Tracking My Nutrition

For three consecutive days I tracked everything I ate and realized many things about my diet. I found that on all days I ate sufficient dairy and grains but never had enough protein. Also, I found that on the days I didn't have color guard practice, I ate enough veggies but when I did have practice, I didn't eat veggies. From the activity we did in class I learned that many foods contain trans-fats but don't have enough to be required to put them on the label so I am sure some of the fats I ate were from hidden trans fats. On all three days I saw that I did not usually get close to my max allowed calories but I did get sufficient nutrients and also filled the empty calorie limit and the saturated fat limit. These show that the foods I ate didn't have many calories, but were still unhealthy with the amount of fat. 

On all three days I barely had any protein or fruits, which makes sense because I am very close to being vegetarian and also just don't many fruits. I always had a good amount or even too much grain and dairy because, as unhealthy as it is, my diet relies on carbs and milk. I have yoghurt every morning for breakfast and I drink lots of milk throughout my day. The carbs tho are because I eat some kind of pasta almost everyday because it is very easy to make and it is my favorite food. I definitely need to eat more nutrient rich foods because I had far too many empty calories and I need to each some form of protein on a regular basis. Also, I should be exercising daily or at least do more than my color guard practices three times a week since those practices are not constant working out but a form of endurance, which is good, but not enough. 

Specifically I need to balance out the kinds of nutrients I get since, as you can see from the graphs, I have an abundance of dairy and grains but nowhere near as much protein, fruits, and vegetables. I could easily incorporate eggs into my diet to get some protein but I would need to lessen the quantity of carbs I eat. Also, I could simply eat an apple or two to get some fruits in my diet rather than relying on vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower for those components. All in all, I really just need to get out of my food comfort zone and find nutrient rich foods that fulfill the requirements of a good diet but I find good enough to eat on a regular basis. 

Finally, I need to find healthier food options plus exercise to balance it all out since I am definitely overweight and have lots of fat on my body in places where I don't want it. That is also the same advice I would give to someone else; find a nice balance of exercise and food and find nutrient rich foods rather than eating a lot of food with little nutrients. Nutrient rich foods have very few empty calories and would give you the required nutrients in fewer calories than many different foods with the same nutrients but many more calories. Balance really is the answer to any dietary question but balance definitely does not mean equal parts, it means less bad stuff and more good stuff rather than all of each.