So I have been tracking all of my food on www.thedailyplate.com. Let me just plug in here that its an AMAZING website with SO much information that is easy to find etc etc. GREAT GREAT GREAT.
Anyways, I consider myself a fairly healthy person. I make sure that all of the foods in our house are HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) free, no partially hydrogenated oils, fresh fruits and veggies grown in our backyard (well some of them anyways), hormone free milk and so on. Well…after tracking my food for 2 weeks I found out a few things that I never would have guessed:
a. I dont eat anough carbs. EXCUSE ME?? I feel like that is all I eat!
b. I eat too much sugar. Now I know I have a torrid affair with ice cream but I didn’t think it was THAT bad!
c. I eat too much fat. Not by a lot. But still too much. Where would this be coming from??
d. My protein intake was too high. We do not even eat a ton of meat around here!!… but apparently the other foods I am consuming are adding into that number as well.
E. I eat WAY too much salt. This was the one that blew me away. I never salt anything! When a recipe calls for salt, I always do half. When I season my foods, I use other seasonings besides salt. I have always tried to be really conscious about it. But apparently all of the other items that are in my pantry that I do not make from scratch are VERY high in salt content. I never knew. And I never would have known if I hadn’t tracked my food for 2 weeks. I would have gone along thinking, “I’m healthy cause I don’t put salt on my eggs”.
After taking some time to review what my intakes were and what was in my pantry I came to these conclusions:
- I need to eat more carbs, but the RIGHT carbs. Not cookies and granola bars and sugary items. This will also help cut down my sugar intake!
- I need to read labels for fat counts on all prepackaged and processed items. And I need to make sure they are mostly GOOD fats (mono and polyunsaturated, and SOME saturated fats) and not BAD fats (trans fats – aka partially hydrogenated oils)!
- I need to save my protein counts for fresh items like meats and legumes. The over abundance is coming from processed items!
- I need to READ the labels for salt content on any processed items I buy. Our bodies need salt. BUT mine does not need as much as I have been getting!
So…what are your counts like? What are you getting too much of? not enough of? Take some time to figure these things out! It will be worth it in the long run. Do a “spring cleaning” of your cupboards and get yourself on the right track!
