Monday, April 4, 2011

Diet Challenge #1

What better way to start of the week, the month, the quarter, etc, than with a challenge!  This one is on nutrition. You should already be conscious of calories you are consuming in a day. If not, start there - writing down everything you eat in a day - amount & calories. Do that for a week and get a good average and then start looking at areas of improvement. 

The area that may need the most tweaking is SUGAR - in the form of Carbs on the label.  Look at total grams/serving, and make note of the sugar. Try to limit each food item to 5-10 gr or less/serving. 

A good general guide of carbohydrates /day is <50% of total calories.. So, if you are consuming 2000 cal/day - 1000 calories MAX should be from Carbs - 1000 calories = 250 gr.  Every label will tell you how many grams of carbs are in it, and how much is sugar.  You will be surprised how difficult it is to keep that number down!

Start there, and try to choose more vegetables, fruits, whole grains and lean protein to replace the sugar.  Your body will thank you!

Look at this label and see the numbers are based on diets of 2000 & 2500 calories when given the % of Daily Value (DV) if you are eating less than that total, adjust your numbers accordingly. 

If you need assistance, let me know. 

http://www.jjlp.us/liam/health_elp/pics/food_label_example.gif

Try this for a week - come back next week for Challenge #2

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