dietetics. Furthermore, she is passionate about eating whole and organic, exercising, and living well. She helped me understand the types of food our bodies need.
This is what you should be eating everyday:
- Grains - 8 servings per day or 60% of your diet
- Really? I was completely shocked by this! I have always thought that eating too many carbs is bad for our body. What I learned, though, is that too many refined sugars ARE bad for us.
- Whole grains provide a non-animal source of protein, FIBER!!, niacin, folate, riboflavin, thiamin, iron, magnesium, selenium, etc.
- Make sure that whole grains is first on the ingredient list...not enriched flour
- Protein - 40 - 60 grams per day for a normal person or 20% of your diet
- Figuring out how much protein one should consume can be complicated. It is a formula based on your age, weight, and some other factors. If you don't have any special diet requirements, it is safe to assume 40-60 grams per day.
- One serving of a protein would be a steak or piece of chicken that is about the size of your fist.
- Fruit - 3, 1-cup servings per day
- Vegetables 4, 1-cup servings per day
- Dairy - 4 servings per day
When determining what a serving size is...you must read the labels on your food. For instance, a serving of milk is 1 cup. But a serving of cheese is usually 1/4 cup or 2 ounces. Reading labels is extremely important. You need to know what you are putting into your body!
Here are a couple resources for helping you decide what and how much you should be eating:
Here you can learn about serving sizes and recommended daily intake from the US Deparment of Agriculture
Here you can find tools for helping you determine how many calories are in your favorite foods.
Speaking of favorite foods...what is the one thing you absolutely cannot live without? For me, it's ice cream. I LOVE ice cream. Whatever your favorite food....eat it. In moderation. Please do not deprive yourself. This is about a lifestyle change. We aren't working some crazy fad diet. We are in this for the long haul. I will not go my entire life without a bowl of Ben & Jerry's Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream.
Michelle offers some services for a small fee, if you are interested:
Services offered:
- teaching you how to eat vegetarian: what kinds of proteins to eat; eating complete proteins
- cooking lessons - college students,
- clean up your lifestyle; clean out your pantry
- how to read a label
- how to grocery shop
- therapeutic diets: diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, high cholesterol, etc
- whole foods, and/or organic diet
You can contact her at:
She also has an Etsy shop. She makes contributions to Ronald McDonald House from her profits. Check it out at:
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