A Day of Eats

I love that I am not posting every little thing I put into my mouth these days, still don’t know how I used to post three times a day! I do miss sharing with you all the fun new things I try. I am still eating healthy these day’s of course, but recently with my new diet change of basically eating Vegetarian with a bit of fish here and there, I have been wanting to track my protein, carbs, and fat ratio.

As I am doing the NROL for Women Strength Training Plan I want to see some MUSCLES! OK, not huge muscles, but tone it up more and see those baby biceps grow!

NROL doesn’t really have a “diet plan” but more of just the healthy clean eating approach. I took the wonderful BMI calculator and I came up with the calorie amount of 1600-1800 calories a day for me to consume on a non active day, but we all know how few those are for me

Here is the breakdown of proteins, carbs and fats…I know it’s wordy, but worth reading about!

What about protein?

Your muscles are made up of mostly protein and water so you need to eat 1-to-1½ grams of protein for every pound you weigh to help your body repair and rebuild your muscles into bigger and stronger muscles after you work out and if you eat 1-to-1½ grams of protein for every pound you weigh then protein will usually make up 30-to-40% of your total daily calories (your diet) so if you weighed 200 pounds you would need to eat 200-to-300 grams of protein a day and

Trying to eat TOO MUCH PROTEIN is not going to help you build muscle any faster since your body uses any excess protein for energy and making protein less than 30% or your diet or  eating less than 1-to-1½ grams of protein for every pound you weigh is going to slow down your muscle growth

So on lifting days (3 times a week) I shoot for 120 grams of protein, which is kinda hard when you cut out meat, but not IMPOSSIBLE! There are many ways to get PLANT PROTEIN into your body!

What about Carbs?

If carbs are less than 40% of your diet… Your body may use the protein you eat and/or burn off the muscle you already built for energy making It harder for you to build and maintain muscle so basically eating enough carbs lets the protein you eat do its job which is to build more muscle on your body. As you get closer to or lower than 40% for carbs in your diet – You may burn more fat but… You may also feel sluggish and have less energy for your muscle building workouts.

If you go higher than or closer to 60% on carbs – you’ll still build muscle but at the same time – you may also make it easier for your body put on some fat but… You don’t have to worry about TOO much fat gain as long as you’re staying active & eating fat burning foods and…

What about Fat?

Fats should only make up 10-to-20% of your diet because your body needs some fat to help it produce muscle building hormones like testosterone so if less than 10% of your diet is fats then you body will have a hard time “naturally” producing testosterone and other muscle building hormones like Growth Hormone & Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and usually.

DAY IN THE LIFE OF MY EATS

I recently documented a whole day of food – every bite! I didn’t do any thing special just because I would be posting, I just did what I would normally do. I measured it all to be accurate and logged it all into MyFitnessPal. You can follow my eats if you want my username is nHerShoes.

Breakfast Nutrition:

I typically eat oats with egg whites and tried cottage cheese (cutting this out, it’s too harsh on my stomach) or Shakeology.

56% CARBS, 9% FAT, 35% PROTEIN

Lunch Nutrition:

I always make GIANT sexy salads and lately have been enjoying them with tuna, sardines or eggs to add some extra protein. If no meat then I add beans and lots more veggies!

63% CARBS, 20% FAT, 30% PROTEIN

Dinner Nutrition:

OK this day was a bit different, because I teach kickboxing at 7:30pm so I always split up my dinner in two. I will have a protein shake before I go teach, and then a bowl of Kashi GoLean when I get home or an egg sandwich. My dinners usually consist of sweet potatoes, kale, fish, tofu, temph, veggies, whole grains, etc…

60% CARBS, 8% FAT, 32%PROTEIN

Snacks Nutrition:

These always very. I like to have plain Chobani, but I am loving these new Flips! I will have an apple and almonds most days, maybe a protein bar, and when folks bring in homemade coconut banana bread I just can’t resist!

65% CARBS, 17% FAT, 19%PROTEIN

TOTALS:

52% CARBS, 23% FAT, 26%PROTEIN

Calories:  I went over a bit, but nothing too concerning. This was a kickboxing day!

Carbs: This is a lot higher then I thought it would be, but it was mostly from veggies and I don’t normally have a piece of homemade banana coconut bread every day I do have whole grains at dinner time and this wasn’t a normal dinner.

Fat: I feel like I was right on target for this one, but I need to eat more healthy fats!

Protein: A little lower then 30-40%, but not bad at all, I know that having eggs and Tuna back in my diet has helped me stay on track.  I plan on working hard at this one.

Sugar: Looks high, but nearly all of this came from natural sugars in fruit and the Chobani, which I don’t worry about.

The only thing I am missing from this is my daily JUICE! My juicer had a bit if a malfunction and I am waiting for a new part. I am not even sure how I would put that in MyFitnessPal??!

Final Thoughts:

So in conclusion I like how Kath put it in her day of Nutrition post, none of these numbers are bad or good, it’s just nice to see where I am. Now maybe I should do a day on the weekend, where wine and other treats are involved???

I have really been trying to eat clean 6 days a week (minus a little dark chocolate here and there) and enjoy a cheat meal once a week! I know that this doesn’t work best for everyone, but for me a women who loves food and doesn’t ever want to feel deprived it works wonderfully!

Question:
Do you use MyFitnessPal?