Day 4: Being a Healthier Author

Eating Healthier (The confusing Basics)

Okay, what's healthy eating? That should be a really simple question and answer. I'm afraid it isn't. There is a new study on nutrition published every five minutes. No, I didn't fact-check this, but it's probably somewhat accurate. It sure feels that way, at least.

BUT don't let that discourage you.

Eating healthier doesn't mean taking on a diet that makes us miserable. Again like with being active. This is about making small sustainable changes. It's about tracking what we're eating, which admittedly can be the tough part. Still, once we begin, it gets easier, at least with the app I use. It begins saving my meals and so I can just repeat them later.

There are a ton of applications you can use. My fitness pal is likely the most well-known, but my suggestion is to use My Macros+. It has a one-time upfront fee and then no ongoing subscription fees. We may have to snap pictures or manually add some of our food items the first time, but it remembers them after that. Regardless, of what application we use, the important part is to get an idea of what we're consuming.

At a minimum let's input our food for a week and see what our overall calories usually are. Get a baseline of what our MACROS are. Meaning, how much of our calories come from Fats, Proteins, and Carbohydrates? If you're like me you will find that we're eating way too much fat.

The first kneejerk reaction here is to cut out all fats. Don't do this! Don't cut out all your carbs or proteins either. Let's just take a look and see if something stands out to us.

What do we see?

The first week that I recorded my traditional diet this is what I saw:

Low calories for a day, 1000. High calories for a day 4200. Average 2000 calories per day.

High-calorie day; Carbs 317g, Fat 151g, Protein 270g

Average-calorie day; Carbs 301g, Fat, 160, Protein 57g

What changes got made?

Maybe the major problem is obvious, so forgive me if I explain. That is wildly inconsistent eating. Having a deficit of nearly 1000 one day and then a surplus of 2000 another isn't healthy. My body doesn't have a carry-over button. It will handle huge swings like this poorly. Not to mention for my body type and weight I should be closer to 3000 calories. So, goal number one was to be more consistent.

The second part might be less obvious from just those numbers. Still, I hinted at it earlier. I was eating too much fat, and far too little protein. So the new goal is P: 240(g), C: 300(g), & F: 100(g) for a total of 3060 Calories. The total calories I took from an online source. I just input my age, height, and weight. This number is to maintain weight which isn't my overall goal but it is a start.

After I had the calorie total I broke it back. Simple rules: 1g of fat is about 9 calories, 1g of carbs is approximately 4, and 1g of protein is also about 4 calories. Now from my readings, a good breakdown of your calories is 30%+ from protein, 40% from carbs, and less than 30% from fats. After that, it's just math.

I feel like nutrition is a large topic and so I will try to hit on it again. Mostly to cover cheat meals and how to handle them etc. For me, I am going to allow myself 3 cheat meals this week.

I will likely get sushi for all three of those. Don't judge me! It's delicious.