This is Day 3 of the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge held in Jan 2015 where we work on improving our diet and fitness for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.
Hi everyone!! :D It’s now Day 3 of our 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge. Are you ready?? Let’s get started!!
Over 230 Participants — Are You Observing from the Sidelines?
Despite the fact that we’ve over 230 registered participants right now, did you know we have over 3,000 people — non-participants — passively observing the challenge from the sidelines (i.e. reading the tasks daily be it on PE or their email but not signed up for the challenge)?? Now, 3,000 — that’s a lot of people, considering it’s 13 times the number of official participants currently!
Now, the fact is that everyone probably has his/her own reasons for not joining in. Perhaps healthy living isn’t your priority at the moment. Perhaps you’re afraid you can’t commit. Maybe you joined one of the healthy living challenges on PE before and you “failed” mid-way, so you’re afraid to join again in case you fail again. Maybe you gave up on living a healthy life because you’ve fallen off the wagon long ago. Or maybe you are skeptical about the idea of a healthy living challenge so you prefer to just watch and live vicariously.
Whatever your reason is, I only have one question for you, which is… Are you ready to join us in living a healthy life this 2015?
The fact is that every time I conduct a challenge, it is always my wish that everyone on PE can join in and participate in it together, as one big happy family. One big global family that transcends geographical boundaries, physical spaces, and time zones, to pursue common goals in life together.
You see, no matter who you are, where you are from, how old you are, or what you do, I always believe that we are never alone. We are always united by our goals and problems, and PE is simply this platform that connects us and enables us to sail through our goals together, despite obstacles we may face along the way.
Whoever you are observing this challenge passively, be it a long-time reader or a new visitor, I extend my hand today and invite you to join us in this healthy living challenge for 2015. Even though it is already Day 3 in Asia Pacific and end of Day 2 for those of you in other regions, it’s not too late to join us. You see, because when you watch silently from your aclove, you don’t give us the opportunity to know you and support you in your health/fitness goals. You aren’t giving us a chance, full stop.
However, when you join this challenge and post your progress, you allow us to connect with you, from one fellow human to another. You allow us to be in your life. Most importantly, you allow yourself to start working on your healthy living and fitness goals, all while being in the company of a proper support network and like-minded group.
No one’s saying you need to post your results every day. No one is saying you need to achieve your health/fitness goals to a tee. No one is even saying that you need to use your real name. Do what you can, post what you can, and most importantly, work on your health and fitness goals with zest! If you’ve privacy concerns, simply choose an alias. No personal information needed, just your commitment to the challenge itself. I’ll see you at the signup form, and subsequently the daily blog comment threads! :D
- Announcement and signup page: Join 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge!
- Day 0: Create Your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan | Comments
- Day 1: Drink 8 Glasses of Water | Comments
- Day 2: Eat 5 Servings of Fruits & Vegetables | Comments
My Day 2 in Pictures
Day 2 was another amazing day of delicious and healthy food! :D Here’s a recap of my Day 2 in pictures:
Brunch: Brown and white rice salad with a load of veggie goodness, from wolfberry, to zucchini, to mushroom, to black & white sesame!
Afternoon snack — a banana
At night, went for my 1st run in 2015 (my plan is to exercise 3 times a week). I use a (free) app called Map My Run to track my run. My total jog: 2.58km in 23 min. 159 calories burned!
My dinner: the same grilled mushroom burger I had yesterday. It’s my favorite and I’ll probably be eating this several times during the challenge!
Went to the supermarket with Ken to shop for fruits, in line with today’s task. Strawberries, cherries, bananas, and grapes. Our house is now stocked up with fruits to last us for a week!
Supper: 30 grapes + 1 glass of hot Milo + 1 slice of bread with peanut butter (not in picture)
As I’ve shared in Day 0, my 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge goals are to (1) exercise at least three times a week, (2) Cut out deep fried / oily food from my diet, and (3) Eat salads more regularly, ideally once a day if I can. Have met all three on Day 2, and my next exercise will be on Day 4 / Sunday!
Day 2’s task is to eat (at least) five servings of fruits and vegetables, and I reckon I ate six! Target met!
- Rice salad (1 serving)
- Banana (1 serving)
- Mushroom patty (2 servings)
- Grapes (2 servings)
- Total: 6 servings!
Check out other participants’ amazing food logs and progress updates in Day 2’s comments section!
With that, let’s move to Day 3’s task, which is…
Day 3: Create Your Calorie List
We eat every day. However, do you know the calories and nutritional information of the food you eat?
If you don’t, you’re not alone. Personally, I used to be totally ignorant about calories and food nutrition when I was a teen. To me, food was just food. If I was hungry, I would just eat whatever was available, usually something that I liked. If I was trying to lose weight, I would simply make myself eat lesser. That was it.
However, I gradually realized that things aren’t that simple. Let’s talk calories. I realized that one small slice of cake, despite not being very filling, can have as much as 500 calories. That’s one-whooping-quarter for a person with a 2,000-calorie expenditure, and one-third of if your daily energy expenditure which is only 1,500! (We’ll be talking about daily energy expenditure in Day 4.) I realized a simple chocolate drink from Starbucks can have over 400 calories. And I realized that pastries, cakes, sodas, and fried food, despite being calorie heavy, have little to no nutritional content.
