Discussion Board

Has anyone on the MWL plan put what they eat each day into cron o meter? I have, and it says I'm only hitting half of the RDAs of vitamins and minerals. It says I'm particularly low on selenium, zinc, and vitamins E, A and B2. My diet has been consisiting of porridge for breakfast with potatoes and green veg for lunch and dinner. Should I be worried about this? Can we become deficient on this diet?

I follow the "simplicity" concept and eat almost the same thing every day. My only variety is in the frozen vegetables I use, maybe an extra piece of fruit now and then, sometimes a salad to get some raw vegs. Here's a sample:









Just keep experimenting until you come up with a menu that meets your needs. That took me a while to do. It's all so new and takes some time. Keep reading, keep asking questions... you'll get there.

And CRON-o-meter is only good for ballpark numbers, I think. On the broccoli normandy I put in, I had to bump the amount up to match the calories that are in the one lb. bag of normandy style frozen veggies that I use, based on the nutritional label. The one in CRONO was low.

Do you eat big portions or small? Did your diet prior to the MWL hit any of those targets?

My mother and I eat a much smaller volume than most people on this plan seem to. In small volumes, you'll have a hard time hitting nutritional targets on any diet. We have to pay attention because of that. But we have found that we have better nutrition on this plan than we would on nearly any other.

I use the Lose It app. I log everything I eat. Since I am a small eater it is a great way for me to keep track of what I am eating. It allows me to see if I need more food and what kind. It allows you to enter your own recipes, scan, and put in the foods you use most. It has made me aware of nutrition, calories, fats, sugars, etc, that i never knew before.

Frieda is my daughter and my "personal Chef". She cooks great tasty meals. Every week she does a menu and makes all different meals each week. It keeps things exciting. The variety makes this so much more doable and easy to keep going. I am not too sure how I would do without her cooking.

I don't know. But what should I do? Should I just carry on as I am? Adding more variety makes the diet more difficult to stick to for me.

Like a few others who have already commented, I have been tracking my food since January to get some idea of my caloric intake, how that breaks down and the nutrients/vitamins. I understand all of this work is unnecessary, but it's now part of my daily routine and takes little time. I am not too worried about the nutrients and vitamins. I do track them and know I am deficient in some and abundant in others. I do know my eating habits are much better than they were this time last year. If there is something very glaring then I might address it, but right now, I am eating and happy.

I want to add that my targets for the crono sample I posted were 14/76/10 for protein/carbs/fat. Not sure why I had 14% protein set, it was 10/80/10, must have been testing something and forgot about it. Either way, I get more than enough of the "sacred" protein.

I don't track food every day, as I said I pretty much eat the same thing day after day, so I don't think it's necessary. Oh, and I do include beans on occasion. Yesterday, in fact, I only ate half of my potatoes but had a bowl of kidney beans, corn and brown rice with some five spice seasoning on it.... the seasoning was an experiment... it was pretty good.

And I forgot to include a link for a discussion on simplicity.

And I'm a big fan of SNAP. A nice big pot of veggie stew that I can "feed" out of throughout the day. Definitely makes things simple.