Food Journal

September 13, 2007 · 8 comments

Yesterday was a good day overall; I put in 40 minutes of strength training in the morning and 25 minutes of cardio in the afternoon. My eating was right on plan, in fact a little less than usual since I didn’t have much proteins that I would normally have for breakfast or dinner.

At no point during the day was I famished, and only a couple of times did I notice hunger of any kind really. Nor did I ever feel disgustingly full. So let’s see what I eat on a pretty normal day:

Breakfast (430 calories)
1 medium banana (105)
1 11.5 ounce can of V8 (70)
1 Kind Fruit & Nut with Yogurt bar (210)
3 packets of sugar in a large and small decaf at McDonald’s (I buy the large and get the small for free) (45)

Seems kind of a weird breakfast I’m sure but I actually eat it in phases, the banana and the V8 before I leave for my 80 minute drive, and the bar and coffee about 40 minutes in when I stop at McDonald’s (just buy coffee and water, no more combo meals for me). I’ll phase the sugar out soon.

Morning snack (100 calories)
Popcorn (100)

Lunch (668 calories)
Bruegger’s Salt Bagel with jalapeno cream cheese and cucumbers (408)
Bruegger’s clam chowder soup (260)

Afternoon snack (170 calories)
Kind Almond & Apricot bar (170)

I keep this in my car and eat a bar before my ride home. It helps prevent me from thinking about stopping at fast food on the way home.

Dinner ( 425 calories)
1 medium banana (105)
Chopped salad of a cucumber, a tomato, some romaine, a jalapeno, a half bulb of fennel, a half a portobello mushroom and a green onion. Just a splash of balsalmic, plus salt and pepper. (150)
Bowl of Newman’s BBQ soy crisps (100)
Fat free ice cream bar (70)

Total calories for day: 1793

Now I am sure a nutritionist would just shoot that diet all to hell, but it sure beats eating three 2,000+ calorie meals which is what I would have done in the past.

So I know I said I prefer not to read blogs that just outline what was eaten on any given day but there I just went ahead and did it! I will do it occasionally and it will be interesting to see in time how this changes.

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{ 8 comments }

Fit Club Scott September 13, 2007 at 8:37 am: First of all, congratulations on your success so far. I’ve been keeping up with your blog and I enjoy your insightful posts.

In reading your food log, the first thing I notice is that your daily protein intake seems pretty low. You are doing a great job of keeping those calories down, but if your protein intake is super low, you may lose more metabolism-maintaining muscle mass than you want. That muscle mass will help you keep the weight off long term. Another thing is that you are strength training, a huge advantage in the weight loss game. Take full advantage of that by consuming enough protein.

The *minimum* daily requirement for protein is about .36grams per pound of body weight. At your current weight of 283, you should be getting close to 101 grams of protein per day. I would guess that your intake is closer to 25 or 30 grams per day.

I would suggest adding some lean protein with each snack or meal. Lowfat, dairy products like yogurt, or cottage cheese, are the easiest way to get more high quality protein. You can substitute them for some of the high carb foods that you are eating or eat them additionally.

Your daily calorie intake of 1800 calories looks to be about a 750 calorie deficit. That should get you about 1.5 pounds a week of weight loss and it should mostly be fat. I wouldn’t go any lower than that.

Great job so far and I wish you continue success in your weight loss journey.
Lady Rose September 13, 2007 at 9:39 am: Once in awhile it’s a good idea I think to record what you had food wise — looks like you’re doing great! **three cheers**
GeorgieGirl September 13, 2007 at 10:39 am: Hey! Your weight graph looks great! I know… it’s been awhile since I logged into the blog world. Congrats on the loss!

You are making such awesome progress! I love it and you gotta feel great! I’ve browsed a few posts… many more to catch up with. I love how open you are with your thoughts. Thanks for sharing!! Thanks for encouraging…
Rachel B. September 13, 2007 at 10:55 am: I think it is good to see what other people are eating, especially when they are successful. I am sure that a nutritionist would have nightmares about my unbalanced meal as well but I am purely looking at numbers at this point. We have to make the changes one by one!
kathyj333 September 13, 2007 at 1:46 pm: It looks like you’re doing OK to me. The salt bagel with cucumbers sounds good.
john - from fat to fit September 13, 2007 at 2:35 pm: Thanks for the positive feedback everyone!

Scott - always glad to hear from my readers - particularly ones that offer such great insight!

Thanks for the info on the protein. This day was lighter than normal in terms of protein, I would usually get some via either eggs in the morning or meat at night, but other than trying not to eat as much beef I haven’t been doing a focused effort on watching the protein intake. Interesting to hear that it could impact my weight training, I’ll have to pay attention to that.
Israel September 13, 2007 at 4:23 pm: do what works for you. not what others say work for you. lol. listings things these helps every now and then. i especially like seeing peoples progress. i love your weight loss graph and tried installing it but its not working on my site. oh well. lol.
Angela September 13, 2007 at 5:22 pm: I like reading what others are eating. Gives me new ideas so I don’t get bored and eat a pizza. Whole. I’ve been munching on dried prunes, almonds, and whole grain cereal (dry) mixed up in a baggie. Travels well and takes a while to eat…at least as long as my drive. Yum!