Building Your Own Diet Plan
If you haven’t had success with other’s plan try creating your own
Jul 8, 2007
If you have tried one or more of the hundreds of diets currently available but still aren’t having much success maybe it’s time to build your own diet (weight loss plan). That’s right take matters into your own hands.
The first step to building your plan is to begin a food journal. You’ll need to log every morsel you eat. Do this for a least a week and remember don’t omit anything, it’s important to write everything down. There are a number of reasons for logging the foods you consume. A food journal will help you create an awareness of what you’re eating throughout the day; some people are not even aware they are eating when they’re eating (they eat unconsciously)! Other important factors you’ll gain from your food journal should include:
- What time you eat
- The food eaten and the amount
- How hungry you were when you eat
- How you feel when you eat (your emotional state) i.e., happy, sad, anger etc.
- Are you alone or with someone
- Where you are when you eat
After about a week of journaling, you’ll need to do some assessing. Do you recognize any patterns such as emotional eating, eating when under stress, or eating due to boredom. Also, ascertain if you are consuming a balanced diet, are you making healthy food choices, eating from all the food groups of the food pyramid, how many calories are you consuming per day, is it within your allotted calories for the day? Continue to maintain your food journal and check it regularly to see how you’re doing. Use your food journal to make adjustments to your food selections when necessary.
Keep in mind that you are creating your own eating plan because you couldn’t find one that fit you needs, you’ll need to be diligent and industrious constructing your perfect diet (diet here means the foods you select to nourish your body). Consuming the proper amount of vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins and carbohydrates to promote healthy weight loss is critical to your success.
- Fats- keep total fat intake between 20 to 35 percent of daily calories mainly from polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids
- Carbohydrates- 45 to 65 percent of daily calories should come from carbohydrates
- Proteins- 10 to 35 percent of daily calories should come from proteins
Fats- there two main types of fat found in food, they are saturated and unsaturated fats. Saturated fat can raises the blood cholesterol levels. Over time, this extra cholesterol can clog your arteries. Saturated fat is found mostly in foods that come from animals, but can also come from milk, butter, cheese and oils such as palm and coconut. Limit you intake of saturated fats by choosing lean cuts of meat, skinless chicken and low-fat dairy products.
Carbohydrates (carbs)- carbs are the body’s main source of energy and are broken down into 2 groups, simple and complex. Simple carbs come from fruits, milk and white sugar while complex carbs come from grains, pastas, breads, rice, vegetables and beans. Limit your in-take of processed simple carbs like white sugar, white flour and white rice. Receiving a bulk of your carbs from fruits, vegetables and the complex carbs category.
Proteins- proteins are classified into 2 categories, essential and nonessential based on the number of amino-acids present. All meat and other animal products are sources of complete proteins (the body can only manufacture 13 of the 22 amino acids it requires). These include beef, lamb, pork, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, milk, and milk products.
(continued in next article)
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