While I had always thought that the objective of each meal was just to feed yourself with food, there is much more than meets the eye. For example,
- I can have a McDonald’s Value Meal or a rice salad for lunch, and both will make me feel full. However, the McDonald’s meal will give me extremely little nutrition and load me up with carbohydrates refined sugars (leading to a blood sugar spike, which will likely cause diabetes in the long run), while the rice salad will not only give me sufficient calories, but will also load me up with good nutrients, make me feel full longer, and give me more energy.
- I can consume french fries for 500 calories (512 to be precise for a pack of McDonald’s large fries) or I can have a healthy vegetable sandwich (without trans fat, preservatives, etc.) with a fruit for 500 calories. Yet, the former will make me feel bloated, give me zits, and again give me a blood sugar spike, while the latter will give me ample nutrients and great energy for a good half of the day.
Clearly, some food are more nutritious than others. And some foods (think french fries, cakes, many pastries, pasta / white rice, waffles, pancakes, ice cream, sodas, and sugared drinks), despite having a truckload of calories, have almost zero nutritional content.
Examples of high-calorie yet low nutritional food and drinks that have — unfortunately — become a staple of modern society’s diet (Pictures from Starbucks)
Unfortunately, many of us consume food without knowing its nutritional content! Because of that, we make poor food choices that don’t benefit our health, in turn leading to weight gain (or weight loss for some of us), loss of energy, and long-term health problems.
This is why today’s task is to create your calorie list — a list of food items you commonly eat, along with their respective calorie and nutritional information. While it may be a little bit technical (especially if you’ve never done anything like this before), the knowledge you gain will go a long way toward conscious eating and living a healthy life.
Let’s get started! :)
Step 1: Create a list of food items you commonly eat (10 min)
This should include
- Foods you plan to eat on an ongoing basis
- Foods you never want to eat but end up eating anyway
Be specific. If you eat fruits, don’t just list “Fruits” since there are many kinds of fruits and each have different nutritional value! A good, specific list will be like the one below:
- Oranges
- Apples
- Green peas
- Brown rice
- Instant noodles
- Pasta (Penne)
- Chocolate brownie
- Dressing (Thousand Island)
Step 2: Record their nutritional information (15 min)
Create 2 new columns beside the food items to record (a) Calorie content (1 calorie = 4.18 KJ) and (b) Fat content (g). Then, record the calorie content and fat content based on the typical serving size. The reason why I’m suggesting to record these two pieces of information is because
- Calorie is the overall measurement of energy. Whether you achieve your ideal weight or maintain your weight comes from whether you’re consuming the right calories relative to your daily energy intake. (We’ll be talking about energy intake tomorrow in Day 4.)
- Calorie is merely one part of living a healthy life — it’s important to track fat content as well. Unfortunately, we live in a society today that’s filled with high-fat food items, thanks to the prevalence of fast food and convenience food! High fat diets are slow contributors to many heart diseases and illnesses and it’s important to be conscious of the fat levels in our diets. People who consume little calories may look thin, but if they consume mainly high-fat food, then they are no healthier and are equally susceptible to poor health and heart problems.
Here’s an example of my calorie list during the 2011 Healthy Living Challenge when I was trying out a high raw, vegan diet:
Example of a calorie list for someone on a raw vegan diet
Now, certain established food chains (like Starbucks, McDonald’s, Subway) and processed food sold in supermarkets will come with nutritional information. If so, that’s great — record that in your table.
However, if you’re eating at restaurants or hawker centers, then you may be at a loss! Well, don’t fret! There are plenty of calorie counters online you can look up. Here are three:
- Calorie Count — An all-round counter with information (including carb, protein, fat, cholesterol, sodium, and dietary content) on possibly every food on earth. Over 250,000 foods in its database! I’ve used this counter for years and it works well.
- The Calorie Counter — Another calorie counter, in case you want an alternative!
- Nutrition @ SG — Live in Singapore and wondering what’s the calories in chicken rice? This site has the answers. (Warning: the answer may not be appetizing; Singapore hawker food tend to be high in calories and fat!)
Step 3: Track your calorie and fat intake today (10 min)
Now, as you progress through the day, record everything you eat and the portion sizes. Go about your day normally without restricting your food intake just because you’re tracking calories. The intent of this exercise today is be aware of the amount of calories you’re taking in with your usual eating habits.
Some things can be hard to track. For example, maybe your burger has a slice of lettuce and tomato. Maybe you have a salad that have 10 different ingredients. How are you supposed to track these things?
My answer? Focus on big rocks. If you have a chicken burger with chips, the significant items will definitely be the patty, the burger buns, and the chips. If you have a rice salad like I did in Day 2 with a variety of ingredients in very small quantities, then I’d focus on the main bits (the brown rice and white rice) along with the dressing, especially since the calories for vegetables are very low in general.
Example of my calorie tracking for one of the days in the 2011 Healthy Living Challenge. I subsequently realized that I was consuming way too much fat than I wanted to, and it was only through tracking my calorie/fat intake that I realized that!
After you’re done for the day, the big question comes to this: Are you overeating or under-eating every day? We’ll find out soon enough! Tomorrow / Day 4, we will be calculating our TDEE / Total Daily Energy Expenditure, which will help us identify our daily energy needs and the number of calories we need to eat daily to meet these needs.
Next, Follow Your Plan for Day 3 (Take Pictures Too!)
What tasks have you set for Day 3 of your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan? Do them today!
Take pictures of your healthy meals — breakfast, lunch, dinner, and mid-day snacks if any — and share them in the comments section. :D After all, a picture tells a thousand words, and when you share photos of your healthy meals, it inspires others to eat healthily and gives them ideas on what healthy food they can have too!
