I'm counting calories because it's the easiest for me. I'm not good at making food choices, so I need to be able to eat just about anything, within reason and in my count range. With work and kids, I don't have a lot of time to plan.
I'm now stressing about getting all I need in a day....protein, fiber, calcium, it's all so confusing! I get to the end of the day and I worry I didn't eat something I was supposed to in the recommended amounts. Yesterday I don't think I ate any protein. Today I know I'm not getting fiber. I just can't work it all in everyday! Am I stressing too much? Can I just take a vitamin supplement and relax? I look at the food pyramid and it looks like a huge mountain I just can't climb. There is no way I can plan my meals and snacks to mirrior that diagram. I'm just not good at making choices!
Do you guys make all the right choices everyday and get everything recommended in your eating plan or are you like me and just do the best you can? I feel like a failure most days because everyone here seems to have it all together and can make healthy choices with ease.
Some of us may seem to have it together, but it's from long practice. You'll get better as you go.
First of all, are you using a computerized calorie tracker? This is the easiest way for many folks to keep count of their foods. FitDay is a popular one. Many foods are already in the database, so the program looks things up for you. All you need to do is specify the food and the amount.
Second of all, it seems impossible for you to go through an entire day and not get any protein. Many foods have more than one nutrient. Just as one example, a large shredded wheat biscuit has 1 gm fat, 19 gms carbs, and 3 gms protein. When you use a computerized tracker, the grams of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates are counted for you.
Some trackers allow you to enter foods you eat frequently, or specialized foods like frozen dinners--you just enter the information from the Nutrition Panel.
How about just learning to use FitDay or some other program by entering the foods you actually eat in a day? You don't have to do it as you go if time is a problem, although many people do. Just keep a list of what you eat, if it's more convenient, and then enter the list at the end of the day.
About vitamins--my opinion is that vitamins are really necessary, especially when following a weight loss plan. A good multivitamin and mineral supplement would do it.
Don't sweat whether you get perfect nutrition every day. If it all pretty much works out over the course of several days or a week or so, you'll be fine.
I slowly evolved what I tried to fit in over time, because it WAS too much for me to keep track of at first!!
And, while I do try to get in so many calories, and a certain ratio of carbs/fat/protein, and calcium AND fruits and veggies... First, as JayEll said, it gets easier, as I make many of the same choices day after day. But also, I don't make it all perfect everyday. Some days not perfect at all!!
But I know that overall I eat so much better than I use to, so I cut myself some slack.
If you're overwhelmed, just start with ONE thing to track. Calories. And then use a program like fitday to see what ranges your nutrients naturally fall into. From there, you may find more things to tweak, but it won't be so overwhelming! And you'll know whether you need to make small or large changes to get there.
It has taken me the better part of 19 months to get to where I am today with my nutrition. I admire your quest for optimum nutrition. It can be difficult and hard to get the best of everything. My biggest struggle was how I can keep my sugar below 50 grams a day and eat 3 pieces of fruit. Then I realized that was refined sugar that the FDA was referring to when they said 50 grams a day. Not fructose or lactose. Anyway, fiber is a wonderful thing that keeps your hunger at bay and some experts are now saying that you can even burn 7 calories per gram of fiber you consume in a day. I consume between 35 and 50 a day. I didn't always. But I do now. I don't know how keen you are on soy milk, but Silk has a vanilla soy milk with fiber added. 5 grams per 8 oz serving. That's awesome. I drink about 2 glasses of that a day and get the rest of my fiber from whole grain, fruits and veggies. I do follow the food pyramid and have since the beginning. I found it to be the most reasonable choice for me. Because I have limitless choices.
For breakfast, if you eat 1/2(4 grams of fiber) cup of oatmeal with a miniature box of raisins(3 grams) and 1/2 oz of walnuts (1.5 grams), along with 1.5 cups (7.5 grams) of that soy milk (1 8 oz glass to drink and 1/2 cup to add to oatmeal before cooking) I was telling you about you will consume 16 grams of fiber for breakfast alone. That is my standard breakfast. Now when I say oatmeal, I mean old fashioned. Takes 3 mins in the micro. I add soy milk to it before I nuke it. I also add a 1/4 tsp of cinnamon to it before I cook. You can add honey or a little refined or brown sugar if you'd like, but I would keep it about a tsp or less. If you would prefer some other fruit, a med banana has 3 grams of fiber and 5 medium strawberries has about 3 grams as well. 15 blueberries has about 2 grams.
