Essay about Diet Anaylsis

Submitted By NikoWiemers1
Words: 1320
Pages: 6

Diet Analysis I Worksheet
Type your single-spaced responses (12 point font) to the following questions in the space provided. Do not exceed the space provided. 1. List and describe three factors that influenced your food choices.

One of the factors that influence my food choices was taste and food preference. I usually have eggs at least three of four times of the week, whether that is at the Burge Marketplace, or at my own apartment. I guess I grew into loving the taste of eggs because would have it at home with my parents and sister so much on certain days. That also ties into an environmental factor, habit. My mother is Greek so we have a bunch of Cretan foods in our house. Although I never thought that eggs were so important to what my mother follows, the Cretan diet, but I asked he about why we eat so many egg meals in the morning. It’s always been tradition in her family to eat eggs in the morning because back when she was little, her Greek community shared many things like their gardens, eggs, and other things, and her family would provide vegetables to neighbors and another neighbor provided eggs to the neighborhood. So I guess the tradition just stuck with her and passed it on to me.
As I look more into my Diet Analysis assignment I see that I eat eggs, chicken, water, and milk regularly, which factors into my nutrition and physiological influence that I have on choosing my foods. I choose eggs and chicken a lot because I know it’s a good source of protein. I drink water regularly in the mornings and usually for a snack after running or workouts. Plus, I run marathons, so I think it’s important to stay hydrated regularly and eat a lot of protein for my runs and workouts so that I have a lot of energy in the beginning of my runs.

2. Develop 3 goals (not strategies – buying more vegetables is not a goal) to achieve your MyPlate recommendations (the cups or ounces MyPlate recommends). Your goals should meet the SMART goals criteria discussed in class.
One of the three goals that I’ll do is eating more dark, orange, dry beans and peas, starchy vegetables. Specifically I will eat 3 cups of dark green vegetables, 2 cups of orange vegetables, 3 cups of dry beans and peas, and 3 more cups of starchy vegetables weekly. I’ll try to achieve this goal by the end this semester.
The second of my three goals would be to increase the amount of whole grains and general grains by .5oz and making half of my grains whole to my diet by including some whole wheat bread, brown rice, and oatmeal weekly. I will try to achieve this goal by the end of this semester.
My third goal is decreasing the amount of empty calories that I have in my diet. I now have a percent total of 204%, that’s 868 empty calories that I am consuming. I want to cut that amount in half by the end of the semester to around the recommended MyPlate amount, 428 empty calories by the end of the semester.

3. What strategies will you use to meet your goals? For this question, list and describe 2 strategies for each of the 3 days you recorded that will help you meet your goals. These strategies may be substitutions, eliminations, or changes in foods consumed. They must specifically relate back to your food diary so simply stating you will buy more vegetables is not a sufficient strategy. You will have 6 total strategies.

My first strategy would be making some changes in the foods that I consume like eating more fruits and vegetables. Since I live in an apartment and I only have a 5-week meal plan, I will use the Burge Marketplace, and other University of Iowa food stations to my advantage for getting the needed food recommendations that were made in MyPlate, like making more additions of fruits and vegetables. There are many fruits and vegetables that are provided in my meal plans that I can receive easily with a swipe of a card. I need .9 cups more fruits and .7 cups more of vegetables in my diet. I could record the amount of fruits and