Post your initial comment sharing your results for today’s challenge task, then add on throughout the day as you have your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and/or if you’re doing any workouts. Attach photos of your meals by clicking the image icon on the bottom left of every comment box. As you add on to your comment thread, be sure to click on the reply button directly below your original comment so that you reply to your own thread (as opposed to starting a new thread).
Share Your Results (and Photos!)
Share in the comments section!
- Your total calorie and fat intake for today
- Your progress with your healthy living plan today
- Pictures of your meals
- Pictures of your workout (if any)
Do check out the other participants’ comments too and share a word of encouragement or two. We’re all in this together, so let’s support each other as a group! :)
After you’re done, proceed to Day 4: Calculate Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure!
(Image: Women running, Calorie list)
If you like my articles, join 64,000 readers and get my latest articles delivered to your inbox. Your email is safe and I never send spam.
My total calorie intake for today is 1459 calories and my total fat intake is 34.2g
For breakfast, I had rice with sunny-side-up egg, banana, and chocolate drink.
Lunch, I had rice, fish soup with tomato and ginger, cucumber salad, apple.
I had another apple for snacks.
And for dinner, lettuce with fish, malunggay soup with papaya and chicken meat, berry yogurt.
I was so happy because I had 5 servings of fruits/vegetables today.
And I was able to drink 8 glasses of water.
But have not started with any exercise.
Yesterday’s calories:
choco-pillows cereal – 141
rice milk – 61
smoothie – ~100
noodle lunch – 175+ (only counted the noodles not the veg)
paella rice – 355
fried tofu – 280
green pepper – 30
kiwi – 42
2 clementines – 70
pear – 96
TOTAL 1350
I forgot what else went into the noodle lunch so it should be a bit higher. I eat mostly veg, fruit and carbs, so it doesn’t go very high. Oh, and it might have included a few bourbon biscuits as well (61 calories per biscuit).
Water – almost 1.8L
Fruits – 4 plus smoothie
Gonna start yoga again on Monday :D
I’m kind of late with postings any coments under day 3, but I still want to count the calories and fats of the foods I typically eat as this will help me stay on track in my healthy eating.
So, 10 foods that I typically eat )and plan to keep on eating):
1. Oatmeal – 274kkal – 5.4 gr fats in 75 gr
2. Mackerel – 324kkal – 21gr fat in 180gr
3. Tuna – 200 – gr in 200gr
4. Brynza (home-made young cheese) – 260 – 20 – 100gr
5. Button mushrooms – 90 – 3 – 300gr
6. Apples – 90 – 1 – 200gr
7. Flat breads – 90 – 1 – 30gr;
8. Chicken fillet – 220 – 3 – 200gr
9. Cabbage – 60 – 1 – 200gr
10. Eggs – 280 – 18 – 180gr
I don’t fit in 10 foods:
11. Yoghurt 0 150 – 8 – 250gr
12. Italian noodles – 260 – 1 – 75gr
13. Carrots – 25gr – 0 – 100gr
And of course there are foods I cheat on:
1. Coffee with milk(100gr – 45kkal – 1.5 gr fat) – 2 – 3 times a day, and when it gets really stessful I can have 4. I make the coffeeat home with the best milk I can get (which is good), but I just can’t live without it as I love it so much :)
2. Candies – don;t really love them and eat only at work 1 or 2 when it gets really stressful and I need some quick carbs
3. Dried tomatoes – I don’t think they are the best food, but I love them
4. Cheving gum – every day, 2 per “serving”, 1 – 2 servings a day. I want to stop this, but really love its minty taste and can’t quit :(
As you can see I kind of eat lots of protein (love this kind of diet) and usually eat at home. What is hard for me is not to eat more then intended.
Thank you for sharing this protein food ideas :) My problem is a lack of protein lol so we have opposite goals in the protein area.
Great information Celes! Hey, guys I’m not on track but I am still going to be hanging for the full 14 days. Just reading and seeing your feedback is motivation for me not to give up.
Be Blessed!
LaTrice
Hi blessedart, just share your progress and your meal photos each day, and do the challenge tasks if you manage to get the time. There’s no rule that participants can only post comments and post pictures when they are “on track” and have met their plan; that’d be ridiculous and bad perfectionism thinking. This platform is for us to share our progress, reflect on our own healthy living progress, and support / get support from each other. Look forward to seeing your progress in the next 10 days! :)
1. My calorie intake was 2590 kcal and 156 g of fat, which I don’t worry about as the vast majority of it was unsaturated fat (from avocados, olive oil, nuts & seeds) rather than saturated fat (the bad guy). I am a very tall woman (183 cm) and am very active but my calorie intake was slightly above what my needs are – I should watch out! :)
2. I’m happy with my progress today – all on track! :)
3. I had pretty much the same meals as yesterday – pictures attached.
4. Played volleyball for 2.5 hours too :)
Looks like you’re doing great! :D Your meals definitely look healthy and yummy. Keep up the good work. :)
This one is really difficult for me, because my parents always cook at home and they never use measurements for the ingredients. About one year and a half ago I tried using My Fitness Pal to count my calories and track my macronutrients, but it was incredibly tedious and inaccurate because I had to eyeball the quantity of ingredients my parents used when cooking. On My Fitness Pall you can create recipes and then select how many servings you’ve had. As I said, I tried creating the recipes my parents cooked, but they were never right and I never knew how many servings there were in total. I kept guessing and it probably was wrong all the time. So after a while I quit My Fitness Pal and any form of calorie counting. I’m trying really hard to eat intuitively and I’m doing fine for a short while, then my emotional eating kicks in, but I won’t go back to counting calories and nutrients again. I think it’s better to just focus on getting a variety of veggies and fruits, meat, dairy (I’m fine with dairy, I know some people aren’t), because this way your body will receive everything it needs.
