8 April 2009
Analyze This: Jessica (another one!)
Jessica is 5’11” and weighs 145 pounds. She says she’s not looking to lose weight (and she definitely doesn’t need to!), she just wants to improve her diet and make sure she’s eating enough of the right things. Here’s her log with my comments in bold:
Breakfast:
1/4 cup 2% Fage
1/2 cup mixed berries
1/4 cup Kashi Go Lean! Crunch
2 shot Americano. Black.I love that she eats Fage (Greek yogurt), which is full of protein, and that she gets a serving of fruit in at breakfast. Go Lean! Crunch is also a favorite of mine. The problem is, this breakfast is tiny! It probably tops out at 200 calories, if not closer to 150, if her portions are correct. I’d like to see her eating at least 300 to 400 calories to start the day. She could have bigger portions of the yogurt or cereal to up her protein intake while adding some calories.
Otherwise, I’d suggest switching to something higher in protein like eggs or the breakfast cookie I created yesterday. It was the perfect morning fuel. I wasn’t hungry until 1:30pm today after eating it for breakfast at 7:00am this morning!Lunch:
Left overs! Seared tuna and soba noodle salad. It was a Cooking Light recipe (here!) that supposedly comes in at 256 cals per serving. The salad included cucumbers, red bell pepper, carrot and radishes and a fair amount of oil, both peanut and sesame. By the way- super yummy!
Also had a veggie snack pack. About a cup of baby carrots, snap peas and cherry tomatoes.
Love that recipe! Soba (buckwheat) noodles are a great option and work well in Asian fare. One of my other favorite soba recipes is Sesame Chicken and Soba Noodles from Real Simple.
Anyway, Jessica is getting plenty of vegetables, which is great. In fact, this lunch is pretty much perfect as far as I can tell (and is a good example of why leftovers are such a good idea for lunches). It does seem a little bit low-calorie again, but a slightly bigger serving would remedy that.Snack:
Smallish appleAn apple alone won’t give Jessica much energy for the afternoon, but she already knew what her snack was missing: protein! Jessica asked me not to tell her just to eat peanut butter. Protein comes in all flavors, girl! I love having lite string cheese as a protein option, or even try some low-fat cheddar on top of the apple. Raw nuts are also a good idea. Other higher protein snack ideas can be found here.
Dinner:
1 chicken breast w/ olive oil and lemon
3/4 cup of sauteed fennel and onions
1 small baked potato w/ sauteed mushrooms and light sour cream.
1 12oz IPA beerThis dinner sounds pretty delicious, I’ll admit. It’s definitely hearty (I calculated it at around 500 to 600 calories, including the beer). Plenty of veggies, lean protein, and a starch. I can’t complain about that.
Dessert:
1/2 cup Haagen Daaz mango sorbetSorbet is a Nutritionista-approved dessert option!
I drink 2-4 liters of water a day,
Regarding alcohol: Yeah, I probably drink more than I should. I have 1 drink (a beer or a glass of wine) probably 3 days a week and 3-4 drinks 1-2 days a week. I know! But honestly, I am so much better than I used to be! Working out consistently has resulted in me drinking a lot less than I used to. It’s hard to run with a hangover.
Alright, alright, I won’t say anything about the alcohol intake. I think at this point, all Nutritionista readers know how I feel about it and know the downsides of drinking too much, too often. But as a woman in her 20s, I definitely understand the inclination to drink a little more frequently than recommended.
Workouts:
Run 2-4 miles, 4-5 times per week.
Yoga 3 times per week (two of those are bikram classes)
Weight lift 3 times per week for 45ish minutes. I do this because you said so! :)Yes! That is an ideal workout schedule.
Jessica eats really well. Plenty of produce, a good amount of protein and whole grains, etc. But she says she’s been feeling sluggish and depleted when she exercises and that’s no surprise to me. She had a hunch that she wasn’t eating enough, and she’s absolutely right. According to my calculations, she’s probably only eating around 1,200 calories a day, which is almost dangerously low for her weight (and most women).
Jessica definitely needs to eat more at breakfast (or have a mid-morning snack if she doesn’t want to eat a lot in the AM) and have a bigger snack in the afternoon (adding protein would accomplish this). She should shoot for 200-300 calories in the afternoon, especially if she wants to keep her lunch around 300 calories. I’d like to see Jessica eating closer to 1,500-1,600 calories per day, especially on days that she runs.
Bottom line: Jessica should add 200 to 300 calories in the morning (protein in the form of yogurt, eggs, or whole grains) and 200 to 300 in the afternoon (her apple along with some cheese or nuts or one of the other high protein snack options).
