I have decided that it would be insightful for me to keep a food diary for a few weeks.

It’ll be a bit on & off as I am so busy at the moment. I’m involved in learning the Gimp better and still on my self taught making toiletries course, plus squeezing in a bit of jewellery making inbetween.  There is daily life with appointments & tasks. And Zenni my dog might need surgery in the coming week or two as he has a huge eyelid growth. It is benign, thank god, but an awful thing.  So I don’t know what will happen - he is a boysie with a very dodgy ticker & I might find myself nursing him around the clock after surgery, while everything else including this goes on hold.  But I will try to do it as often as possible, even if it takes a while, is interim, is a bit random and interspersed between other posts.

This would not work if one needed to do it as a very accurate measure to solve a problem.  In such cases it should be done every day preferably for a few months. But for me - it’s just idle interest really.

I’ll ‘fitday’ my intake and include a breakdown of the day at the bottom of the post. I no longer count my protein grams - or carbs.  I’m pretty cogniscent of what I eat - I think. Or am I?  Join me as I find out the truth. *gulp*

Bear in mind I am 8 years out - I have restriction but only past a plate of food. Just as I planned & hoped for 8 years ago when I had my DS.  I’m so happy about this as my DS has not let me down ever.  :-D

I also wear size 8-10 clothing & have maintained a long time now. (Though this could change and I am always aware of this ).

My Common channel is 85 cms (it grew from 75cms!).

Your mileage could well be very different depending on your common channel length, your personal metabolism and what year you are in regarding your DS.

15th February:

Breakfast:

2 scrambled eggs with tomato sauce

Full fat mango & passion fruit yogurt

1 small banana
3 Vita4Life

2hrs later : 1 iron tab

Lunch:

Baked Beans - half tin with loads cheese melted into it.

Piece of leftover salmon

Small mixed salad - 1 teaspoon mayo

Snack: 50gms  of walnuts.

1 latte: 250ml milk & 2 sugars

1 copper, 1 Vit C tablet

Dinner:

3 slices of roast lamb

150gms peas & carrots (1 teaspoon udo’s oils on top)

150gms cauliflour cheese

2 tablespoons gravy

3 Vita4Life & 2 Solvazinc

Late night snack:

50gms walnuts

Before bed: CalmagD - 1 teaspoon, 3 Vit K2 tablets

Milk in tea - around 250ml’s

Water: around a liter - not very good but coupled with tea intake.

The Fitday lowdown:

Palm Sugar in tea through the day: 14 teaspoons   8-O

Holy crrap!  Even for low gi palm this is too much. I am also aware I am very addicted to tea. Not great as it has phytates & isprobably why I get on off mineral deficiencies. I think I can cut down on the sugar if required, but I am going to take the consequences of being a tea-aholic for better or worse at the moment!

Fat 42%

107.9 gms

High - but I expect that.  No hydrogenated fats in this lot. Full fat yogurts - always!  Butter - always!  2% milk as I find whole milk too rich & heavy.  I don’t watch meat fats although tbh, I am not a big eater of it. I usually remove at least half of the fat on my meat, if not more.  Some good one’s such as Udo’s. 15% saturated fats, this could be lowered…but do I want to lower them?  Right now they serve as my laxative & I think I would choose them over a drug based laxative.

The rest are monounsaturated & polyunsaturated which are healthy & as they make up the larger percentage I’m fine with this.

Carbs  36%

214gms

This was a bit of a surprise really…it’s high - but again most of my carbs are complex.  I push my complex carb intake and igore the limits on carbs of generally around 60gms. In my case I would apply that limit on simple carbs only.  I am not in need of an Atkins type diet currently.  When I look at the nutrition breakdown I feel that the nutrient gain way outdoes the carb factor. I’m not as much about weight loss nowadays as I am about sustaining a reasonable state of health. I think I would be happy to gain some pounds if it ever  a toss up between complex carb intake vs weightloss.   I want loads of  micro nutrients, dietary fibre and anti-oxidents.   This is always my focus regarding carbs. 

That said the sugar is not good and it contributes significantly towards this percentage.  I can’t make any excuses about it -  except it might be why I am not craving chocolates or other sweet things…. :roll: I might add that even with so much sugar I am not gaining any weight…but healthwise - it’s just pretty much junkola. :oops:

This might present me with a challenge as I don’t want to lose weight. I’m comfy where I am right now. I suspect it is these sugars that have me on hold weight wise & that if I lower them I might drop weight fast.  Not too long ago my surgeon gave me the sugar go ahead as he wanted me to ‘hold’ my weight.  I still have difficulty getting my head around it as you can see.  I’m going to have to think on this.  There is some damage limitation going on here with the sugars being mainly palm to protect me from insulin spikes ( with any luck). But still I can’t say I like this on a ‘gutfeel’ level. The big plus is should I start to gain excessively (always the naked underlying fear!)- there is plenty of leeway here to drop the sugars significantly.

Protein 22%

125.7 gms

Doing well on the protein score. Still I would like to see this more balanced and leaning towards the 100gm mark max. Why?

Isn’t protein what the DS is about?   Yes.  But I feel 125gms is not essential & that it’s good practice to eat what is essential as much as possible and avoid excesses unless they are required.  I write this here to remind myself of one of the cornerstones of my own foodie philosophy which I need to look at again. 

The same could apply to both my fats and carbs above. My task will be to address and think on what I require realistically.

And it’s that little ‘realistically’ that can be the headache causing factor!
Total Cals:  2,289

Quite high - but I think this is a day on which I did eat more than usual. Or is it?  

I honestly don’t know.  I have not looked at my food intake in years now - I just eat & get on with it!

I’ll see how all this goes over time.   I won’t address my worse habits until I have completed more of this observation - although ideally it should be longer.  Even it if it is not everyday recording, enough ’snapshots’  over time will reveal general patterns and also the hidden boogeymens.  That’s what I’m interested in.

Fitday is an excellent, if eye opening little tool.  I used it a lot in my first DS years.  I remember it looked very different then - with minimal carbs,  and a strong lean on protein.  My fat percentage has always been quite high though not as high as it is now.

I aim for high ‘good fat’ intake.  Still, it’s not for all and in the first year it can cause the runs, bloating and sometimes not be one’s friend…although I have found saturated fats to be the culprit on this score in many DS cases. Cream and meat fats  in excess are not really a wise plan in the first years.  Although these can be most useful if the bowels need moving and in my case they certainly do. I would just die from constipation without them. ( I know it sounds melodramatic - but believe me constipation is the devil!!!)  Nut fats and fish fats are gentle on the gut usually.

I also feel that fats and complex carbs hang together in a symbiotic balance for good bowel health. Too many saturated fats  without the bowel conditioning properties of complex carbs in terms of enough fibre & valuable inulin, would worry me.

I found it difficult to exactly source the foods I’m eating on Fitday as it is US geared. Trying to access food in oz’s can be a pain. I had to guess a bit sometimes so I might not have been that accurate.

I’m not going to judge my entire eating life on one days worth… a bit more time will tell me where & if I should pull up my socks!

I had to smile as this wee dietary reflection  would probably leave any dietician stone cold.

And yet - my DS thrives on it.  What can I say - the DS is a beautiful thing!  :-)