As for the challenge, so far it’s going well. Exercising is going according to plan. The more difficult part is eating 3 times a day without snacking or mindless eating. I got more veggies, some mango, apples, and bananas. And I’m still waiting to save some more money in order to buy a set of weights for exercising.
Hi Lina, I hear you! It can be VERY hard to count calories for certain foods especially if they didn’t come out of a package or you’re not sure of the exact measurements, that’s why Day 3’s challenge task will take a little while for me to do later today. Knowing the information does give us the wisdom to know how we’re doing currently in our diet though and things to do to nudge it in the right direction.
I think when we have a good feel of the caloric amounts of the food we take in daily, and that we’re at / near our goal weight, then there’s no need to focus on the calorie counting anymore but rather we’ll have the intuitive knowledge because we have a rough idea of what’s what in each food. I used to count calories quite meticulously in the past, and the great thing that came out of that is that I have a very good estimation and knowledge of calorie amounts in many food today along with adequate serving sizes and the type of food I should consume to maintain my weight, so I no longer need to do that on a daily basis today. (I’ve been maintaining my current weight for a good 1~1.5 years now at least, without any major up/down fluctuations, which is really good for me as I used to be on this vicious yo-yo cycle of weight loss/re-gain due to my EE issues in the past.)
Oh, same thing happened to me after counting calories for a few months. I have an idea about the average caloric content of most foods (especially of the ones which I eat regularly, such as bananas, apples, bread, and so on).
Hi! I usually use http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1846/2 (an example for a banana) to check calories as it gives a lot of detailed information about the calories, different types of fats/protein/sugars, vitamins & minerals, glycaemic load and how filling & nutritious a food in a visually attractive way. It also has information on meals from various chains like McDonald’s or Starbucks, although we shouldn’t be eating many of those in these 14 days (at least)! :)
Hi Miss Elf, don’t worry, your comment didn’t disappear! When links are included in comments, they go into the “Pending” / “Moderation” section, so it takes a while more for them to appear as I’ve to personally approve them. :) This is to prevent spammy links from being posted, and of course your posts aren’t spam so they’ll always go through, just a matter of time when I get to them.
It seems you’ve had a fruity day!! :D And that’s great that you had a morning yoga! How long do you usually do your yoga for, and since when did you start this practice? Do you think there’s a difference between doing your yogas in the morning or evening? (I’ve a friend who recommends morning exercises as she says evening exercises creates a higher metabolism and makes it harder to sleep at night — I personally prefer evening exercises as it’s easier for my routine but I thought what she said was interesting!)
Ok, I wrote comment two times and copied it after second time, just in case :)
On Day 3 I was not busy and was at home the whole day so I had the time to eat more. And if it was not for the challenge, I would not eat as many fruits.
When I do yoga at home I am doing it for 1 hour. I have this CD with postures mainly from kundalini yoga, they also include fast deep breathing (breath of fire). I am taking yoga classes since september 2012 (from september till june), so it is my third year now since I started practicing yoga. Yoga in class lasts for 1 hour and 15 minutes and it is vinyasa yoga. I find morning yoga benefitial as a preparation for a day (calms mind, streches body, excites spirit). My yoga classes are in the evening and they are also great because I can relax and sooth my mind after stressful day. I never had troubles sleeping after evening yoga. Higher metabolism (as a physical process) is one cause for not be able to sleep after yoga (or any other workout – sometimes I can’t sleep after playing volleyball, because is more intense workout as yoga), two other causes I believe are emotional and mental process which makes one restless (since yoga doesn’t have effect only on our physical body, but also has effect on our mind through concentration and on our emotions through postures and breathing).
i didn’t really give that time or focused on calories before.i think Iam a beginner at this.
frankly Iam still confused about how to search for the calories and fat of each food or product.(sorry!)
It’s okay, baby steps Masar! When I started out I was totally at a loss on what to do. Just start with 3-4 food items you commonly eat, and look them up on the calorie counter links provided in the article. Just fiddle around and familiarize yourself with these nutritional jargon (calories, fat %, etc…). You’ll get used in time to come!! (Turning every food package to the nutritional label has become a routine activity of mine now!)
I’m really glad i did this challenge. I thought my calories would be about 2000, but they only came to 1200 :( which is quite a lot under what im supposed to have. I would say this was a fairly normal day for me. I do feel hungry a lot and often skip breakfast when I’m busy so i’m going to eat a big breakfast tomorrow and hopefully won’t feel hungry by mid morning! This has helped me put my eating habits into perspective. Thank you.
1. My total calorie and fat intake for today:
2048 calories
51,2 g fat
I found caloriecount.com great, because it tells calories already calculated on servings.
