My dietician has always encouraged me not to think in terms of following a ‘diet’. Diets are somewhat defeatist. They imply ‘temporary’, ‘drastic’ and (sometimes) ‘failure’.
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A better approach is to think in terms of a healthy eating plan that will last a lifetime. I certainly like to keep track of what I eat, and a healthy eating plan gives me a guideline for comparison.
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I decided to design my own healthy eating plan. I started by looking at Canada’s Food Guide to see how many calories I should eat per day. Calorie intake varies by age, activity level, gender, http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/basics-base/1_1_1-eng.php For my age, and low active life style, the chart says I should use 1850 calories per day. I know from tracking my calorie intake on ‘MyFitnessPal‘ app on my Ipad (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/), I am maintaining my weight with about 2200 calories per day. I have decided to base my healthy eating plan on about 2000 calories per day.
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In designing my plan, I want to include the following things I know about myself:
- evening eating is a huge problem for me
- I have trouble keeping my morning blood glucose levels in check and so evening eating has to be minimized
- my dietician told me a snack in the afternoon will help me combat evening hunger
- I find I have more energy when I include protein in my breakfast
- I like to have a snack mid-morning
- I am in good control of my eating for both breakfast and lunch
- I often don’t get enough milk products during the day
- I have trouble limiting portion sizes
- ‘red light’ foods for me are ice-cream, chocolate, chips, and (!) Greek yogurt
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Breakfast – usually cereal with milk or toast
| Breakfast | ||
| Food Group | Number of servings | Sample serving |
| Bread | 2 | ¾ cup cereal |
| Milk | 1 | 1 c milk |
| Fat | ||
| Fruit | 1 | banana, apple, pear |
| Vegetables | ||
| Protein | 1 | 2 tbsp peanut butter |
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Lunch – I usually have leftovers from dinner, soup and toast, or a sandwich
| Lunch | ||
| Food Group | Number of servings | Sample serving |
| Bread | 2 | 1/2 hamburger bun |
| Milk | ||
| Fat | 1 | mayo |
| Fruit | 1 | ¼ c dried fruit; 20 grapes |
| Vegetables | 1 | sliced red pepper |
| Protein | 1 | ½ c tuna packed in water |
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Dinner – we have a healthy meal with potato, meat or fish, lots of vegetables and fruit for dessert. At least once a week we have chili (good-for-us tomatoes and high fibre) or a salad-as-dinner (green vegetables and fibre)
| Dinner | ||
| Food Group | Number of servings | Sample serving |
| Bread | 2 | ½ cup canned corn, small potato |
| Milk | ||
| Fat | 1 | 1 tsp olive oil margarine |
| Fruit | 1 | 1/2 cup canned fruit |
| Vegetables | 3 | 1 c lettuce, ½ c brussels sprouts |
| Protein | 1 | chicken breast; ¾ c beans |
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Snacks – for me, a good snack is yogurt and crackers, a smoothie made with milk and fruit, crackers and cheese, or vegetable sticks
For my three daily snacks, I can choose from A, B, or C:
| Evening Snack | A | B | C | |
| Food Group | Number of servings | Sample serving | ||
| Bread | 1 | 7 crackers | ||
| Milk | 1 | 1 | 8 oz milk, 1 ¼ inch cube cheese, yogurt | |
| Fat | 1 | salad dressing | ||
| Fruit | 1 | 1 | 1 cup strawberries; 20 cherries | |
| Vegetables | 1 | 1 carrot, ½ c broccoli | ||
| Protein | ||||
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Please note: my serving sizes may not be exact; for serving sizes, see Canada’s Food Guide (for example: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/choose-choix/fruit/serving-portion-eng.php)
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To summarize, this is my healthy eating plan for one day (approximately 2000 calories):
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| Healthy Eating Plan | Meals | Snacks | |||||
| Food Group | Total Number of servings | Breakfast | Lunch | Supper | A | B | C |
| Bread | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Milk | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Fat | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Fruit | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Vegetables | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |||
| Protein | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
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Best always, Alexandra
Alexandra 