Food Plan

So, I recently met with a dietitian and got some really good information about the correct percentages of the different food groups that we should be eating every day. The information was somewhat surprising, especially given that stupid pyramid they made us learn in elementary school (I blame them for my carb addiction). Here’s what I found out:

Grains/Starches - 4-6 servings (1oz = 30g = 1 serving)

Fruit - 2 servings

Dairy - 3 servings

Vegetables - 3 cups

Protein/Meat - 5-7 oz. (Should include about ½ cup beans and ¼ cup nuts)

So, basically, just under half of our daily intake should be fruits and vegetables, around a quarter should be grains, and dairy and protein fill out there rest. Or, it comes down to a total of about 16 servings per day.

So, to get myself back into the small-meals-all-day mode, I’m going to write out a very specific menu for myself, and I’m going to eat every  2 hours, which means that I need to have around 2 servings at each meal.

My Foods:

Grains/Starches: Cereal, Pasta, Potato, Bagel, Crackers, Pretzels, Corn

Fruit: Grapefruit, Pear, Apple, Grapes, Orange (basically anything)

Dairy: Milk, Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, Cheese

Vegetable: Celery, Carrots, Green Peppers, Broccoli, Cauliflower, V8

Protein: Chicken, Almonds, Pistachios, Peanut Butter, Hummus, Eggs

So, here’s an example of what I propose to be eating every day:

Hour	Food	Category	Portion
8 am	Cereal Milk or Yogurt	Grain Dairy	2 1
10 am	Celery Peanut Butter	Vegetable Protein	1 1
12 pm	Hummus Crackers	Protein Grain	1 1
2 pm	Cottage Cheese Banana	Dairy Fruit	1 1
4 pm	Green peppers Almonds	Vegetable Nut	1 1
6 pm	Chicken Rice Veggie	Protein Grain Vegetable	1 1 1
8 pm	Yogurt Fruit	Dairy Fruit	1 1

The biggest challenge I foresee with this system is switching my snacks around to accommodate dinner, when I also cook for my boyfriend. I don’t want to be continually making two different meals, so I think I’ll have to focus mainly on portion size to keep myself on track. I think that, in order to get the correct number of servings of each category, I might have to start counting as of dinner one night and balance things out the next day until dinner, that way I can rearrange things according to the dinner I’ve already had, which leaves more wiggle room in the boyfriend-included meal. However, I’m going to try to plan meals a week in advance, and do all of the shopping for the week at once, something I have yet to master.

There are a few things which I anticipate being useful for achieving my goal, namely proper measuring equipment. Ideally I’d like to get a scale, but for now I’m going to try to actually use my measuring cups and use smaller dishes to keep an accurate image of portion size in my mind.

Once I get a full week planned out (starting with dinners and working the rest to fit around it) I'll share that with anyone who might be interested.

Wish me luck!