Nutrition Counseling: Time to Get Back on Track!

By Janelle @ Run With No Regrets | nutrition

Feb 14

On Wednesday I had my first Nutrition Counseling session for the year with Danielle, my dietitian.  Over the past year, I have been chronicling our time together and all that I’ve learned, and it’s been a great experience that has truly changed my life!   Check out my “nutrition” tags to read about my past experiences with Danielle.

One of the first things we did was the full body assessment.  The first time I did this was in August.  I stood on the fancy scale barefoot and held the handlebars while the machine did its magic.

Diet Progress

So lots of good news to share:

  1. My weight is still maintaining around 130 pounds since dropping down from 137 pounds when we first started in July.
  2. BMI, no problem.
  3. Percent body fat, still the same.
  4. Muscle mass is still above average.
  5. The belly fat is a little bit higher than before, but still far below the unhealthy limits.

What a relief!  I feel that since the New Year, I haven’t been as aggressive about keeping my food logs, and I know that I’ve been slipping in certain areas.  Fortunately, no harm was done!

Making Improvements:  Veggies and Carbs

But everything wasn’t perfect. We walked through a typical day of eating and Danielle noted that while I’m doing great with my regular eating intervals of every 2-4 hours, and that I’m getting plenty of proteins, I need to have more veggies and fewer carbs!

  • Veggies and dip:  Sugar snap peas, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and cauliflower with 1/4 cup hummus, 1/4 cup yogurt-based dressing, laughing cow cheese wedges, or 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt with salsa and powdered ranch
  • Green smoothies, which could work in the morning as well.  

The only problem is that I don’t have a Vitamix or other superpowered juicer, so I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to pull off the green smoothies until I make that investment!

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When it comes to carbs, I need to make sure I stick to the 4 carb limit, and omit a starch from one of my snacks during the day.  After working out, I like to grab a Clif bar/Luna bar, so we talked about calculating the total calories from carbohydrates consumed.

  • 1 gram carb = 4 calories from carbs
  • 1 gram protein = 4 calories from protein

Thus, if I have a Clif bar with 41 grams of carbs and 11 grams of protein, I’d have consumed:  164 calories from carbs (i.e. 1 1/4 bread/starch servings) and 44 calories from protein (i.e. 1/2 meat serving).  So this is definitely something to keep in mind with my calculations and tracking!

And when it comes to tracking my meals, I’ve completed fallen off in this regard.  So Danielle recommended keeping track by creating a spreadsheet that I can track on my phone.

I downloaded the free Quickoffice app on my phone which gives me access to Google Drive.  From there, I can open up my spreadsheet and get back into daily charting of my servings throughout the day and ensure that I stay on my 1900-2100 calorie per day intake.  Here’s a look at one of my charts:

2/13/2014 Bread Fruit Veggie Dairy Meat Fat
B 1 0.5
S1 1
L 1 1.5 2 1
S2 2
D 2 2 1 2
S3
Totals 4 2 4 2 5 0
Goals 4 3 ‘4+ 3 6 <2

My Takeaways

  • Keep an eye on bread/carb intake, and stick to the 4 servings per day.
  • Look into healthy dressings and dips for lunchtime veggies.
  • Have half a plate of veggies at lunch and dinner to satisfy the 4+ servings per day.
  • Get back into charting how many servings I eat per day.

Any suggestions on how to make green smoothies with a regular blender (if it can be done)?  Have you been sticking to your goals when it comes to nutrition and weight loss?

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