For lunch have 2 tbsp of hummus (2 grams of fiber per serving) and some whole grain bread ( a slice usually has about 3 grams of fiber) a medium apple (3 grams of fiber) some baby carrots about 6 - 8 medium carrots (3 grams of fiber. That's 11 grams with lunch, added to breakfast and you're at a cool 26 grams before dinner.
I'm not sure how many you want to consume, but if you want to do a high protein dinner with added fiber you can gave some lentil soup and a spinach salad, or 4 oz of chicken or fish with some steamed broccoli and with either of those things you are still getting about 10 grams of fiber for dinner. So by the end of the day you will be consuming between 30 and 36 grams of fiber. Now with consuming that much fiber it is ESSENTIAL to also drink at least 8 - 10 8 oz glasses of water. Fiber needs water to help it along.
Now that was just breakfast lunch and dinner. You can also have 2 snacks. If you want more protein for your snacks, you can have 1/2 oz of nuts and a cup of green tea or 1/2 apple and a tbsp of peanut butter or a mozzarella cheese stick and some sliced turkey. Those are some examples of things I eat to get good fiber, protein and good fats into my diet. Along with a decent helping of fruits and veggies.
I really just focus on my calories. I find that, for the most part, if I can stay on track with my calories, the rest of it just falls into place with no effort on my part at all.
By limiting my calories, I'm forced to eat lean proteins, fruits and veggies, and low-fat dairy and to limit my carbs. I naturally gravitate to including lean meats in my meals because without them, I end up hungry later. Where I have a choice in foods, I try to make the best choice possible. For example, with breakfast cereal, I look for choices that are low in calories but have some fiber and protein. Bread is another example--I look for whole wheat that is low in calories. I also try to make sure most of my snacks are fruits, veggies, lean meats, and low-fat dairy (rather than processed carbs).
I never pay any attention to whether or not I'm getting enough fiber, protein, etc. But I've found that by focusing on calories and choosing healthy foods, the rest of it all just falls into place. When I look back at my food diary, I'm almost always within my target range for dairy, fiber, protein, etc. Just about the only thing I'm low on is good fats. But even there, to correct this I have just focused on adding a few more good fats to my diet (salmon, avocado, etc.). I don't monitor my fat intake on a daily basis.
I agree with Jayell that if you starting logging all your food, you'll probably find that you are doing better on nutrients than you think. Fitday would be a great choice--then if you aren't getting proper nutrients, you can ask people to review what you've eaten and make suggestions for healthier choices.
It is far better to get the nutrients you need from food. There is some question as to whether your body can really absorb the nutrients in multi-vitamins.
Also, no one is perfect at this in the beginning. I made a lot of bad choices when I first started counting calories. I ate dinners that were too high in calories and had to starve all day to fit them in. I made breakfast and lunch choices that weren't very filling but used up a lot of my calories, leaving me hungry. My snacks weren't always the greatest. I still make mistakes. That's part of counting calories; you learn from your mistakes and then get better at it.
The easiest way I think, rather than worrying about calcium, protein, and fiber, etc. is to think about what FOODS you eat each day. If you make an effort to get a few fruits/veggies in each day-then the fiber usually takes care of itself. If you make an effort to have a couple servings of skim dairy or yogurt/cheese each day, then the calcium sort of takes care of itself.
Try to eat some lean meat, nuts, legumes, or dairy a few times each day-and the protein takes care of itself.
It makes it much easier, especially in the beginning-to do that, rather than worrying about how many grams of this, and what percentage of the RDA recommendations of that.
I don't really worry about specific numbers other then calories. Since I'm looking to stay within a certain calorie range, and I want to get the most bang for my buck so to speak, I just make sure that my day is loaded up with high fiber cereal, veggies, low fat proteins and fruit. If I get that in, then that's good enough for me.
And definitely, as you get more and more into it, your choices will become better and it won't seem quite as complicated.
I simply just do my best to squeeze as many healthy foods into my calorie allowance every day (without really focusing on the numbers too much, although I DO keep an eye on protein) and take a multivitamin. The reason I take the vitamins is because I know I'm not getting all of my nutrients from food alone because I only eat about 1200 calories.
I count calories and try to eat as many whole foods as possible. I do pay a little extra attention to protein and eating healthy fats and everything else just seems to fall into place. I don't bother with sugar, carbs or sodium.
Food choices....not good at this!
You'll get better as you go.