2. My progress with my healthy living plan today:
– drank 9 glasses of water,
– eat 5 servings of F&V,
– did yoga in the morning,
– will maybe go for a walk :)
3. Pictures of my meals and 4. workout:
My husband and I have been counting calories and other nutritional information for a long time. He has an app on his iPad called My Fitness Pal that we enter information about what we eat and it calculates everything. It keeps track of where you are in consuming food each day so that you can make wise choices, for example if you know that you are very close to reaching your 1200 or 1500 calories, then you can make better choices about what to eat for your last meal. Also it allows for occasional treats when you know where you stand with the calorie count. Also you can type in recipes that you use and it calculates the nutrition information for that too, so you aren’t limited to prepared foods *and* you can avoid having to look up the information for each item in a recipe, which is tedious and where I am l likely to make mistakes.
For the duration of the challenge, I am going to use this plan instead of relying on the app, but if someone wants an app of this type, I can recommend this one.
Oh wow this one is a bit tricky but it will benefit me since this is directly related with my goal! I’m really curious to see if I’m over eating or under eating (probably under) and I have a question. What is the ideal calory intake in a day? Was it 2,000. How do I know if I’m under or over by the time I finish my list?
Hi Fufu, yes I did think of you when I was writing this task! :) I’m pretty sure that you’re under eating especially if you’re having a challenge gaining weight! On ideal calorie intake, you’ll know in Day 4’s task — we’ll be calculating our daily energy expenditure! Stay tuned! :)
Thank you for today’s task!! It really helped me out and my girlfriend. Yes!! I’m under eating and my peanut butter brand has slight traces of trans fat!! I’ll replace my snacks for raisins which are healthier and with many calories and natural sugars. My protein intake is also a bit uner but I’m almostt close to the daily recommendation so that’s good as that’s part of my goal. My sodium is low thank heavens. I noticed I surpassed the healthy daily sugar levels which worries me (and I kind of expected it).
I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this, but I’m a pastry chef. (Although I’m going to study journalism to follow my dream. After making so many sweets I freak out at all the sugar used in them and I don’t agree with sugary sweets so I’ve sort of lost a passion for it plus journalism has always been my passion. An example: Did you know cake fondant *alone* without evrn counting the cake in itself has 2 FULL boxes of sugar!! (1 pound each) When I first did that recipe in class I told the teach I just wanted to use one box and he said it had to be the both of them and that’s the universal recipe. I’ve never looked at fodant the same way again. It’s a diabetic killer food. (I must add most of my older classmates had diabetes and one who didn’t developed it uppon graduation further prooving my point. :(
Sweets are ok as a ‘cheat food’ but when you work with them almost every day it starts becoming a poison. Another fact. Some Commercial Oat cookies (especially the brown ones) have more sugar then sugar cookies. It’s ironic but brown cookies usually have white sugar, brown sugar and sometimes even honey plus more sugar thrown on top uppon preparation. That’s 4 times the sugar in comparison to the 1 cup of white sugar used on sugar cookies. There are healthy oatmeal cookies but some of them are super unhealthy.
I’m posting my numeric results tomorrow. They’re in my notebook and I’m writing this in the middle of the night in bed as I write this lol. And I thought my girlfriend wouldn’t do today’s task as it was a bit time consuming and to my surprise she already follows her calories!! I never knew she was familiar to doing this so she gladly followed today’s task. This is her paper. In total she consumed 2,003 calories today but to reach those calories she made some unhealthy food choices today. Again thank you for thinking of me while you wrote this. :) in the meanwhile here is her paper. (And if I comment for her it’s because she’s lazy to comment.)
Wait no, I wrote her calorie number wrong. She had 2,203 calories today meaning that’s what she more or less has daily meaning she’s over eating.
So this is how my numbers went on day 3: I counted the areas of interest on what I ate of that day so that I would have an idea of how I was doing on a normal day.
Calories- 1,291 (recommended: 2,000)
Proteins- 41.3 (recommended:46)
Sodium- 1,317.8 (recommended: no more than 2,300. The less the better)
Sugar- 31 (recommended: no more than 25)
Trans fat- some trans fat less than 4.99 which is unspecified in peanut butter label, it’s only known that it’s less than that. (Recommended: no more than 2 grams, the best if 0)
I had already discussed my conclusion on the comment before this. My top pririties will be starting week 2 to stop under eating and instead eat whatI have to with extra protein filled food while evading sugarie foods and drinks as much as possible and to buy a different peanut butter brand which I found that is healthier and trans fat free.
My breakfast, Naked brand smoothie, “green machine”. I drank half yesterday and now half. It’s a 15.2 oz. (450ml). 270 calories/ bottle.
My brunch: Veggie patty burger with lots of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and black olives. Plus a glass of water. Yum! :D
I’ll be busy with the the Passive Income Course later tonight (it’s Module 4 tonight!), so updates will come later!
To be honest I don’t think these burgers are very healthy. The bread, while chimical/emulsifier free is a load of flour (even that brown one), and lettuce is, among the veggies, one with the lowest density of nutrients. The rest is very good. But I would diminish the percentage of carbs and put more protein in (walnuts, almonds, fish…). Also, this one in the picture looks burnt inside. I always advice my friends to avoid burnt carbs like pest, as those dark spots are carcinogenic like nothing else.
Hey Paolo, thanks for your comments! You’re welcome to join in the challenge (I don’t believe you’ve signed up yet) and share pictures of your daily meals!
The bread looks burnt in the picture, but it wasn’t burnt at all. I think the color correction in the photo made it turn out that way.
One thing that is not debatable, though – white bread is processed/unhealthy. Leafy greens, broccoli, etc. – VERY HEALTHY. Iceberg lettuce lacks much of anything.
