Supposed to see a nutritionist later today, but couldn't wait to get started. I was wondering if anyone might have any input on today's menu? Seems like a lot of food (for me) but I have a lot of food issues. I used Fitday to tally up the calories and what not. Thanks.

WAKE UP: 2 cups of coffee. Each with 3tsp of sugar (despise sweetners) and
1tbsp of fat free creamer. Cal 127 Fat 0 Carbs 31 Prot. 0
BREAKFAST: 1/2 Plain bagel w/ 1tbsp reduced fat peanut butter and 1cup of
skim milk. Cal 323 Fat 7.5 Carbs 49 Prot. 17
SNACK: 8 Strawberries Cal 29 Fat 0 Carbs 7 Prot. 1
LUNCH: 1 cup of brown rice 10 baby carrots Cal 277 Fat 2 Carbs 58 Prot. 6
SNACK: 1 med apple Cal 81 Fat 0 Carb 21 Prot. 0
DINNER: 1 med baked potato 1/2 cube steak 2 cups of frozen chopped
broccoli. Cal 353 Fat 7 Carb 41 Prot. 36
SNACK: 1 Peanut butter and chocolate rice cake Cal 60 Fat 1 Carb 12 Prot. 1
SPREAD THROUGHOUT:
3 tbsp of Promise spread fat free Cal 15 Fat 0 Carb 0 Prot. 0
2 cups skim milk Cal 171 Fat 1 Carb 24 Prot. 17
Diet Cherry Pepsi-even though its calorie, fat, carb and protein free
I'm only allowing myself 3 glasses because I'm a soda/caffiene addict.

So the days totals are: Cal 1349 Fat 19 Carb 230 Prot. 70

Made it through breakfast already which is normally very hard for me. So far no stomach revolt, I have some cereal to alternate the bagels with. Not sure where to find more protein either, I have a meat aversion. The menu is sort of what most days will look like (hope the nutritionist agrees) while I retrain myself to eat. What do you all think?

sounds good..

you might want some more protein in there.

have you tried splenda?

good luck we are here for you

Man I love this! Menu planning, love it!

Fitday is great, yes?

This is not bad. At least it's not processed stuff. Brown rice, good. Real vegetables, good. What's cube steak?

Protein ... egg whites, tuna, fat free cottage cheese, fish, soy ....

I'm anxious to see what the nutritionist says. Come back and tell us, please???

It looks pretty good. Let us know what the nutritionist says.. The only things I could think of were maybe change the plain bagel to a whole wheat bagel and occasionally put a sweet potato versus plain potato in there for the vitamins. I don't know how you all feel about this, but my nutritionist recommends not using low fat peanut butter. It's not a big calorie saving and she says they replace the fat with sugar, which I'm trying to cut back on. (major sugar addict here ) Ditto what Susan says, congrats on the vegetables. That's my aversion right now! Good Luck!

I would really try to get rid of the sugar in your diet. Excess sugar stores in the body as fat

So, I saw the nutritionist. Let's see, some of what she told me, I really didn't know about and may end up being key in why I haven't been very successful before.
First off, she recommended this plan for me.
No more than 1500 cals a day. I can go slightly under but not too much. 50g of fat, 75g of protein, 190g of carbs a day.
Suggested plan:
BREAKFAST: 2 starches, 1oz of meat, 1c. of dairy
SNACK: 1 fruit
LUNCH: 2 starches, 2oz of meat, 1c. of dairy, 1 serving of veggie.
SNACK: 1 fruit
DINNER: 2 starches, 2 oz of meat, 2 servings of veggies, 1c. of dairy.
SNACK: 1 fruit or other low cal snack

She gave me some great pamphlets. One especially will come in handy. It has the different food groups and each group has low, moderate, high calorie options with approx. calories and serving size. A lot of good tips as well.

We discussed the sugar. She said for now it was fine and suggested that I could try mixing 1tsp of sugar to a packet of Splenda and that maybe it would kill the aftertaste. I think I'll wait a week and really get used to my new way of eating and then try it. Besides my daily sugar intake is extremely reduced from what it was. I lived on coffee.

In the end I guess I feel a little let down after the appointment. Maybe I expected too much. There is so much I don't know and so I gravitate towards diets that are strict in a way, because I'm never sure what is okay and what isn't. The good thing is that now I have an idea of what to do and that gives me more choices. Choices that I didn't have when following a "one size fits all" diet. Those lack of choices caused me to fail each time.

She took my weight. Major (to me) fluctations all week. Monday morning I was 291 on my scale and the doctors. Yesterday, I was 287 on my scale and my other doctors. Today I was 290 on the nutritionist's scale. Didn't check my own. I don't want to obsess.

Anyway, I can't think of anything else right now. It's late OH! She also told me that I could use my peanut butter in the morning as a meat serving. Is that because of the protein?

I'm glad you're on the right track. I think you're right, the peanut butter is just an example of another protein source. You could probably also use egg whites or cottage cheese. Good Luck

Not really. Excess EVERYTHING stores as body fat. It is calories in vs. calories out.

SusanB-Cube steak is a particular cut of beef.

happydaisy-yes, your nutritionist is correct about the peanut butter. Peanuts have fat, and when they reduce fat in peanut butter they replace it with other things. For peanut butter, my recommendations are natural peanut butter (peanuts only-no sugar, salt, or anything added) or there are some varieties out there now such as "Simply Jif" which have less sodium and sugar added to them.

scrunchkin-Welcome!