What Does a Dietitian Eat? (Day 2)

Here is day two of what I eat.

Tuesday October 21st

• Breakfast - Muesli* with pears and strawberries
• Snack - Iced coffee with skim milk and fat free condensed milk
• Lunch - Chicken sandwich on an onion roll with Dijon mustard, bread and butter pickles, Havarti cheese, pear (yes on the sandwich!), and butter lettuce; water
• Snack - Honest Foods Choco P'nut Butter Square
• Snack - Apple
• Dinner - Chicken salad (chicken, grilled green beans and yellow squash, red bell pepper, oregano-Dijon-lemon dressing) over butter lettuce with feta cheese; water
• Snack - Cottage cheese with part of a frozen banana

Approximately: 1914 calories (29% fat, 22% protein, 49% carbs); 20.7 g saturated fat (9.7%), 181.7 mg cholesterol, 26 g fiber, 1317 mg calcium

My target numbers: 45 - 65% carbs, 20 - 35% fat, 10 - 35% protein (less than 10% saturated), at least 25 g fiber, less than 300 mg cholesterol, at least 1000 mg calcium

Comments: My schedule was a little off yesterday. I usually teach dance from 3:30 - 9:00 straight. However, I had an unexpected 1 1/2 hour break, so I decided to use the extra time for a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up a few thing I needed. I was looking at the energy bars (something I always do to see if there is anything new and interesting) and I noticed they had Honest Foods Choco P'nut Butter Squares...something I've been wanting to try. So my first afternoon snack was an impulse buy/eat...a little (250 calorie...maybe not so little) treat for the day, but definitely not something I will start eating on a regular basis (its basically junk food made with "healthier" ingredients...but with 4 grams of fiber and a whole grain as the first ingredient, I could have done worse). My planned snack was an apple (as some of you know, I always carry an apple with me), and I ended up eating it around 8:00 pm. Dinner was really good and filling and I'm going to post the recipe soon.

Because I had cheese twice, my saturated fat intake was higher than the day before, but still within the 10% range. It helped that the protein in my lunch and dinner were both lean (chicken has very little saturated fat - about o.3 g per 3 oz serving compared to 5.2 g per 3 oz serving of T-bone steak).

Notice that my macronutrient (fat, protein, and carbs) percentages were different from yesterday...a little more fat (29% vs 24%) and protein (22% vs 17%) and a little less carbs (49% vs 59%). Again, that's because I ate cheese twice which is mostly protein and fat; the muesli has a lot of nuts which are also mostly fat and protein.

I don't eat a "low-carb", "fat-free", or "high-protein" diet...I try to eat a balance of all three. Our bodies NEED fat, protein, and carbs, but healthy versions.

Healthy fats (unsaturated fats) are found in plants and fish: nuts, seeds, oils (especially canola, olive, flaxseed, sesame, peanut, walnut), avocados, olives, soybeans, tofu, salmon, tuna

I'll write about healthy protein and carbohydrates over the next few days.

And check back for the chicken salad recipe.

* The muesli I had for breakfast is loosely based on this recipe from Saveur magazine. Danielle, my Houston roommate, used to eat muesli for breakfast all of the time, but I never tried it. However, when I read about it the the Breakfast Issue of Saveur, I was intrigued. Danielle you must try this! I'll post my version of the recipe soon.