Another stupid/n00b question.

[Riptide]

Anyone who doesn't have the patience for my lack of knowledge please don't bother to thrash me k?

First, where I'm @ right now. 5'8", 160lbs.. Used to weigh 220, lost all of that and have been between 155-165 for the last year. I would like to gain some muscle. Nothing ridiculous, but my ultimate goal would be to end up around 175lbs. and cut up.

Now, my HORRIBLE diet. Actually, I'm sure some of it is OK but I imagine there is a LOT of room for critisizm here.

Breakfast:
Kashi Cereal (high protein/fiber, low calorie) w/skim milk.
Morning snack: 1 EAS carb control bar and a banana or apple.
Lunch:
1 turkey sandwich, sometimes just one piece of bread to keep carbs down a bit. Will have either a piece of fruit or sometimes (even worse) some low carb/calorie baked potato chips. Sometimes supplement a serving of peanuts along with this.
Afternoon snack:
2 nutri-grain cereal bars and a piece of fruit if I didn't have one with lunch.
Pre-workout snack:
1 turkey sandwich and some fruit or a nabisco snack pack (100 calorie low fat/carb cookies).
Dinner:
Could be either chili, bean salad, soup, or a casserole. Sometimes I'll have a weight watchers pizza or something along those lines instead.
Total calories approx. 2600-2800/day. Approx. 100-120g protein.

Man maybe I shouldn't have posted this... Yer probably going to laugh at me pretty bad. Sad isn't it?

To me the deficiencies seem to be noowhere near enough vegetables. To much prepackaged processed items w/high sodium and low overall nutritional value. IOW, to much "diet" food. I could also use more fruit as I tend to skip that on occasion.

Suggestions please? What good are sweet potatoes, btw, they seem real popular..? Would throwing a chicken breast in the microwave be a good alternative to some of this diet stuff I've been eating?

 

[Jodi]

Patience is given to those who choose to learn and help themselves. Those who read and educate themselves.

Ok starting with Meal 1: You need some protein here and the protein in Kashi isn't enough. Try adding a shake or better yet some eggs to go with it.

Meal 2: I'm not a fan of protein bars and feel MRP's are better. Either ones you buy or even better would be to make your own. Whey, oats and natural PB. As you need some veggies.

Meal 3: You need protein here and some veggies. Ditch the cereal bars. They are worthless.

meal 4: I hope that turkey sandwish is on Whole Grain bread. Stay away from those prepackaged foods such as cereal bars and snack cookies. Pure garbage. Keep the fruit add some veggies and some EFA's.

Meal 5: You need to redo this meal all together. Chicken, Fish, Steak etc. Veggies and a sweet potato or brown rice. Also some more EFA's

Meal 6; Hmmmmmm I don't see one. You need a meal right before bed. A good bedtime meal would be Lowfat cottage cheese and some EFA's. The cottage cheese is casein protein which is a slow digetive protein. Perfect for bed because you are about to sleep for 6-8 hours and you need the protein for muscle repair.

You seem to know where to start by getting rid of the packaged crap, adding in whole foods and veggies. Please read about EFA's because they very important in a diet. Sweet potatos are just that - they are called sweet potatos or yams and they are an orangish color.

 

[Riptide]

Thanks for the assist Jodi. It's appreciated.

 

[Riptide]

Are yams and sweet potatoes the same thing?

 

[WATTS]

yes, yams and sweet potatoes are the same thing, just different name

 

[Emma-Leigh]

Are yams and sweet potatoes the same thing?

No they are not... People just think they are!

They are completely different species....

Sweet potatos come from central America and are actually the storage root of the vine they grow on. They are a lot sweeter and moister than yams (they have less starch) and have more vitamin A than yams. They are smooth, small, thin skinned and 'blunt ended'.

There are a few types of sweet potato - the main two being different colours (yellow and orange). But basically, the only difference in these is that the orange one has more vitamin A. This is where lots of people gat confused as people sometimes use "yam" for the name of one of the deeper orange varieties of sweet potato....

Real yams are from Asia/Africa and are tubers, not roots. They are larger, are pale/white in colour (which also means they basically have no vitamin A) and are more starchy - so they are no-where near as sweet and moist. They are longer, have tapered ends and have thick skins.

Nutritionally speaking, yams are marginally better and have a lower GI and GL.

For 1/2 cup (cooked):
sweet potato
Cals - 103
protein - 2 grams
carbs - 24 grams
fat - <1 gram
fibre - 3 grams
GI - 61
GL - 17

yams
Cals - 79
protein - 1 gram
carbs - 19 grams
fat - <1 gram
fibre - 3 grams
GI - 37
GL - 13.2

 

[Riptide]

Thanks for the info! It is appreciated.

A couple more questions for you folks if you don't mind.

I went to the grocery store this weekend and did some shopping. I got some tuna fish, cottage cheese, veggies, and yams (not sweet potatoes, looks like I chose right there).

Here's the problem for me and I wondered what you guys might think. 4 of my meals are eaten @ home and aren't any problem to prepare. My two snacks during the day are at work however and it's tough to prepare food at work for me because of a couple different issues (no fridge, I don't take breaks). So for right now I'm still eating protein bars and fruit for my first snack and some other prepackaged crap for my second snack during the afternoon. What would make an easy to prepare substitute that I could bring to work and replace those snacks with? I want to get completely off this prepackaged stuff (barring the fruit anyway).

Thanks

 

[Emma-Leigh]

What would make an easy to prepare substitute that I could bring to work and replace those snacks with? I want to get completely off this prepackaged stuff (barring the fruit anyway).

Thanks

Well I wrote out a list of some of the stuff that I like to take as snacks on this thread: Snacks

Lots of things are quick and easy to take with you to work....

 

[ReelBigFish]

Regarding the "yams" that you bought, they prolly weren't yams. Yams are grown in s. america and are about the size of your arm. The yams you see in the store are sweet potatoes but are grown most likely in Louisana and down here they call them yams but really aren't. just my 2 cents.