Desiree Miranda Nutrition 010 May 14, 2012 Personal Diet Evaluation

Taking a look back at my eating and physical activity habits at the beginning of this Spring semester and comparing them to now, I can honestly say that I have learned a lot not only about nutrition in general but also about myself. The tools that were presented to me to help put together this project has also inspired me to instill the knowledge in my own family, especially my mom, who has prediabetes and high blood pressure. The following evaluation is what I have comprehended thus far, which happen to become potential healthy living and eating habits that I am now applying to my lifestyle now and continue to practice them in the future, as well as helping my family make that transition into making healthier and better decisions.

Weight and Activity Level During my three-day diet analysis study I consumed about 2,688 Calories, which is about 800 more Calories than the recommended needs from my profile. I recall in the beginning of the semester when we first started learning about calories, the term energy balance, which is when you need enough calories in order to maintain your energy level, but no more than you can burn

off. If you take in more calories than you burn, you gain weight. If you take in fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight. If you balance the two, you maintain weight. As you can clearly see, the amount of calories consume plays a factor in whether or not you lose, gain or maintain weight. Now lets say you are maintaining weight but you are consuming more/fewer Calories than you need, how is this possible? This is where the calories in = calories out concept comes in. Not only does the consumption of calories plays a factor in our weight but also physical activity and the amount of physical activity youre doing. My Body Mass Index (BMI) is 19.8, which puts me in the Normal range meaning I am considered to have a healthy for my height and weight. Ever since I was younger, my BMI was always considered healthy. I never had a problem with being overweight or being underweight because I was physically active during my childhood. I participated in sports like volleyball and competitive swimming, which always kept me in shape and lean. I have always maintained weights within 97-105 lbs, never weighing less than 97 lbs or more than 105 lbs, and that range still applies til this day. Regardless of how much I eat and how unhealthy I eat at times, Ive always managed to maintain my weight, which is all because of the physical activity I do and have done in the past. Despite my lean, petite, and healthy body, my family, on the other hand, is a different story. My younger brother is much more self conscious as well as strict on himself when it comes to eating whats healthy and what isnt. Just like me, he competed in sports such as competitive swimming and wrestling. My parents, however, both have high blood pressure and

have a BMI thats classified as obese. My mom is much worse, where she has both high blood pressure and prediabetes. My dad is also following in her footsteps as we recently suffered from having gout. High blood pressure and diabetes both run in both my parents side of the family, which puts my brother and me at higher risk of getting it as well. This is why as much as possible we try to exercise as much as we can. My brother is a gym freak, where I, on the other hand, jog or bike around the neighborhood whenever I have free time from school and work. Lately, at the most I have been exercising 1-2 times a week for at least an hour. I always jog for 30 minutes and the remaining 30-45 minutes, I dedicate that to a specific part of my body and focus on that part for that one day and switch off to another body part the next time I exercise. For example, I will have an abs day and just focus on exercises that work out my abs more than the rest of my body.

General Food Choices Analyzing my data from the All Daily Reports and MyPlate, the data shows that the food group that I had the most of within my three-day diet analysis was grains. I consumed 8.9 oz versus the 6.0 oz of grain that was recommended. For vegetables, I consumed 2.4 cups while the recommended needs was 2.5 cups of vegetables. For fruits, I only consumed 0.5 cups, while the recommended needs was 1.5 cups. For dairy intake, I consumed 1.1 cups, where as the dairy recommendation was 3.0 cups. Lastly, for protein food intake, I consumed 5.0 oz, which is also

the protein foods recommendation. As far as the extras that I consumed, the actual intake of sweets I ate within three days was 138.61 g. I also consumed 3.73 g of trans fat and 22.07 g of saturated fat. The recommendation for extras listed before me states that I aim for 5.0 teaspoons of oils a day and to limit my extra fats and sugars to 195 Calories. As far as alcohol is concerned, I should continue to not consume any alcohol.

Whole Grains and Dietary Fiber