Nutrition on the Brain.

So for the last couple of days I have been doing a ton of reading and researching about nutrition getting prepared for the seminars I'm going to be helping present.  I love learning about all this stuff.  I'm smiling now because knowing the nutrition information about a ton of different foods means I can stuff even more healthy foods into my muffins, cookies and bars.  I don't have much time anymore to watch much tv, but I do know that the Dr.Oz and Steven and Chris shows are great because they are giving props to foods that deserve them.

My mom taught me a lot about healthy eating, and for that I'm very grateful because it was a great starting point.  It's not that she "taught me" per say but she was always making herself amazing soups, jam packed with healthy veggies and other wholesome ingredients.  I talked to her this weekend about what she struggles with now in her diet, because even though people seem to eat healthy, it can always be better.  She said she is struggling with getting enough protein and that is one area that I have a hard time with also.  I was looking at the Canadian food guide and it doesn't seem to include enough servings of protein to provide you with the grams of protein we need.  From what I understand we need 1 g of protein for each KG of body weight.  That number actually goes higher when you are resistance training and endurance training to 1.2 -1.4 g/Kg body weight.  So based on the lowest amount of protein I need ~61 grams of protein.  When an ounce of meat or fish has approximately 7 grams of protein, 1 egg has 6 grams, 1/2 cooked beans has ~ 7-10 grams and 1/4 cup of almonds has 8 grams .  Geeze I need to be eating so much more food in a day, actually now that I think of it whole wheat grains also have protein, I shouldn't forget to mention that quinoi contains all the amino acids used to make up protein.  I also want these protein sources to be lean.  No wonder the "protein powder" industry is huge.  How many women have protein powder in their daily diets?  I've added Hemp Hearts to my day to get more protein but I don't think it's enough.  Hum anyway I'll have to find out more about protein rich foods and how to incorporate them.  I would like to mention that I also took the time to compare the Canadian food guide (CFG) to Tosca Reno's Cooler plans, although Cooler 1 is very slim compared the the CFG, Cooler 2 is much closer to the CFG with the exception that Tosca really does push more protein portions in her life style.  I hate to call it a diet (the word implies restrictions) but it's a way of life, choosing foods based on their nutritional density to fuel our bodies so that we are more efficient at burning it off.

For one thing I am going to change up my breakfast to match Tosca's bowl of oats.  I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast while I was up in Sudbury, probably because it's was so cold. I ate 1/2 cup Roger's Oats with a cup of boiling water, with 1/2 mashed banana, some nutmeg, ground flax and walnuts.  I would boil the water then add it to the bowl of oats, cover it and let stand for 10 minutes, then I added all the flavours and good stuff.  It's amazing I feel so good once I start my day off on the right note.  I was amazed because my kids also wanted to eat the same oatmeal.  I didn't even bother to offer it, thinking they wouldn't be interested, but all 3 kids gobbled it up.  Cool!