Just a reminder: These Sunday guest posts are part of a series my sister-in-law is doing as part of a Healthy Habit Journey she is doing for the year. She relates her experiences trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle one habit at a time! Enjoy!
Have you ever had a week where you planned everything according to schedule and then it backfires? This was my week. Despite my best efforts, life got in the way…so I didn’t hit my goal for Monday and Tuesday, however, I put on my big girl pants and kept going! At least I got my work outs in!
Cooking Light’s Healthy Habit this month is “Eat More Whole Grains”…I thought “hmmm, I eat that already”….but in all reality, most people don’t get their required amount of fiber in each day. So while I’m tracking my foods this week, I’m going to track my fiber intake.
This will require some added research, but I’m happy to oblige. Each day I will be shooting for 25-30 grams of fiber since that is the recommendation for women 19-50 years old (if you’re over 50, the recommendation is 50 grams of fiber). The health benefits of a fiber rich diet are great- good for digestion, helps control blood sugar, lowers cholesterol and helps reduce blood pressure. You can’t beat that!
DAY 1- Monday: I’m only going to list what I ate that has actual whole grain/whole wheat content in it since I’m trying to “EAT MORE” of it and I know I don’t get enough whole grains: 7 grams of fiber in for breakfast (banana-3, almonds-1, Nutrigrain bar-3); about 4 grams for lunch (cooked spinach); 6 grams fiber for my snack (bag of 94% fat free smart pop); and 0 grams for dinner (we ended up taking out the Hubby’s best friend for dinner since he got his new job today…and they wanted pizza…and the pizza was not whole grain).
Monday’s Total Fiber: 17 grams… The penne pasta I had for lunch was regular pasta and still had 3 grams of fiber in it, however, I’m choosing to stick to the plan of only considering “whole wheat” for this exercise.
Here was Monday’s lunch:
DAY 2- Tuesday: So I had plans for today to go swell but work was psychotic and I was rushed leaving my house and forgot all my food. So I ate a waffle for breakfast (0 grams) b/c sometimes you just need some comfort; healthy request chicken noodle soup was my lunch (0 grams) and I had no snacks all day.
Thank goodness I had our dinner planned out! We had turkey meatloaf mini’s (these have become one of my hubby’s favorites) with a quinoa and garbanzo bean salad with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, feta, peppers and shallots. It was DIVINE to eat such a healthy dinner. Oh, and an Oatmeal Stout (total of 12 grams of fiber for that dinner!!)
DAY 3- WEDNESDAY: I think I finally had a chance to calm down and get all my shizzits in gear! I began my day with a healthy breakfast- 2 egg whites on a whole grain muffin with 1 tbsp of blue cheese and OJ and a banana (9 grams fiber).
Next up was leftovers for lunch – the quinoa and garbanzo and veggie deliciousness from last night (12 grams); an apple for another 4 grams of fiber and a spinach salad!
Now, I have had varying estimates when looking up fiber in spinach. Some sites have 1 gram fiber for 1 cup raw spinach and some sites report up to 2 grams of fiber for a ½ cup of raw spinach (and the fiber nearly triples for cooked spinach- I guessing b/c it wilts so much and you eat a lot more)…so I’m going to assume 1 gram to be on the conservative side for right now for my raw spinach salad.
It’s only 1 pm and I’ve already hit my goal with 26 grams today! And you know what? I’m feeling REALLY good.
Wednesday afternoon I had a bag of popcorn (6 grams) and for dinner I had a slice of pork loin, a sweet potato and peas (for another 6 grams!!).
Wednesdays Total: 38 Grams of Fiber!!
I’m off to go to a wedding this weekend, hopefully I can keep up with my healthy eating! So far so good - I had a whole wheat muffin with peanut butter and banana for breakfast 
How much fiber do you get in a day? Are you a whole wheat lover or a sourdough bread fan? I like both depending on what I’m eating.
I think I get enough fiber. I eat a whole grain carb or fiber filled veggie with each meal. I think you did great this week!
I get a whole lotta fiber throughout the day!!! I eat whole grain but loooove me some sourdough!
I love both types of bread!!!
I think I get quite a bit of fiber, but more could never hurt!
Oh gosh, I have no idea what my fiber intake is! I don’t want to get myself caught up in number-counting, so I generally just hope my copious oabtran and veggie eating balances out all the chocolate
LOL! I too, try to balance out all the chocolate
I’m not sure what my fiber intake is. I take fiber pills just so that I am getting enough fiber in my diet. I definitely like whole wheat bread.
I don’t track fiber – I wish I did though but the site I use doesn’t have it as a category. Meh.
I think this is such a great idea though!
I think it will be a one time deal- this tracking of the fiber. It was a HUGE pain last week. I am just keeping in mind that I need to eat almost all whole wheat on a daily basis to get to my goal.
I’ve never really paid much attention to how much fiber I eat, but I do remember telling someone what I had eaten that day and he was amazed by how much fiber I eat. So Im guessing I get enough.
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