Was excited to find Celeste on Wednesday. Quite an ambiitous young gal. She could use a little more study in the area of basic nutrition. Following this lead would set my health backwards not forward, unfortunately.
Hi Christine, I’ve to say that I’m slightly disappointed and saddened by your words, and some of your words felt personal as well. I hope everyone here can respect others’ diets, and nowhere did I ever tell anyone to follow my diet, follow my meals, nor claim that what I’m eating is the be-all end-all of healthy eating. In fact, I’ve been a vegetarian since 2008, and never have I criticized anyone for eating a diet that’s not similar to mine (be it matching in terms of my nutritional or moral beliefs) on the blog or outside. Never have I claimed to be some health guru. What I’m consuming is what I feel is great for myself and my lifestyle, and I don’t expect others to agree or feel so. What I always urge is for everyone to eat what they feel is healthy for them, without having to criticize others on what they eat.
For those who don’t know, I grew up with a terrible relationship with food and used to eat fast food meals, pizzas, and doughnuts as staples in my diet. I’ve since evolved significantly (if I may say so myself), through gradual learning, reading, and self-experimentation in terms of food and diets to today where my main staples are healthier sandwiches, soups, salads, and fruits. It’s not the be-all end-all of healthy diets (honestly, no one can ever agree on a diet as the healthiest diet for everyone) but it works well for me. I continue to do my personal research and study on healthy living and nutrition and improve in my own baby steps. The same way I always encourage every one of my readers to do so. Small baby steps, in our own space and time.
The bread in the picture (it’s sad that I even need to talk about this) is white/italian bread yes, but what I’m trying to drive with this picture (and I hope others has received) is that instead of buying a burger from McDonald’s or buying a pack of fries which has become so convenient due to the obliquity of fast food today, that we can get a healthier option for ourselves, be it a sandwich or otherwise. If one needs to know, it’s white bread because I asked my husband to buy the sandwich for me as I was busy working on a live course today, and if I had a choice, I would have ordered multi-grain which I always do when I’m ordering myself. It’s because my husband was gracious enough as he always is to take away food for me that I didn’t want to be too specific or give him more instructions than he already had (he also had to take away another salad and soup for me as well).
Is white bread, rice, etc. unhealthy? I suppose they are, relative to the whole grain options (which is what I referenced in this 2010 article. That’s also why I personally always go for brown rice, multi-grain, whole grain, etc. options when I can. In fact I haven’t eaten any white rice (besides the one in my salad yesterday) for quite a while, despite it being a staple in the Chinese diet. But I don’t criticize others for eating white bread/rice when they do, and neither do I throw a sandwich with white bread out if that’s the food I have, especially when there are countries when people don’t even have things to eat. I eat what I have, I appreciate and feel grateful for it, and then I work on integrating healthier options, healthier food into my life subsequently.
What is the objective of this challenge? It’s for us to embrace healthy living together, to work on our healthy living goals, and to support each other in our personal goals. The objective of the picture taking and sharing of the photos is to encourage and spur each other on, not to pin point and spot who’s eating what and problem areas with what others are eating. In fact, even if anyone is to post a photo of chips, fried chicken, etc., I personally won’t give special attention to that but instead will encourage the person to continue working on in his/her personal healthy living goals, whatever they are, because there was once upon a time in my life when fries, chocolate bars, and chips were the center of my life. It was a gradual process working through that, and even if I’m in a much healthier and better place today than before (my diet is significantly healthier than my husband’s, and we’re currently working together on improving his meal choices), I always feel that nutrition is an expansive topic that one can always learn more and improve on. But I do so because I want to and because I enjoy doing so, and not because A person is telling me that Y causes cancer and B person is telling me that Z causes cancer, because if we keep focusing on health reports in this direction, basically there will be an issue with every single food on the planet (even fruits) and there’s nothing we can eat, no cell phones to use, no plastic containers that can be used, and even no buildings that can be lived in.
Why this lengthy reply? Because I feel like this is a great opportunity to address some outstanding thoughts some may have about food/diet and to set the direction straight with regards to the challenge and the intent of this community. I hope that the discussion area for the challenge doesn’t descend into an open criticism of others’ food choices (in turn linking to themselves) or an endless debate about what’s the be-all end-all of healthy food or healthy diets because at the end of the day, everyone has their right to eat what they want, and everyone is on their own individual path toward healthy living. Instead, I do hope that everyone can use this as a platform to pursue their individual healthy living goals, and lead by example through them sharing their own goals and pursuing their goals, and also support everyone else in their individual paths. I do believe that this is the most sustainable and authentic way to grow any relationship or community at the end of the day, by constantly nurturing and supporting, without judgment or (personal) criticism.
I misunderstood and thought you were leading a 14 day health challenge.
I am so grateful for you Celes, and for this challenge. To ’embrace healthy living together, to work on our healthy living goals, and to support each other in our personal goals’ is why I was /am inspired to be here and have chosen to be here. That everyone is encouraged to be ‘sharing their own goals and pursuing their goals, and also support everyone else in their individual paths, while sharing constructive feedback’ is truly an ‘ sustainable and authentic way to grow any relationship or community.’
We all have had our own stories about food choices whether or not we knew or even cared whether or not it was a healthy choice! Being increasingly better informed about what is and what is not a healthy choice is certainly ‘a work in progress.’ Respecting each other is way more important that respecting what may be a less than optimum food choice. Supporting each other with our love, caring, and generosity of spirit is truly food for the soul, and that kind of nurturing can bring someone closer to taking better care of oneself , which may include not just wiser food choices, but many other wise life choices.
