For several years I have said I was going to get control of my diet and done nothing about it. "Get control of my diet" in this case really means make more conscious choices about what I eat and why, know how many calories I'm eating and have a strategy for managing healthy eating. I have several friends who, for one reason or another, tightly manage their diets. Some are diabetic. Some have ugly cholesterol issues, a few have allergies to ingredients that are indemic to processed foods. Trying to deconstruct the way they handle their food issues is tough. When asked how they manage their food, most of these folks can't actually tell you. They do it because they have to, and their doing has gone subconscious. They no longer seem to know how they began.
So, anyhow, having accepted that after this pregnancy (unlike the last one) I have to pay real attention to calories and fat in addition to the rough attention I've always paid to nutrient content, I am using the time I'm home on maternity leave to recalibrate my food habits, trying to eat less calories overall and to make those I eat come from more whole, low fat foods.
Of course the problem with this is really keeping track of what food you put in your mouth. This is the thing no one could tell me how to do. My answer was to pick up a journal called a Diet Minder that is organized so you can record what you ate and then figure its calorie breakdown and the NutriBase Complete Book of Food Counts which gives you fat, protein, fiber and calories for a vast number of foods including unagi, ahi tuna and wasabi. So the past few days, I've been wandering around measuring my food before I eat it and either gathering calorie, protein, fat and fiber info off the package if there is one or out of the book. I still don't know how I'm going to handle some of my more beloved restaurant eating (Thai? Erg!), but as I get better at visually figuring portions, I can at least guestimate the contents and figure it out.
It's interesting -- just paying attention and writing stuff down has already changed my behavior some. For instance it's a lot easier for me to walk away from the 2 lb box of Mrs Sees our neighbor gave us for watching her cats now that I realize that 4 pieces of candy have almost as many calories as my entire dinner. Anyhow, I don't have goals yet in terms of calorie count or grams of fat. That will come later. Now I'm just trying to be a good observer of my actual actions. I figure if I can't set goals intelligently on my own or solve problems, this is all good data for a discussion with a dietician if and when I ever finally call one.
Posted by karen at August 15, 2005 12:24 PM