Haley recently became a pescetarian, and has also recently been cutting back on soy. She wants to make sure her diet has enough protein, as well as suggestions for other meals/snacks that are soy free. My comments and upgrades are below:

Breakfast: Nature Path flax whole grain flakes with skim or Ezekial bread with almond butter

I’d like to see Haley eat a bit more at breakfast, whether that means adding some fruit to her cereal or a banana to her toast. Remember, for a breakfast with staying power, shoot for 300-400 calories minimum. Haley could also try almond milk for a soy-free alternative to regular dairy.

Lunch: Sandwich with Ezekial bread, hummus, red pepper; grapes and snap peas on the side or large salad with spinach, broccoli, chickpeas, kidney beans, parmesan, and fat free Italian dressing

Important salad rule: Never use fat-free dressing! You need some healthy fat with your vegetables to help absorb the nutrients. I’d swap that fat-free Italian for some good old olive oil and vinegar (or any other type of olive oil-based vinaigrette). You only have to use a teaspoon or two of oil to get the benefits, so it really doesn’t add a significant amount of calories. For the sandwich lunch, I’d recommend bulking it up with some spinach or other veggie.

Snacks: Fat-free Greek yogurt and Kashi 7 grain crackers; Larabar and a piece of fruit; or tart frozen yogurt with fruit and coconut

Those are good soy-free snacks, but here are some other suggestions:

• Hard-boiled egg with fruit
• Tuna salad (made with Greek yogurt) and whole grain crackers
• Pitted dates and almonds (the deconstructed Larabar!)
• Hummus and pita
• Banana with a tablespoon of PB
• Frozen whole wheat waffle with PB
• English muffin with cream cheese and tomato

Dinner: Vegetable stir fry or salmon sashimi and fruit

Haley should make sure she’s getting at least a small portion of whole grains for dinner. Both meals could benefit from a serving of brown rice (if it’s not already being incorporated into them).

Overall, Haley has a very healthy, produce-heavy diet, which I definitely approve of. With a few upgrades, she’ll be golden. Want me to upgrade your diet? Send me a sample daily food log along with some info about your lifestyle.

Katie gave me a quick rundown of her daily eats in hopes of getting an upgrade. If you’d like me to upgrade your diet, please send me a log of a sample day’s worth of eating. Also, give me a little info about your lifestyle (where do you live? Are you a student? Who do you live with? Do you have much time to cook?). For those of you who have sent yours in already, thanks! Look for them on upcoming Wednesdays. My upgrades to Katie’s diet are below in bold:

Breakfast: Half a plain bagel with cream cheese and strawberries, orange juice or bowl of cut up fruit.

You know, I’m not a huge fan of bagels for breakfast. They don’t contain much nutrition for a fair amount of calories. If you’re set on a bagel to start your day, be brave and try hemp bagels. The texture takes some getting used to, but they pack a whopping 19 grams of protein and 13 grams of fiber per 280-calorie bagel. At $4.00 for five bagels, that’s less than $1 each. Hemp bagels would be a good choice for Katie because her other breakfast components are low on protein and high on sugar. But with 19 grams of protein in your bagel, fruit is a fine side dish for breakfast.

Snack: Avocado, greek yogurt, or almonds.

These snacks are great because they all contain some healthy fat. However, to bulk them up a little bit, I’d add some raw fruit or veggies. What about eating the avocado as a spread on celery and carrot sticks? Or Katie could add some fresh berries to the yogurt.

Lunch: Big salad with romaine, carrots, cucumber, sundried tomatoes, chickpeas, tuna, oil & vinegar, lemon, salt & pepper or taco salad with romaine, corn, black beans, salsa, black olives, and sour cream.

Both of those lunches are great! She’s getting plenty of good protein with the beans and tuna. The only thing I’d upgrade is to use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream in the second lunch option.

Snack: Coffee and chocolate covered edamame.

Edamame isn’t a bad snack at all, but I’d suggest mixing some plain edamame with the chocolate covered stuff for a little less of a sugar rush in the afternoon.

Dinner: Usually eat out, something like pizza or fish sandwich with fries.

