Let's Talk Food Pyramids

I found a food pyramid that I've been studying for the past few days.  I'm also working on my personal food pyramid.  I thought it would be interesting to put the food pyramid that I'm working toward following and the food pyramid that depicts my current eating habits side by side to see how they compare.  (Yikes!)

The truth about what I'm eating now:

Daily:  breads and pasta, fruits (most days), "dairy" may not be the same as "cheese and yogurt" because I usually have an egg and milk every day, and sweets.

A Few Times a Week: beans and nuts, vegetables, poultry, red meat

A Few Times a Month: Fish (I try anyway).

I'll draw that up and put it side by side with this pyramid.  Doesn't seem like I'm too far off really.  Cut down on the sweets and red meat and increase the vegetables and I should be doing pretty well.

Today, I did pretty well.  No fast food, no cupcakes, no red meat.  

I do believe that simply thinking about these things has already helped me in subtle ways.  For instance, I was standing in line at the grocery store this evening.  On the shelf next to me was a box of butter finger peanut butter cups.  Seeing that beautiful ButterFinger orange I instinctively put one of the packages no the counter.  But then something happened.  My mind kicked in and said, "Sarah, does that really sound good?"  The answer was no.  

Then the next question,"are you even hungry?"  Not necessarily, was the answer.  

And then, "why are you getting that?"  I didn't have a good response and so I put the candy back.  

It was soon after I began to consider the food pyramid once again and to remind myself of the minor role sweets are supposed to play in a person's diet.  

This is a sign of gradual change and I'm feeling encouraged!  

My goal tomorrow is to avoid eating sweets.  Now I'm not including mints into this category because I find that if I'm trying to avoid over-eating then it's best if I can at least have something for oral occupation such as gum or mints.  I'll let you know how I do!