Be Your Own Nutritionist

By Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D., Best Life lead nutritionist


For weeks you've been looking at charts of serving sizes for various foods. You now know what a serving of grains looks like (a slice of bread, for example), a serving of fat (a teaspoon of oil) and lots of other foods. Why all the detail? Because when you can eyeball a cut of meat, a plate of pasta or any other food and make a close approximation of serving sizes, you're empowered—empowered to keep portions under control, empowered to tell the waiter before he plunks down the oversized plate of pasta in front of you to wrap half of it, and empowered to shed some pounds. —the rest is up to you. For a refresher on serving sizes, refer back to Design Your Perfect Diet And to see how you did click here

BREAKFAST: Cereal
1 cup high-fiber cereal (160 calories)
1 cup non-fat milk
1 cup strawberries
2 tablespoons walnuts

LUNCH: Turkey and Swiss sandwich with crudite and dip
2 slices whole wheat bread
1 tablespoon light mayo
2 thin slices turkey breast
1 slice reduced-fat Swiss
1/2 tomato, thinly sliced
Remaining 1/2 tomato and 1/2 cup carrot sticks
Dip: 50 calories of reduced-fat ranch dressing

DINNER: Pasta with grilled chicken and a side salad
1 cup cooked whole-wheat or fiber-enriched pasta
1/2 cup marinara sauce
2/3 cup (about 3 ounces) grilled chicken strips
Heaping tablespoon grated Parmesan
1 cup mixed greens
1 cup chopped vegetables
90 calories of olive-oil vinaigrette

SNACK: Soymilk
1 cup vanilla soymilk (100 calories)

ANYTHING GOES CALORIES TREAT: Ice cream sandwich

Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich (140 calories) NOTE: Treats don't count towards your food group servings, but don't forget to include the calories in your daily total.

At the end of the day, how many servings in each food group were eaten? Write down the number next to the food group below. Now, use those numbers to estimate the total calories consumed for the day: Multiply the number of servings in each group by the calories per serving in red. For instance, if six grain servings were accumulated (big hint!), you'd multiply 80 by six to get a total of 480 calories from grains. Do the same for the rest of the food groups. Then, tally up all the calories.

GROUP	NUMBER OF SERVINGS	TOTAL CALORIES PER FOOD GROUP
GRAINS (80 calories each)
FRUIT (60 calories each)
DAIRY (100 calories each)
VEGETABLES (25 calories each)
PROTEIN (65 calories each)
FAT (45 calories each)
TREAT (Simply write down the total calories because treats don't count towards your food group servings.)	—
Total Daily Calorie Estimate