Dearest Swann sweetie, thanks for your kind words! Hijacking my own thread a little bit, I’ve to tell you that I was so excited when I saw your signup for the 14HL challenge! For a while I was wondering “Where’s Bette?? Is she still reading PE??” and was contemplating sending you a mail but never got the chance to do it yet. Then your signup came flying in after the 14HL challenge, and it brought such a huge smile to my face!
How have you been doing the past two years or so (I think the last we connected was during the Dec-Jan 2013 run of the Blogging Success Program)? Many hugs to you and I’m so happy that you’re here working on your health goals with us. *hugs*
Thank you too, Celes, I’ve missed you! And Yes, I do come to PE and check in on what’s up and what is most helpful for me at the time. There are always wonderful and inspiring articles on PE to read and be uplifted by. Plus, I followed your and Ken’s awesome, romantic, and loving story, and have enjoyed so much the beautiful photos too. I think I wrote you some responses and best wishes along the way….Anyway, i’m still so happy about your love story, and with much joy I celebrate you and Ken and your life together, with many blessings!
So Celes, I had a chance to have double knee replacement in 2013, but I got scared and didn’t, and now I am heavier and working my way back to a weight that will allow the surgery, since i really do need it. The whole weight struggle that I am all too familiar with has become more of a challenge than I have ever before experienced, and I am making the steps in that direction. This Healthy Living Challenge is movement in taking those steps, so thank you, and everyone, for being here sharing and supporting each other. I appreciate all your efforts and progress you achieve in your own life and bring that with you and more here on PE! You are a light we can chose to light our candles with, which makes the world a brighter place for ourselves and each other. Muchas gracias!
Thanks Celes for that explanation/ response. It gave me a mini Aha moment when I somehow finally understood emotionally that I was not in a race to perfection, rather on a path of improvement on my own terms; and I have a supportive community not fellow competitors! Thanks again.
Thanks for your comment, AWARE! You’re totally right that you’re not in a race to perfection (none of us are), but it’s simply a personal journey for each of us to find our healthiest diet, our highest life, and to achieve our highest self! I’m so glad that you’re here with us, so thank you! :)
Celes, thks for taking the trouble to respond to my comments. I don’t know if you can help me here, but An interesting situation has arisen; my goal for this 14 program & the year was to exercise 6 days each week to properly get back into the habit of exercising again. But guess what, in the last 3 days, it is as if I did not make the goal! I find that it skips my mind, no, my mind turns blank/indifferent to the idea! Reading a novel far past midnight is suddenly more important that anything else, of course, that means I get up far beyond when I can exercise….even though I wish to be fit at some level, the desire seem no longer able to drive my actions. What is going on?
Hi AWARE, there are all kinds of possible reasons for such a scenario, so here I’ll be citing some possibilities:
1) Did you schedule this into your calendar? Relying on mental reminders and will power can be taxing, since we have many other things to juggle in our days. The more we “automate” our healthy living plans (for example, I have a daily reminder to head out to buy healthy lunch/dinner as well as a three-times-a-week reminder to jog during the evenings, and this helps me to keep my mind off recalling what I need to do and simply focus on the doing).
2) Think about why exactly you’re doing all of these — the eating healthily, the exercising, etc. If the WHY isn’t clear, then pushing yourself to eat healthy and exercise will become no more than a mechanical, robotic process. Know your WHY, and focus on this WHY, vs. exercising and eating healthily for the sake of that.
3) It’s possible that the pain point of exercising 6 days a week is too much that it takes the enjoyment away. This is an entirely subjective situation because some people prefer to exercise 3 times a week, some like to exercise every day. Ask yourself WHY you want to exercise 6 times a day and how many times you ideally want to exercise, and go with your ideal plan.
Hope that helps AWARE, ultimately you have the answers in you and it’s about uncovering your WHY and using that to drive you, plus removing any inner resistance which may be preventing you from action. (Both of which are things I talk about a lot in my Anti-Procrastination Program.) Please keep us posted on your progress!
Christine, I hope you come back to read this board. I cannot imagine how following her lead would set your health backwards!
Celes makes it clear that she is not offering an eating plan but rather a way to figure out how you be more healthy. It’s clear that this is a personal health plan in that each person is supposed to make their own choices based on their preferences and lifestyle.
If you are unwilling to do the work necessary for this plan, you don’t have to. But you do not have a right to bring this level of negativity to this site. Many people here are actually doing the work and finding it helpful. Your negativity might undermine some people’s efforts to become healthier.
That said, if your comment was intended to be helpful, it wasn’t! If you had provided some details about what “basic nutrition” she needs to know (and presumably share on her blog) it could have been helpful. Instead you come off as a negative person who undermines other people’s efforts. Is that really who you are? Or who you want to be.
As for your remark about her being “quite an ambitious gal” — that sounds like a persona attack. I don’t know what your intention was when you wrote that but it sounds like the kind of thing people say when they think they can build themselves up by tearing others down. And, honey, you don’t become a better person that way.
Helping others life better and become better persons is the goal of Celes’ programs. What is your ambition? Do you have any? Do you have a plan that will get you there?
Christine, I hope you read this and make a thoughtful response, not another snarky one. I would like to know what is behind your negativity and resentfulness.