I understand that some people just can’t cook in the evening, but pizza and fried food might make Katie feel awfully sluggish for the rest of the night. Katie could make easy homemade pita pizzas using whole wheat pita, a little marinara sauce, whatever veggies she likes, and mozzarella cheese. They only take 5 or 10 minutes in your oven’s broiler to cook. To replace the fish sandwich, she could bake some sweet or regular potatoes, and then throw whatever fish is on sale at her local market into the oven when the potatoes have 15-20 minutes left. Easy, low clean-up, and a bit more nutritious than a fish sandwich and fries. I’d also recommend adding a vegetable. Steaming green beans is quick and easy! Just add some olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper for a 10-minute dish.

Ready for another addition of Upgrade You? That’s what I thought. This time, I’m upgrading Lia (nice name!).

Lia lives in NYC (meaning she walks a lot!) with her boyfriend, and is starving by 6pm. She’s not big on breakfast and she can’t stand yogurt. She’s a carb addict (aren’t we all?) who tries not to allow her addiction to influence every meal. She wants to get a better grip on her hunger and generally eat a more balanced diet. My upgrades are in bold below:

Breakfast: 2 servings of fruit

This is Lia’s first mistake, and she’s setting herself up for failure pretty quickly. Fruit is basically sugar and a bit of fiber (and yes, many important nutrients). Your body will burn off the calories from fruit fairly quickly, leaving you with a grumbly tummy by 9am. I know Lia’s not big on breakfast, but she needs to try to gradually up her intake at that meal. Within an hour or so of waking, she needs to try to consume at least 300 calories and for staying power, she needs some of those calories to be protein.

Lia’s got an aversion to yogurt, and that’s fine, so she should look to get her protein elsewhere. She said she’s open to oatmeal, and I think oatmeal with fruit would be a good transitional breakfast for her. To start, she could have a small serving of regular oatmeal mixed with plenty of fresh fruit. This would feel a lot like a normal breakfast to her, but not set her up for failure the rest of the day. It’s pretty much a given that if you don’t eat enough at breakfast, you WILL be starving by the end of the day. That’s why it’s not surprising that Lia’s famished by 6pm.

Snack: small handful of almonds

This snack is alright, but for those hungry days, I’d obviously recommend adding something more voluminous like fruit, or better yet, raw veggies.

Lunch: something like quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat bread or beans mixed with veggies/salad

I like her mix of whole grain carbs and vegetables. She should just make sure she includes a serving of unsaturated fat, like olive oil or avocado, to stave off some of that 6pm hunger.

Snack: small handful of almonds

Again, I’m a fan of nuts as a snack, but they aren’t exactly “filling” in the traditional sense. That’s why I tend to eat them with foods that contain water (like fruits and veggies).

Dinner: Either a bowl of whole wheat pasta with homemade tomato sauce (canned tomatoes, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, crushed red pepper); whole wheat tortilla with half can of Amy’s refried black beans (low sodium), half avocado, tomato, lime, garlic; peanut butter sandwich; slices of thin crust pizza; brown rice with veggies, ginger, garlic and soy sauce

Most of these options sound okay to me, especially the taco meal with black beans. However, there just aren’t enough vegetables. Pasta with no protein or veggies (besides the sauce) is just not going to be all that satisfying. I also think many of her dinner options are super light on the produce. Lia could include veggies like broccoli, spinach, zucchini, eggplant, etc. in her tomato sauce, have a salad with her taco (add jicama, tobasco, and cheddat cheese to make it a little Mexican-themed!), and eat slices of raw carrot, cucumber, bell pepper, and celery with her PB sandwich.
When hunger strikes, ask yourself this: Am I eating enough (especially important for those of us who workout more intensely)? Am I eating enough high volume foods (like produce)? Am I eating enough healthy fat (I usually include a serving in at least two meals)? Am I eating enough protein? Once you’ve answered those questions, you can zero in on where the hunger is coming from.

Also, keep in mind that hunger is cumulative. If you go to bed hungry one day, chances are, you’ll wake up hungry the next day AND be a little hungrier throughout the day. That’s why it’s important to honor your hunger and make sure you’re not letting it build up over the course of the day and/or week.

