starting my diet tomorrow - first day help needed!

[rainbowflower]

Hi everyone,
I'll be starting my diet tomorrow but having a hard time finding enough foods to reach my target amounts...
Because I'm BF, I'm aiming for:
1800 calories
60-65g fat (30%)
700-1000 mg sodium
60-65g protein


so this is my plan for my first day, please suggest improvements!

Lunch
8 Tesco low fat crackers:
264 calories
6.4g protein
4.8g fat
trace sodium

Cream cheese, light philadelphia
47 calories
2.5g protein
3.5g fat
100mg sodium

Apple (medium)
71 calories
0.23g fat
0.36g protein
1.4mg sodium

Green grapes (1 cup)
110 calories
0.26g fat
1.2g protein
3.2mg sodium

Tea
2 portions of pasta with home made tomato sauce:
790 calories,
18.8g protein,
2.2g fat,
trace sodium

Marshmallows – 4
95 calories
0.9g protein
trace fat
trace sodium

Supper:
2 WW lemon cake slices
160 calories
1.6g protein
1g fat
0.02g sodium




total:
1537 calories
31.76 protein
11.99g fat
124.6mg sodium

[swish]

I think it looks great, you could add Parmesan to your pasta to add calories and protein or full fat pop for empty calories?

[Mochagirl]

Yes, I'd add parmesan for sure. I use freshly grated Reggiano, with about 120 calories and 10g of protein per serving.

[atomic sagebrush]

First of all, I don't think you need to count the protein in fruits and veg because it's minimal. You can if you want but I just don't think that form of "protein" matters to your sway and it's just more to keep track of.

So you're low on everything but calories as I'm sure you can tell.

I totally agree with the Parmesan idea. I think you could also smuggle in some butter or oil to your homemade tomato sauce to get a bit more fat in there. And you could also use the full fat cream cheese rather than the light, and increase the portion size to get some more.

I would have egg whites scrambled with asparagus or zucchini (cooked with some butter or oil, to up your fat intake) along with with supper as a low cal way to get some protein. Plus an iceberg lettuce salad at lunch or supper with some vinaigrette with oil will get some fat in there.

There's always the possibility of a fat-free, sugar-free yogurt for 100 cals, 5 g protein, 90 mg sodium.

If it comes to it and you're really struggling with protein vs. calories, you can also include a handful of shrimp or a small portion of white meat chicken (3 oz of chicken is about the size of a deck of playing cards and has 30 g of protein with about 150 calories - of course you could easily halve that and get a nice shot of protein). One shrimp has 1.5 g protein and 5 calories, so about 6 shrimp could easily add 10 grams of protein with only 30 cals. You are prob. going to have to break some "rules" to hit that protein level and stay under the calories (there ARE no rules, as long as you're moving in the direction of less, you're swaying pink ). Shrimp does have cholesterol so you might want to take your fiber supp with that meal. You could also sprinkle a SMALL amount of chopped nuts onto your salad - one almond has .5 g protein plus .5 g fat, with only 7 cals. So a few almonds are another low-cal way to sneak some protein and fat in there.

The pasta is what's killing you for calories as I'm sure you realize. Just know that on a non-pasta day, you might find it easier to balance everything.

At any time ever when you're on the TTC diet and you find you are low in sodium, simply salting your food a bit is always an option. It doesn't take much at all, here are the equivalent measures.
1/4 teaspoon salt = 600 mg sodium
1/2 teaspoon salt = 1,200 mg sodium
3/4 teaspoon salt = 1,800 mg sodium
1 teaspoon salt = 2,300 mg sodium

[Mochagirl]

atomic - I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I'm curious about that protein in fruit thing. I use FitDay to track my intake, and of course it tabulates every speck of protein in all my food, fruit included. I always struggle to keep to 40g, but if I took away the protein from fruit, I'd be well under the limit and could even eat some more substantial food.

For example, so far today I have had:
-coffee with a tiny bit of milk
-homemade low sodium bun with 1 tbsp low sodium goat cheese and a bit of balsamic vinegar
-1 cob of corn (no salt or butter)
-a peach for dessert (I know they're not the best fruit to have, but it's peach season and I can't resist them!)

