So far I have been having a few challenges with the whole “healthy eating” aspect of my journey.
I have been tracking my food, and monitoring my percentages of carbs, fats and protein. I have done quite a bit of research, and decided on a balance of 40% Carbs, 30% Protein and 30% Fat. However, actually coming in at those numbers hasn’t been going well. Despite my best efforts I keep going over in Fat and Carbs, and coming in under in Protein.
Take yesterday for example. I ended up eating 56% carbs, 20% fat and 24% protein. By the time I got home from work yesterday I was starving, and I only had 400 calories left for dinner. I ended up having salad with turkey sausages and cottage cheese, which is how i got my protein up to 24%. Before that it was only at 16%.
I have always been a high-protein person. Thanks to my never ending stream of diets over the years, I know this about myself. Not only do I find that it is the method that helps me lose the most weight, but it also helps to keep full longer, and therefore less likely to overeat. So I need to find more foods that are high in protein, yet low in carbs and unhealthy fats.
Some suggestions I found are tuna, cottage cheese, nuts and seeds and lentils and beans. Lentils and beans I have to be careful of, because they do have higher carbs. Nuts and seeds I can only eat in limited quantities, because they are high in Arginine. Arginine, if consumed in high quantities, makes me break out in cold sores (lovely). I can take a Lysine supplement to counteract this, but really I already take so many supplements in a day, I don’t really want to add any more.
So that leaves Tuna and Cottage Cheese. I like both of these foods, but I often find I get bored easily when eating them. I think its because I can’t think of interesting ways to prepare them. I mean really, what can you really do to cottage cheese to make it more interesting? I guess more research is required.
The other part I am still having a hard time with is the amount of sugar I consume in a day. This one is really important, because it directly impacts my insulin levels and my insulin resistance.
I am not eating piles of refined sugar or junk food, and yet I can’t seem to come in at the 30g I am limited to each day. And I am not talking about going over by a little, yesterday it was 83g – almost 3x what I should be eating. I know that this is contributing to my carbs coming in high as well.
I reviewed which foods I ate yesterday that were higher in sugar, and they are not unhealthy foods. The 2 biggest culprits were my vanilla greek yogurt and the sweet potatoes in my Quinoa & Sweet Potato Salad. I know, why don’t I eat plain yogurt instead of vanilla? Because, quite frankly, I hate plain yogurt. I think it tastes bitter and sour. I could try using it in smoothies, so the taste of the fruit masks the flavour of the yogurt I suppose.
I guess I have more work to do in the form of research. I have started taking a nutrition class online, so hopefully that will help. It’s funny, because after 20+ years of dieting, you would think I have all this figured out. But there is still so much to learn.
A New Balance 