Snack: one small square of 72% dark chocolate and sometimes a little fruit

Nothing to upgrade here! I love a small sweet treat after dinner and fruit + dark chocolate is definitely the way to go.

maryrambin:

— By Nutritionista

I’m debuting a new feature right here on More Than Mary! I used to do a regular feature called Analyze This, but I stopped because it seemed to be making people feel bad about the way they eat (which was totally not my intention). I’m bringing it back with a new name and a new primary goal. Instead of focusing on helping people figure out how they can lose weight, I’m going to focus on helping people upgrade their diets to include more whole, unprocessed foods that will keep them feeling satisfied longer.

First up? My girl Katie. Katie says she’s fallen into an exercise and eating rut and I’m here to get her out of it.

Her daily eats, with my upgrades below:

• Breakfast: cereal like Cheerios or Total, 2% milk, blueberries or banana, water

Upgrade: Most commercial cereals are NOT a good choice for breakfast. They simply lack the protein and fiber I need to get me going. Sure, they’re fortified with vitamins, but why not get your vitamins from natural sources? If you’re committed to eating cereal for breakfast, follow my cereal guidelines here. Bottom line: Choose something with at least 5g protein and 4-5g fiber. To make it a true upgrade, I’d have Katie switch to rolled or steel-cut oats. It’s a much less processed option and you can add plenty of fun mix-ins.

• Snack: string cheese, small piece of fruit

Upgrade: Cut up the fruit and eat it with a serving of low-fat cottage cheese or Greek yogurt (for more protein), adding ground flax to the bowl for a little more staying power.

• Lunch: whole wheat pita stuffed with spinach, 3 oz chopped chicken, a smear of hummus on both sides with a sprinkling of feta.

Katie says: “I buy the chicken in the cafeteria at work, so I’m not sure how it’s prepared. What should I look for here when I ask them? What can I do instead if it’s not a good choice?”

Upgrade: Katie’s lunch is okay by me, but to make sure the chicken is a good choice, it should be grilled, baked, or roasted rather than fried or sauteed. Ask them how much and what kind of oil they use to cook with. Just a bit of olive oil is best, but as long as they’re not pan-fried in gallons of oil, it should be alright.

• Snack: 5 Hershey kisses and later, a glass of Sweet Leaf Mint & Honey iced tea

Upgrade: Most people get a strong, almost unavoidable craving for sugar right around 3 or 4pm. The cure? Dried fruit. It’s plenty sweet, but much less processed than the candy Katie’s currently eating. I’d eat some dried mango, pear, or banana with a small handful of nuts to get a little bit of healthy fat and protein. Her iced tea is in place of pop (she recently cut it out of her diet), so even though it’s sweetened with cane juice, it’s already an upgrade.

• Dinner: Wolfgang Puck chicken wild rice, chicken egg noodle, or chicken tortilla soup with baby spinach added (can you tell I read your blog?), piece of whole wheat toast

Upgrade: Eating canned soup most nights, even something “natural” like Wolfgang Puck, is not a great meal plan. Canned soup usually contains a lot of added sodium and not enough vegetables. Why not make a huge pot of vegetable-rich soup on Sunday and eat it throughout the week? Try my signature vegetable soup. It’s easy, completely healthy, utterly satisfying, and gets better and better as it sits in the fridge a few days.

I eat this every night, but about one night a week, I go out for sushi. (miso soup, avocado roll, and sashimi roll)

I never say no to sushi!

• Exercise: I don’t really work out. I do the 30 Day Shred 2x a week and walk a lot on campus and at work. I swim once a week, sometimes more.

Upgrade: I like the Shred DVDs, but I think they’re better as a complement to some other kind of activity. The Shred workouts seem to train muscles sort of haphazardly and therefore don’t strike me as being all that comprehensive. I think Katie could benefit from adding more full-body strength training into her routine. I’m telling you, STRENGTH TRAINING WILL CHANGE YOUR BODY IN WAYS THAT CARDIO DOESN’T! Katie could try my Weight Training without the Gym routine. All you need is a pair of 5-10 lb. weights to get started.

I plan on making Upgrade You a weekly feature on Wednesdays, so if you’d like me to upgrade your diet, please send me a detailed log of your average daily eats (and exercise, if you choose).