Critique my eating, please
 

Okay, here's a total of what I've eaten today. I eat five meals a day, starting at 7am with breakfast, and I try not to eat after 8pm.

Breakfast -
0.25 cup non-fat cottage cheese
Kraft fat-free single
1 egg
1 cup Optimum Slim cereal
0.5 cup skim milk

Snack -
Weight watchers whole wheat bread, 2 slices
2 kraft fat-free singles
Cadbury 'Thins' 100 calorie chocolate bar

Lunch -
2oz extra lean ground turkey
0.5 cup fava beans
0.5 cup plum tomatoes

Snack -
8 saltines
1tbsp reduced fat Jif peanut butter

Dinner -
1 tsp olive oil
145g haddock
2tsp kraft miracle whip light
3 cloves garlic
1 cup mixed vegetables

Water -
184oz

Total: 1306 calories, 144g carbs, 33g fat, 116g protein

I'm trying to stay between 1200-1500 calories daily. Am I eating the right stuff?

wow...i dont see anything at all wrong with what you eat! much better than me! lol I make do with what we have around here until I get money to buy my own healthy foods hehe do you cook your own lunches and dinners??

I have to cook everything; I don't trust myself to eat out! ;)

I'm concerned that I'm getting too much dairy. I think I told you that I used to be vegan, so I'm really not used to having this many milk products. Thanks for your opinion! :) I don't feel like I can properly assess my own habits, because I'm so used to thinking they're bad or, at least, not as good as they could be.

Looks pretty healthy to me, Kashi. I've been thinking a lot lately about processed foods and looking for ways to cut those out, so if you were looking for suggestions, you might see if you could substitute a few of those things on your list, but all in all it looks sensible and seems to have a few treats too.

I'm only seeing 3 servings of veggies, and no fruit. Really try to push veggies--if you're concerned about calories (how much do you weigh?), let the veggies push the saltines and the bread and the cereal and the chocolate bar (processed foods) out.

I think it looks like you're doing awesome, except you could add some fruits and veggies and maybe a multivitamin considering you're staying low calorie (I take one becaues my calorie range is the same as yours.) Good job though on getting calcium, whole grains and fish for healthy fats!!

OT - is that your cat in the avatar? If so, it is so, so cute!!

That is about the cutest kitten ever in your avatar.

Beware of hidden sugar in Miracle Whip! I hate that stuff, flip it over & read the label, you should see both HFCS (high fructose corn syrup, aka liquid obesity), as well as plain sugar.

Other than that, nothing else really stood out except more fruit & veg, but that is pretty much everyone's diet.

Thanks guys! Right now my fridge is pretty empty of fruits, so I guess I should really go buy some! Are some fruits better than others? It's the carb content that concerns me... 21g of carbs in an apple?! I know they're 'good' carbs, but still! Or maybe it doesn't matter; I guess I don't really know! haha

happydaisy, I do take a multivitamin daily, I just didn't include it. I also take metamucil twice a day.

And no, the kitten's not mine. :( But it's so cute, eh?

Some fruits (bananas, the tropicals) are higher on the glycemic index than others. But really, it's all relative. The glycemic index is flawed: every food is done in amounts of 50 grams of carbohydrate (if I remember right). 50 grams from bread isn't so much, but 50 grams from carrots is a great deal more (and more than people generally eat at one times). So take the GI with a grain of salt.

also, here's something I recently learned about. Fructose, the sugar in fruits, is preferentially shunted to storage (instead of being burned, like glucose). This takes place after the liver is "full up". So, when does the liver get full? When it's had about 50 grams of the stuff. 50 grams is easy to hit, if you're talking about HFCS (the stuff is bad, bad, bad for you). But apples? Apples are about 8-10 grams of fructose, specifically. Are you really going to sit down and eat 5 or 6 apples at one time? So that's all relative, too.

Basically, the message here is that the carbs in fruits and veggies are NOT bad for you. The more the merrier, really. As long as you're not eating 5 apples at once, you're fine!

Looks good to me.... I couldn't do that - count it out all the time. If I can't use preportioned foods or have a good visual idea of portion size, I don't do so well. I don't have time to measure and I am not at home for most meals (except supper). We all do the best with our individual situations. It sounds like you have found foods that work and a system that works for your situation. I wish you the best with your efforts and hope that you have found lifestyle changes that you can maintain for the longterm.

Yeah, fruit is considered good carbs. Not enough carbs will make your kidneys work harder to process the protein, so be careful w/that.

Thanks, mousie for sharing the info about the 50 grams, that was a great read! :)