what are you eating?

What are you eating?

Do you really know what you are eating?   I’m not talking specifically about organic vs. conventional or nutritional analysis – I’m talking about all of the things you regularly consume.

Three of the top question I get from people wanting to “get healthy” are:

–       What should I eat to lose weight?
–       What should I eat to help me get fit?   (i.e. exercise better, gain muscle)
–       What should I eat to lower my cholesterol and/or blood pressure ?
You could also change each of these to read  “What should I stop eating to ….”

For many people the best place to start is finding out exactly where they’re at right now.   Just like when using a map or mapping software to find a route to a destination, you have to figure out where you are right now to know how to get to where you want to be.

Start with a food diary and record everything you eat and drink for a week.
A week is a good amount of time because it will average out some of the day-to-day changes in your diet and will also tend to include that  Friday or Saturday night binge.  Most people will be surprised (and feel a little bad) when they look back on that week and review all of the things they ate that they never even would have remembered had they not been written it down.

Don’t cheat!   Make sure you write everything down.   Do this consistently for one week and maintain your “normal” diet during this time.  This is where I start with people wanting to make changes to their diet.  You might decide as you’re recording it that you don’t want to wait one week to start making positive changes – good!  In some of the next few posts we’ll look at some specific things that you can identify to begin make changes that count, both immediate and long-term.

Don’t wait until tomorrow – go back and start with that first cup of coffee, glass of milk, juice, or for some of you – soda that you started your day with today and fill in everything you’ve had today.   Keep going for a week and be complete.

Coming soon will be some posts on things to look for that are good (in your food log – circle those in green), and things that you should limit (circle those in yellow), and things that you really need to stop or limit to an occasional treat (circle these in red red).   I’ll give you some specific reasons for these so that you can understand why you should make some of these changes, and what those changes can do for you.  These suggestions will highlight just a few of most significant things too look for – I’ll give you tips on how you can find more things to circle, and why.

Have questions about this post, or something else you want to see covered here?  Feel free to leave a comment!

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