I agree, also my diet is not perfect, but I think it’s useful to highlight which foods we eat are the healthy ones, and which foods are our “cheats”. I do eat white bread/white pasta/white rice occasionally, and every time I do I keep in mind that I’m not eating healthy stuff. That’s why I find it useful to point out what elements in these meals (otherwise healthy) aren’t on the healthy side. In general, perfectionism is bad in diet as it is in many other areas, however there are few things I truly never, never try to eat, and they are: burnt food, artificial sweeteners and refined sugar. Sorry if the comment caused some bad feelings… Paolo
Not at all, Paolo! :) And I appreciate your kind words as always. I did learn something new from your comment re: burnt carbs as it was something I didn’t know much before, so I’ll look into that in the future.
Whew, been a long day! Been busy working on the live run of the passive income course today (we’re at Module 4 today) and it was another fun session! Had some ginger tea + grapes before the session, and after that Ken and I went to this quaint Chinese eatery near our place for some nighttime supper (though it was really dinner for me, because I didn’t eat anything for dinner except the ginger tea and grapes).
Working on Day 4’s task post now and having the rice salad again plus strawberries. :) See you guys in a bit for Day 4!
That looks absolutely delicious! Sandwiches are one of my favorite types of meals.
Mine too, Lina! :D I usually have a sandwich as one of my meals each day or every other day, but after this challenge I think it’ll become a daily affair!
Hi Vani! Today’s task is to identify the calories + fat of food we commonly eat (these may not be foods we eat today) plus to track the calories + fat of food that we eat today. And we will be creating our ideal meal plan in a few days’ time.
Either way, the link will still be a great add on to the two calorie counters I’ve provided under Step 2 (they give detailed information on carbs/protein/fat/sodium/cholesterol and so on too). Thank you so much for sharing!
Hi Celes, I have already used the calorie counters you’ve provided under step 2. They are very informative. I’ll post my update on today’s task after dinner. Thank you for conducting the challenge!
My total calorie intake for today was 1551 and fat intake was 58.25g (approximately 33.8%).
I have been following a healthy diet plan since last week only. When I was calculating calories and fat intake for today’s meals, I also listed down some of the foods I used to eat earlier and realized that my dietary fat intake used to be sky high. Now I am happy that I have started eating healthy.
My progress with my healthy living plan has been good so far. I have completed all the tasks that I had planned for today.
Here are some pictures of my meals…
Wow Vani, the pea and (tomato?) salad looks fantastic! Did you make that yourself? And is that a picture of an orange above? (It looks a little yellow in the picture but I can’t imagine you’re eating a lemon by itself!) I love oranges but peeling is a little bit of work, so nowadays I just get freshly squeezed orange juices instead!
That’s an amazing realization, so kudos to you Vani! :D I believe that the default dietary fat intake can be very high for the average person if he/she consumes the typical diet common in today’s society. High in fat, deep fried foods, etc. It’s important that we make conscious shifts in our diet day by day, and knowing the calorie/fat intake can really help.
Thank you Celes! It’s pea and carrot salad. I just mixed the two and added little salt. Nothing special. These days, I am eating it almost daily as fresh green pea pods are available in market here.
The fruit in the picture is sweet lime. I love freshly squeezed orange juices too. But I usually go for whole fruits over juices as fruits have more fiber.
This is a challenging task, but I’ll take on the challenge!
One way I use to estimate fat intake is based on the fact 1g of fat = 9 calories (1g of protein or carbohydrate = 4 calories). If I eat something that is fatty I estimate the entire meal to be higher in fat %, e.g. the fast food I estimate as made up of 45% fat. 45% x 900 calories = 405 calories. 405 / 9 = 45g of fat.
My meal plan for today: 3000 calories / 120g fat (approximately 35% of calories from fat)
750 calories / 21g fat – lunch staple of mixed rice with 2 vegetables + 1 meat
900 calories / 45g fat – dinner fast food or bread-based meal with drink
332 calories / 21g fat – snack of cheezels (cheesed based snack)
400 calories / 16g fat – large cup of coffee with condensed milk
0 calorie / 0g fat – large cup of earl grey tea without milk/sugar
600 calories / 20g fat – supper of porridge with prawn dumplings
fruits for today – cherries (all mine)!
Hi Celes :) I’m taking up the challenge! Honestly, I didn’t do it earlier because a) I felt like some of my goals weren’t really related neither to fitness nor to a healthy diet and b) because these goals weren’t a priority for this particular time in my life. But here they are: I want to take the first steps in learning how to cook (not necessarily 100% healthy food but I’m sick and tired of eating bad/distasteful/super expensive meals just because I didn’t know how to cook them myself), I want to meditate daily (you have no idea how this would be important for me) and I want to exercise six days a week (it can be 5 or 50 minutes a day, it can be stretching or running, but I want to do it on a regular basis).
Hi Micas, that’s lovely and welcome onboard!! :D If you ask me, your goals are actually quite in line with the things some of us are working on in the challenge (there are some participants with mental wellness goals, not just health/fitness-specific goals)! As long as you want to work on living a healthier life, I’d say this challenge is a great platform to kickstart them! :D
If you haven’t, do post your official signup under the announcement thread as that’s where the signups are tracked. Then, join us in the daily threads with your daily progress. Look forward to seeing your daily updates! :D
I usually use http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/ to check calories as it gives detailed information on vitamins, minerals & different types of fats/protein/sugar. I understand the task is counting calories of today’s meals, not preparing a diet plan. But I have found the site very useful, so thought of sharing the link. I hope that’s okay.
As my granny would say, “You need more greens, honey.” :-)
Commenting for this post is closed.