If I include all the protein I ate, I come to 13.9g, but if I remove all sources of protein except the bun and goat cheese, it come to 9.6g - that's a huge difference when you are trying to eat only 40g per day. An extra 4g of protein could mean I could have another half serving of cheese on my pasta or a yogurt. I eat a little more fruit and veggies than most people on this diet do because I am a true fruitaholic and I figure it's a better vice than chocolate or meat, so fruit and veggie protein often make up a large part of my 40g limit - sometimes over 25%, especially when I eat high protein veggies like corn. Thoughts?

(again, apologies for the hijack - but hopefully this can help everyone with their meal planning).

[atomic sagebrush]

No, not at all!

Do not count the protein in fruit and most vegetables. They're not a complete protein for one thing (although your body does store amino acids and can create proteins out of them, but if you're eating less protein overall anyway and at 1500-1800 cals, you just have so much less ability to do that. Plus, fruit and low-nutrient vegetables have none of the rest of the stuff that things like eggs, nuts, meat (as in, a host of fats and nutrients that fruits and veg are totally lacking.)

PS - just out of curiosity, and this is not meant as a reproach, I really need to know. Did you not notice those instructions in the instructions for the Low-Everything diet...to not count protein in fruit and veg...in fact anything with 1G of protein or less I have as basically a free food as long as you're not going over calories for the day. Is that info getting lost in the shuffle? I'm trying to see where I am going wrong, because people are not eating enough and I'm confused because it's supposed to be a HEALTHY diet that people can stay on for a long time, as opposed to the other diets that are not good in the long term.

I went back and tossed that in in a couple more places because I can see that it might have gotten lost in the general info....I had it listed in the fruit/vegetable instructions and not in the opening. HTH. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...t-for-TTC-Pink!

[Mochagirl]

No - I do remember you mentioning that - my problem is that I use FitDay to keep track of my nutrients, and of course it adds every tiny speck of protein I eat. As I said, if I take fruit and veggies and other 1g sources of protein out of the equation, I probably only eat 25g per day - I tend to eat 8-10g for lunch (usually plain rice mixed with a little plain yogurt) then about 15g for supper (rice pasta with parmesan). How exciting to think maybe I can eat some more cheese or bread! Increasing my protein now won't hurt my sway, though, will it?

One thing I might stress more in your FAQ are the lower calorie limits. Swish and I both regret that we started out with so few calories. I know you say many places that we should aim for 1500-1800 (and I know you specifically warned me several times), but maybe stress the repercussions of starting out too low - you lose weight too fast then are afraid to eat more calories because you'll gain weight and potentially ruin your sway. I think we all start out the diet thinking we'll only be on it 6 weeks then panic when we realise we potentially have months and months of 1200 calories days ahead of us!

Luckily I didn't stop ovulating like swish did, but I did lose all 20lbs of my weight (and I wasn't overweight to begin with) in my first 3 months on the diet. I am a lot more careful to eat more calories now and aim for 1800 every day - I only lost 1 lb in the past month, so I think I found a good balance.

Thanks for everything, atomic!

[atomic sagebrush]

I did change that as well Mocha, thank you!!!

I don't think you'll hurt your sway at this point by increasing protein, since you've lost quite a lot of weight. Now if someone had only lost like 3 lbs and then suddenly upped their protein, that might not be the best idea. But for anyone who has lost !!!20 lbs!!!, eating some more protein (and NOT gaining any weight back) will be ok.

[Mochagirl]

Good to know. I'm visiting with all my relatives today and might not be able to get out of eating chicken for supper tonight (everyone thinks I have an eating disorder and are watching me like a hawk). I'll feel a lot less guilty about it if I know I have a little more protein allowance in my diet than I thought.

[zanacal]

I think the problem with keeping calories high enough is that we're not eating until noon so that's half the day when we're not eating anything, then we're trying not to snack so trying to fit quite alot of calories into 2 or 3 meals and it doesn't feel good to be stuffing our faces to try and meet those allowances because we have in our mind that we're trying to simulate 'bad times' - also that squeezing in 3 massive meals at the end of the day will mean blood sugar levels aren't low at all!

I hope that makes some sense!