Nutritional Data
While we’re are concentrating on cutting our calories, let’s also talk about nutrition. It’s such an important topic to discuss especially if you’re living on a limited amount of calories in order to lose weight. There have been a few studies that showed that people who habitually eat smaller amounts of calories, lived quite a few years longer than those who had a normal caloric intake. It can be attributed to many factors, such as not having to tax our lower intestinal tracts that hold so many toxins, or to the fact that most people consciously reducing their caloric intake as a way of life tend to eat much better.
Which brings me to this: if you’re going to cut your calories, you need to ensure you’re doing everything possible to receive all the necessary vitamins, minerals and nutrients within your lowered caloric intake.
But just like most people didn’t know they were overeating until they were faced with the data inputted by them into loseit.com or some other calorie counting service, you most likely don’t realize that a lot of the foods you’re eating are nutritionally empty. And if you’re going to waste an already limited amount of calories on certain foods, wouldn’t you want to make sure that food gives you all the nutrients your body needs?
I talked about ,a href=”https://everyavenuelife.com/2011/03/whole-grains-and-fiber-week-8-of-get-fit-healthy-and-confident-challenge/”>refined grains vs whole grain last week, which is a no-brainer.
It helps to get education on what certain foods give you nutritionally. So I wanted to share my favorite nutritional website with you: http://nutritiondata.self.com/
Take, for example, the seemingly nutritionally weak snacks I made a few weeks back. One would think that potatoes (starch) and zucchinis aren’t THAT well packed with nutrients and vitamins. Well, one would be very wrong.
Sweet Potatoes (with skin) and zucchinis are quite the superstars in the glitzy world of nutrition.
1 BAKED ZUCCHINI 1 BAKED SWEET POTATO
You simply type in your food and the whole nutritional breakdown comes out in front of you! Brilliant!
Using this site, I created a special table of most commonly consumed foods ( by me) that I arranged by the amount of certain vitamins that food has. I did that specially in preparation of pregnancy to ensure I do not go overboard on Vitamin A which can be toxic to a fetus in large doses ( unless it’s beta-carotene found in most veggies) and that I receive as many vitamins naturally through food as possible and then supplement whatever is missing.
I will be a sweetheart and share this table with you. It took me literally three days to organize it into this format. I taped it to the refrigerator to make sure I pick the right foods and keep track of whether I’ve gotten my needed vitamins.
{I am also working on the minerals table, but, like I said, it takes so much time, I haven’t been able to finish it yet}
You can print this table out on legal size paper in a landscape orientation and hopefully it’ll help you pick better foods.
NUTRIENTS TABLE
{click and save as or right click on the link and chose save target as…}
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Now, my entry for week 9
1. Height: 5’11′, weight: 132 lb ( i seem to be holding steady at 132lb. I might have to accept that that’s my weight for now and continue to eat as much as I can)
2. Your fitness challenge(s) for this week: 30 minutes of pilates every other day + 30 minutes of cardio ( rollerblading, running, swimming or treadmill) every other day. Special exercises designed for pregnancy to increase flexibility (daily) + Kegels (twice daily). A total of about an hour of physical activity a day. I decided to pick up the pace and work more on my abs more, inspired to go into pregnancy as fit as I can possibly be.
3. Your health challenge(s) for this week: My eating habits are close to perfect, however I could improve on my water intake. My goal will be 8 glasses of water daily + continue eating the way I do now.
- Fitness: I did great! I figured out that my reluctance to work out stemmed from lack of sleep. And now that Iam getting 11 hours again, I’m rocking it! Yesterday I went rollerblading as my usual work out and while showing off to hubby, fell and bruised my side, wrists and skinned my knee and palms pretty bad. But I still went back to finish rollerblading after i got bandaged up.
- Water: I’m back to my KleenKanteen bottle and being hydrated.
- Food: The usual stuff, really healthy, never any meats. I tried to eat as much as I could this week, and snack on nuts in between, but it’s looking like I really can’t stuff myself with food. I’ll eat when I am hungry and stop worrying about not getting enough calories. I obviously get enough for me.
5. Failures and slip-ups: Not much really. We skipped work outs today, cuz it was so busy and I was doing the posts ( it happens every Friday), but I intend to make up for it tomorrow, like I always do.
6. Weekly challenge wisdom: I underestimated how much sleep my body really needs. I kept setting an alarm so that I could get more done, and sleeping about 7 hours a day. I was feeling like crap and couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to work out. One day I slept in, and it was absolutely amazing. I was a different me!
7. Advice to fellow GET FIT members: Prioritize! Very few things in life are more important than your family and your health. Concentrate on that and you’ll be happy.
8. Self Portrait: Bokeh {for more shots, go to my photography blog, Selfie Magic}
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LINK UP
I gotta say…I LOVE LOVE this link up…it helps give me focus 🙂 Thank you
YAY! That’s the whole point of the challenge. To motivate and challenge and keep people going! It helps me too! It gets me so pumped up to do better when I read other people’s posts!
Thanx for the link. I am more conscious about food labels now and this definitely helps.
I love your headband. It’s a pretty accessory!
11 hours of sleep? that is amazing. you are kinda my idol.
Idol? Because I can get 11 hours of sleep? 🙂 It’s not like I do smth special, it’s just I don’t have kids yet. I dread the time when I’ll be a half asleep zombie 🙂
ELENA you are sooo beautiful!!! This post was really good for me. I really really love reading what you write because I love learning about this stuff. It’s good for me!!! Hooorah for 11 hours of sleep! And I just noticed your height…I’d look like a midget next to you!