When I was in high school and dealing with the reality of being a 17 -year-old on blood pressure medication- I decided to take more control over my food choices and start logging my food. At that time, the best way I could find to do this was on mypyramid.gov.  This is a great site that allowed me to enter and analyze my daily food intake using the Mayo Health Clinic recommendations. This is when I really started learning what nutrients and foods my body needed to stay properly fueled. At some point in college, I stopped tracking my food because I thought that I had a pretty good grasp on my eating. In the first trimester of pregnancy, I decided that it would be a great time to start tracking my food/nutrient intake again to make sure my body was getting what it needed.  Instead of using mypyramid.gov this time (which seemed a bit outdated), I started logging on caloriecount.com. I love this site, and recommend it to all of my gym clients. It has just about every food you could possibly eat on its database, and that makes it very easy to track and analyze our food intake.

Caloriecount.com made it really easy for me to ensure that I was getting the correct amounts of calories and nutrients that my body needed to make a baby.  🙂  It tracks and analyzes the amount of carbs, protein, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, etc. Calorie Count gives each food item you eat a grade – A through F. Obviously, you want to eat as many “A” foods as possible in your diet. Then, the site grades your day – A through F.

Here’s an example of an “A Day”  during my pregnancy. Note the number of food items that I can eat and still stay within my daily calorie budget. The following day is 1600 calories. It is important to see how many calories you really do need – 2000 is not the answer. Caloriecount.com helps you determine exactly how many calories you should be consuming daily based on your height, weight, activity level, etc. It is important to eat several times throughout the day to keep your metabolism moving.

Breakfast: 

• Old Fashioned Quaker Oats
• Skim Milk (Fat Free)
• Banana

Mid-Morning Snack:

• Cinnamon Burst Cheerios (with Fiber)
• Baby Carrots
• Celery (raw)
• Quaker Chewy Granola Bar

Lunch:

• Activia Light Vanilla
• Whole Grain Bread
• Apple
• Sliced Chicken
• Low Sodium Deli Style Provolone Cheese

Mid-Afternoon Snack:

• Melon
• Low Fat Yogurt

Dinner:

• Broccoli – Cooked
• Meatloaf
• Melon