What you should eat...by Jalaine RD

To start out with I wanted to let you know a little about me so you didn’t think I was just pulling
nutrition information out of nowhere. I’m a Registered Dietitian (RD) and I have been for about 8 years.
I’m currently spending most of my time at home with my two year old daughter but I do teach a kids
weight management class a couple times a month and I am also consulting at a nursing home. I’m
certified in weight management and have helped to develop Intermountain Healthcare’s adult and kids
weight management programs. Anyways, enough about me let’s get on with it.

Lacee and I felt that it would be good to start out with a sample meal plan for the average woman trying
to lose weight. Like I said, the average woman based on weight charts, 5’5” with light to moderate
exercise, if any at all. This will help in jump starting your weight loss and healthy habits. Eventually
you may need to have a more personalized plan set in place for you or if you do exercise moderate to
vigorous most days of the week you possibly will need a higher calorie level, as well as, some women
do require less calories. So if you feel that this may be the case feel free to ask any questions on how to
adjust the meal plans to specifically fit you.

The first thing you need to remember is that it is not so much about what you put into your body it’s
all about the calories you put in versus the calories you burn off. So essentially you could use all your
calories eating cake, ice cream, candy, etc; but you would not be satisfied and would not be able to
make it through the day. We want to apply the volumetrics idea to our eating (more to come on that).
So hopefully this will help you with ideas on how to incorporate good food that will stay with you
throughout the whole day and that you enjoy. Just because you’re trying to lose weight doesn’t mean
food shouldn’t taste good. Also I’am a firm believer in the concept that all food can fit into your meal
plan, there is no such thing as a BAD FOOD. The more you come to realize this the more successful you
will be with your health and weight goals. Hopefully, I will be able to share more about this philosophy
over the next weeks. One other thing, most women say to me that they cannot lose weight on anything
over 1000 calories. THIS IS NOT TRUE!! You need to feed your body when trying to lose weight,
especially if you are exercising (and you should be exercising). If you do not feed your body your body
will go into what is known as “starvation mode” and instead of burning fat you will start burning your
muscle, because your body will feel that it is starving. FEED YOUR BODY!!!

Here is a sample meal plan for 1600 calories. (servings based on the Diabetes Exchange List and the
Food Guide Pyramid).
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1dbHjtFclFyO0rPK8zJGmkdc-xi_3oHyNAvbB4TLytlo

If you desire to just count calories instead of food groups (which can be easier) you can use many
different free online calorie counting programs. My two favorite are www.mypyramid.gov and http://
www.everydayhealth.com/food-fitness.aspx.




Happy Eating Everyone!