Nutrition Update

I’m getting better, I swear. I’ve been tracking my calories online (using The Daily Plate, which I used almost religiously when I was losing weight). I just wanted to show everyone what a difference in your protein/carbohydrate ratio one change can make. It’s not perfect yet, but I’m still tweaking. I’m aiming for Zone-ish ratios (40:30:30 for carbs:protein:fat). So this is a comparison of the last three days. Hope it’s a little helpful to everyone.

Thus, I present…(*drumroll*)

The Protein Shake Saga

Day 1 (Nov 22) - This was prior to the introduction of my protein shake and what a typical day would look like for me. My fat was a little high that day because we had cheeseburgers for dinner (at home, not fast food. They’re a once in a blue moon thing). As you can see my protein % is low compared to my fat and carb %.

Look at how ridiculous the protein requirements they set you up with are. Based on my height and weight on my worst day I’m eating almost double my daily recommended intake (DRI). Blue numbers mean under DRI and red numbers mean over DRI. The black numbers are your goal. No wonder people are confused when they’re trying to lose weight! This kind of information is totally useless and may be what a lot of people base their weight loss regime on because it’s a government standard. The carbs are way too high (for an average day) and the protein way too low. The sodium’s also a little high for weight loss in my opinion. We need to update these numbers, governments of North America…*phew*. Rant over. Annnyway...

Day 2 (Nov 23) - Today was a bad day. I was starving all day for absolutely no reason (or possibly for “hormonal” reasons) and I could not get full. The most filling thing I ate all day was my protein shake as a mid-afternoon snack. We had fish and salad for dinner, but I just wasn’t satisfied. I broke down around 11:30 and had an Ezekiel english muffin with cream cheese. I couldn’t have slept, I was so hungry. I hope this isn’t a pattern!

Look how high my protein was today! (And my calories, blergh.) I’m glad my sodium’s staying low, but my sugars were a little high for my liking as well. I did well in fibre though! The calories bug me the most. Oh well! It was only one day.

Day 3 (Nov 24) - Today I had protein at every meal (a good amount of it too), and I will say that protein shake left me satisfied for far longer than any other breakfast I would have had. I was working, so usually I feel the hunger a lot sooner, but today I was fine. We had shrimp, salad and a little bread for dinner and while I’m a bit peckish now I’m not that hungry. My calories are the lowest they’ve been in the last two days, so that could have something to do with it. Hormones could still be a factor (sorry, tmi, haha).

Look at my ratios! So cloooose! I just need a little more tweaking.

Protein was great again (over 100g is my goal right now and the protein shake is really helping me with that). I have no idea why my cholesterol is so high… I think it’s because the item I chose that was closest in calories to my dinner was probably higher in cholesterol than my actual dinner. My cholesterol is never this high. I think overall my numbers are showing a lot of improvement.

And all because of a protein shake!

- N

(P.S. Let me know if you did or didn’t find this helpful and what I could do to maybe make it better. It was just something I thought I’d try for now :).)