When in Napa, do grapes!

I always tell my students that before making any big changes, it is wise to first understand where one stands and what the end goal is.

When I embarked in this MyPlate journey, sort of cold turkey,  almost 2 weeks ago, I did not realize how true those words would become to me. I had to take the time and learn about my habits first. How can you adopt new habits if you don't understand or know your current ones?

So far, one thing has become very clear to me: it is very complex to eat all the food groups, in the quantities proposed by MyPlate and keep your daily calories under control at the same time.

My daily plan is based on 1800 calories, and it should include:

• 6 oz of grains, 3 of which should be from whole grains
• 2 1/2 cups of vegetables
• 2 cups of fruits
• 3 cups of dairy
• 5 1/2 oz of protein

If you want to do this the right way, and focus on fresh foods, good fats, low sugar and lean meats, this is actually a lot of food.

The second lesson I learned so far, is that if I prefer to get certain nutrients such as calcium and proteins from alternative sources, like vegetables and beans, but the food tracker website is not really prepared to account for that. So the plan really "favors" certain food items like dairy products and animal sources for protein. I think this is an oversight that needs to be corrected.

I am not a cereal kind of person, it is not part of my cultural background, which is a major factor on food choices. I don't drink milk, so if I am to consume the allotted amount of dairy, I need to eat more cheese and yogurt, and that raises my fat and sugar consumption.

Which leads me to the third lesson I have learned; sugar is not tracked at all in this plan. There are meters for "empty calories", basically covering oils, saturated fats and sodium; but sugar is nowhere to be seen, except for the "fruits" category. And that is a MAJOR oversight, which makes the influence of the sugar industry very clear to me.

I have not been able to stabilize my nutrients daily graph yet, but I am not giving up; this is just the beginning. Next, I will be changing some of my habits, let's see how that will influence my graph.

Stay tuned!