How Create Food Journal Essay

Assignment 2.1: Food Journal

Step 1: Track your food over the course of a minimum of 5-7 days

Keep a record of journal entry:

·      Include ALL of your food – meals and snacks

·      Include ALL of your beverages – alcoholic and non-alcoholic

·      Include a full weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday)

·      Include all exercise  How Create Food Journal Essay Paper

Step 2: Take your food log and import into a Nutrition app of your choice, (ex. MyFitnessPal) and track your food.

· Include the meals and the servings sizes for each day.

Two examples attached of what a day would like from MyfitnessPal.  Submit your food log and your MyFitnessPal dietary journal. (See Examples)How Create Food Journal Essay Paper

View the attachments;

My diet analysis covers seven days of daily intake of food and liquids.  It also includes the activity level of all days.  The following paragraphs show a detailed snap shot of where I could improve upon as well as what I need to consume to meet a healthy diet according to MyPlate. How Create Food Journal Essay Paper

The first thing that I realized was the calorie consumption for the days was well below what was required to maintain a healthy weight.  For my height, weight and activity level it is required for me to intake at least 1,814 calories per day.  This calorie requirement is based upon MyPlate.I took in about 1,502 of my daily calories. There was only one day that I meet the calorie requirement for the day.My eating habits do not change much on a weekday compared to a weekend.  I don’t eat breakfast most days and usually don’t eat my first meal until 3:00pm.  This is because I’m not usually hungry upon waking and I leave for the day and return late afternoon.  Then I will eat all my meals after that time. For the seven days on average I was only consuming 83% of calories to maintain my weight.  Some things that contribute to the low calories intake is not eating breakfast and not snacking in-betweenmeals enough.  Stress along with not making my health a priority has contributed to a poor diet. How Create Food Journal Essay Paper

The protein intake for my analysis was exceeding what I should be taking in.  My lifestyle is sedimentary and with my weight of 129lbs, a woman according to the DRI should consume 46 grams per day.  My actual intake was 59 grams per day.  This is due to eating meat in most of my meals and not having a balance plate of fruit and vegetables.  My diet consists of Pakistani food where the dishes are mostly meat, rice and bread.  My husband does most of the cooking and I cook on occasion.  I was raised with a typical American diet so when I cook I will make a meat dish with a carbohydrate side dish and a vegetable.  Due to busy schedule and truly a lack of interest in cooking the meals are more tailored to my husband’s culture and taste.

The carbohydrates consumed were under the recommended 250 grams.  My intake was 193 grams.  Which kind of surprised me.  When I do eat Pakistani dishes, I tend to not eat a lot of rice or I limit my bread to only one bread to eat curry dishes.  I just eat for nourishment.  I don’t enjoy food as I use to.  I could raise my carbohydrate intake by eating a bigger portion of rice and bread. Also, I could snack in between meals with yogurt or a granola bar. The yogurt would be a good choice to help reach the calcium per day of 1,000 mg.  With my current eating habits, I’m falling well behind in calcium with only consuming 44% of the recommend amount.

The fat intake according to the DRI should be 56 grams and I consumed a little more then that at almost 58 grams.  The fat intake was a little over because of some fast food that I had for the week.  I can lower the fat intake by having a more balanced diet with including smaller portions of meat and increase the serving size of fruits and vegetables.  The other area that I exceeded was the sodium intake.  I should consume no more than 2,300mg and I took in 2,510 mg.  To lower the fat and sodium in my diet I can exclude any fast food and eat at home where everything is home made. How Create Food Journal Essay Paper

Overall my diet is not horrible.  I should add breakfast to everyday of the week.  An area for improvement is also not waiting so long to eat lunch and snack in between meals with fruit, vegetables or even a class of almond milk.  I tend to not be very hungry because I don’t eat at regular intervals.  My vitamins and minerals were also lacking considerably except for B3.  I buy fruit and vegetables all the time for my family but rarely pick them up to eat except for an apple.  Some good areas of my diet were that the cholesterol and saturated fat were well below the healthy limit.To increase my vitamins and minerals darker leafy vegetables and more selection of fruit besides an apple need to be included throughout the day.  I need to add more water as well.  The water intake fell short daily and the average for the week was only 38%.  I can do this by drinking a glass of water upon waking which will help kick start my metabolism.  Also, with every snack and meal drink water or a sports drink which will provide me with some extra potassium and carbohydrates.  I need to increase my activity level passed just walking passively on a treadmill.  To help keep lean muscle from wasting I need to include some weight and resistance training.  If exercise becomes more often then this in return will help the eating habits be more conscious and more frequent.  My goal will be to keep tracking my food habits and review them weekly and keep finding areas to improve upon.How Create Food Journal Essay Paper