Too Many Treat Calories

I think this month I have done quite well at balancing my diet. I’m getting better at keeping my calories down around 1800 per day and my nutrient balance at 25% protein to 45% carbohydrate to 30% fat. However, despite this I am struggling to ensure that the calories I am getting come from high quality sources and not junk food. I was told by the dietician my doctor sent me to that the goal is to get at least 90% of your calories from healthy sources. Now whether you allow yourself a daily treat that’s about 10% of your calories or eat healthily most of the week then let yourself go on a Saturday night out doesn’t really matter. The problem I’m having is that I appear to be doing both!

On the face of it yesterday’s stats look pretty good: less than 1800 calories, good protein to carbs to fat ratio, and just over 25g of fibre. But I got over 18% of my calories from cake and chocolate, and only four, maybe five, servings of fruit and vegetables. And I thought I was doing really well! Of course it being the Christmas season the odds of my being able to cut down on the treats is fairly low. I think just keeping the treat level constant over the next month will be an accomplishment! One solution might be to let my daily calories creep up a bit by increasing the size of my healthy meals and snacks, which decreases the proportion of calories from treats and should keep me fuller and less hungry. I’m still trying to lose weight but my exercise plan for this month is quite demanding which means I should be burning almost 2400 calories a week through exercise alone, so I can probably afford a few extra calories.

Naturally it all depends on what my health and nutrition goals are December, so I will have to have a good think about what’s more important to me this month.

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1783.38	100.08g	225.21g	54.15g	0	25.07g
	22%	51%	27%
Calories burned through exercise:		513

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
08:00	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Mesa Sunrise cereal	60g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's orange, mango and passionfruit juice	200mL
09:00	Black Tea	500mL
09:45	Easy Run - 33 minutes
10:30	Lemon-Lime Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
11:00	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
12:30	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
13:30	Lee's Hippy Farm Beans (from Leon's recipe book)	315g
	Mrs Crimble's Gluten Free Double chocolate brownies	1 brownie
14:30	Green Tea	350mL
16:30	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Red Apple	about 125g
	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL
20:30	Homemade beef stew	350g
21:00	Irish Yoghurts Diet Pear and Mango	125g
	Lindt Excellence 70% cocoa dark chocolate	20g
22:00	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.