Healthy_Eating_Plan

Having a healthy eating plan is something that I have really needed to get and focus hard on. This assignment will help me out, because I recently found out that I could have pre-diabetes so I have to get tests done every six months and I am suppose to start working on eating healthier, because that could help me not develop diabetes. I usually get my mind set on exercising and eating right, then I have trouble not eating my favorite unhealthy foods. Once I started this class and got on to the My Pyramid Plan I realized that it was to me out a lot by showing me what I am not getting enough of on a daily basis and just help me out with it all. From what I have seen of my eating habits so far my eating habits obviously need some improving. I am going to talk about my eating habits, my nutritional recommendations, and how I intend to implement my healthy eating plan to my daily life. When it comes to my eating habits I would say they are not the best. I would have to say my biggest problem is I love Italian food, Cajun chicken Alfredo being my favorite. I could eat Italian food all day every day. I also have a problem with drinking tons of coke and Pepsi. I usually only eat two meals a day then snack on whatever in between and after meals. One other big problem is that I eat late at night. After thinking about all the foods that I eat I think the biggest problem is that I eat however much I want I do not consider the calories or fat, I just eat till I am full and if something looks good whether I’m truly hungry or not I will more than likely eat it. All these eating problems have affected my health and I need to get control of it all and fix it. I just need to eat my three meals a day with a healthy snack and not eat late and always eat the portion size that is recommended on the contents packages. When I filled out my pyramid tracker for those three days I entered in the foods I ate which consisted of Pepsi, steak, Cajun chicken Alfredo, parmesan noodles, Asian medley, Oreo chocolate pudding pie, Hardees thick burger, onion rings, taco bell Mexican pizza, and a taco. Yes some of those things give me some of my recommended intake, but I did not consume that much vegetables or fruit and a lot of that stuff is pretty unhealthy. When I did three day diet analysis I knew it was already going to say that I do meet the recommendation for daily consumption. When my current eating habits consists of pastas, Pepsi, coke, and deserts. My nutritional recommendations based on my food pyramid proved to me that I do not have a very healthy eating plan. My meat and bean intake was pretty close to what was recommended, but I could still use a little more improvement with it. My grain intake was about half of what was recommended. My milk was also about half of what is recommended. My fruit and vegetable intake was the worst compared to the recommendation. I think the recommendations are good for me. I think that they will be easy to get up to where I am suppose to be. I know plenty of foods that will help me get those intakes and I have already started the progress by buying fruits and more vegetables to snack on for in between my meals. Taking a good look at me nutritional recommendations my grain intake for three days was 3oz, 7oz, and 6.3oz with my recommended being 8 oz. So after starting this plan I am getting closer to what is being recommended. My vegetables intake for three days was .1 cups, .5 cups, .9 cups with my recommended being at 3 cups. I am not big on vegetables but seeing how low I am to what is being recommended I need to figure something out. My fruit intake for three days was at 1 cup, .4 cup, and 0 cups with my recommended being at 2 cups. I have no problem eating fruits I just never buy them at the store or when I do buy them I forget about them and they always go bad. My milk intake for three days was 0 cups, 1.2 cups, and 1.4 cups with my recommended intakes being at 3 cups. I do not drink milk so that is a big problem in be hitting the 3 cup goal, but there are other things out there that would give me my milk intake. My meat and bean intake for three days was 1 oz, 3.1 oz, 5.8 oz with my recommended being at 6.5 oz. Some days I get close to that and other days I do not usually it all depends on what we have for dinner. After reviewing my recommendations from the website I realized that I need to work on a lot of my intake and keep it at a constant intake not one day have the recommended and then the next two days have half or even none. When it comes to healthy eating plans I have never been able to actually stick to one, but with recent problems I really need to stick to it. I have a two year old and I do not want health problems that could jeopardize my chances at taking care of him without having medical problems. I first intend to make a list of foods that are healthy. Things on my list would include celery, carrots, bananas, whole grain pastas, etc. just foods that would make my eating habits better. The second I would be doing is thinking about all the foods that I do consume that are causing me to be so unhealthy like eating tons of popsicles, eating out at fast food restaurants, eating pastas all the time, and drinking pop. After making these lists I need to go through my kitchen and see what foods I have that are unhealthy and just get rid of them. If they are not in my house I will not be so tempted to just eat them when I feel like it. The next step is to go to the grocery store and take the list of foods that I know are going to be healthy for me and only get those things for my house. Once I have these foods I need to figure out what my meals are going to be exactly and figure out what my snacks can be for in between meals. I am a very busy person and I think that is what messes me up the most when it comes to eating right I just eat whatever I have time for and sometimes that is just fast food. I think that if I am busy and do not have time eat what I do have at home when I eat out I can at least have a salad or something on the menu that is mostly healthy and not fries, coke, and a hamburger. The nutrients in my diet are calories, protein, carbohydrates, total fiber, total fat, saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, linoleic, alpha linolenic, cholesterol, Vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folate, Vitamin B6, Vitamin b12, Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, Selenium, Potassium, and Sodium. Most of these nutrients are low for me. My calories which give me energy were actually pretty high I need to lower it by 300 calories or more depending on the days recorded. My protein was too high which is for amino acid use I consume a lot of meat so this could be why that was high. Carbohydrates are can give you great health if chosen correctly but mine were too low. My total fiber which helps your bowel system was too low. My total fat which helps absorb fat-soluble in some vitamins was too low. My saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, and polyunsaturated fat which all absorb fat-soluble vitamins were all about average with saturated being a little high. Cholesterol is needed for normal brain development and mine is too high. Vitamin A, C, and E all help your body ranging from hair, skin, nails to cartilage and bones. My intakes for those were are pretty low. The rest of my nutrients’ are very low as well. To get my nutrients up I need to eat things like low fat yogurt, eggs, lean meat, whole grains, cereal, and fruits like oranges and bananas. I would say I consume some fruits but not all the time and sometimes yogurt but for the most part I do not consume I believe with having this class and filling out the pyramid tracker it is going to help me out a lot with my health. It is going to teach me what the right things are to eat and the things that are not the best for me. I just need to learn how to have a consistent intake, eat the correct things and get away from all those unhealthy foods I have been eating for years. Whether I am busy or not I need to make time to make sure that I am eating correctly and not just whatever is there for me to consume. Now knowing what the recommendations are for each day that is going to help even more to turn my health around for myself and my family.