DASH Diet thread

zeejane03

We've lost power on and off all morning so we'll see how the rest of the day goes. I was packing up fridge food to head over to my in-laws when it came on the last time, what a pain in the bum!

Woke up feeling back to normal again, so should be a good DASH day (unless we lose power again and we end up at McDs for lunch ).

zeejane03

Fruit -- 1
Veg -- 5
Dairy -- 2.5
Whole Grains & Beans- 4
Meat (oz) -- 3oz shrimp
Added fat -- olives; 2tbs regular ranch dressing
Nuts and seeds --
Added sugar -- yes: fat free Catalina dressing

emmamcgarity

Fruit -- 6
Veg -- 4
Dairy -- 1
Whole Grains - 2
Meat (oz) -- 5 oz
Added fat -- 2+ (oil from chicken nuggets from chick fil a)
Nuts and seeds --1 (chocolate covered almonds from kid fundraiser)
Added sugar -- yes

Amazingly I did not go over on calories...

lemurcat2

Using the Oregon spreadsheet with my modifications as explained above:

Fruit -- 3-4 servings: 4.5 (apple, rhubarb, strawberries, avocado)
Veg -- 4+ servings: 10.5 servings
Dairy -- 2-3 servings: 2 servings
Whole grains, beans, etc. -- 2.5 servings
Meat -- 3-6 oz: 4 oz
Nuts and seeds -- 1-2 servings (28 g/serving): 0.5 serving

Fiber at 42.4, omega-3 to omega-6 ratio good, protein 91, which is good, vitamins low on only D, which I supplement, minerals 98% on calcium and 89% iron but hit the rest. Cals 1645 so on point.

zeejane03

We've had power on and off since yesterday and more nasty weather to come today-tomorrow. I may not be around for a few days, but I'm still DASH'ing

emmamcgarity

Good luck with the weather! It’s starting to look dreary out here in the south too...

zeejane03

emmamcgarity wrote: »

Good luck with the weather! It’s starting to look dreary out here in the south too...

So far it's stayed on today, though ice is falling off the trees like crazy as we get a few hours of warmer temps this afternoon, before it drops again (and then the wind and snow will come blech).

I spent some time doing freezer inventory today and I went through my small deep freezer-realized I have over 10 bags of riced cauliflower, don't even remember buying them.... So, I had riced cauliflower for lunch today lol, along with stir fry veggies and more shrimp (I probably shouldn't be eating it every day but it's so easy to throw into things and it has good protein for lower calories). I did 1 cup of the cauliflower so I counted it as two veggie servings, and then skipped my usual white ricel- I need to start doing this more!

emmamcgarity

I am doing roasted cauliflower tonight with pork loin. I also have several bags of frozen rices cauliflower. It’s a great sub for rice when I want to lower the calories

lemurcat2

Weird day, I wasn't really hungry and wonder if I'm getting sick. Didn't log, but had about 3 servings of fruit, 5 servings of veg, a serving of dairy, and serving of nuts, and no grains or legumes -- likely not great on fiber or calcium. Had lots of coffee so that helps with potassium.

emmamcgarity

Fruit 6
Veggie 6
Dairy 2
Whole grain 1
Oil 0.5
Meat 5 oz

Overall a good day. On point in calories. Outing with a friend tomorrow likely not to be DASH friendly

zeejane03

Been playing around with different options for tracking, especially in an app format. Surprised at the limited options for tracking DASH, you'd think it would be more popular? Did find an app, called MealLogger (I have an android) that is based on servings for different categories (cute little food icons mark each serving-the symbol for fish is adorable lol). It's being advertised as a food picture app, but you can skip that part and just do the servings tracking. It was free and had ok reviews so I installed it.

Was liking the overall simplicity of it, (doesn't really track calories/macros, just number of servings), and then I discovered they have a limited amount of diet plans that you can integrate-including DASH yay! There's a 1,600 calorie or a 2,000 calorie option (this adjusts the amount of servings) so I chose the 1,600 one (which is close to my maintenance intake). As you add servings it also tracks how you're doing with the DASH guidelines, pretty neat It's not a fancy app and is very basic, but I'm going to try it for a few days and see how it goes.

lemurcat2

Nice! I'm going out to dinner tonight (Indian food), so will certainly have grains, but not whole grains. Ah, well. I should be able to easily eat vegetarian, though.

zeejane03

Grains (all): 7
Veg: 11
Fruit: 2
Dairy: 2.5
Meat: 3oz shrimp
Fat: 2 (light mayo-generous portion and chipotle southwest sauce)
Added sugar: teriyaki sauce and a cookie (Subway M&M cookie, yum!)

Had Subway for supper and indulged a bit, but it's the weekend so it's all good

emmamcgarity

That sounds like a great app! I had oatmeal at breakfast then lunch out with a friend (Mexican food). I chose a carne guisada that had potatoes and mushrooms mixed in. Dinner is pizza since I got my grandson at the last minute. So it hasn’t been a great day DASH wise. But the scale indicated I am 0.2 from my pre holiday weight. I know that days like today aren’t my normal day. I may have yogurt and fruit for dessert to help balance it out a bit

lemurcat2

Grains (all): 4 (but only one whole); Legumes: lentils: 1
Veg: 7
Fruit: 3
Dairy: 1
Meat: 3 oz chicken breast
Nuts: 1

Lots of fat today. Did not go totally overboard at the restaurant. Did not log.

Actually having pizza (probably) tomorrow, from here: http://nellachicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nella_DinnerMenu_2017_1013.pdf. Will probably eat lightly the rest of the day to make room.

trisH_7183

Good morning. Lots of info on your thread.The DASH way of eating seems fairly close to my normal diet. The problem is,the more I read...about different DASH plans there are,the more confused I get.
The 1400 plan is my choice,but can’t find a tracking plan to copy. Ipad doesn’t do Google docs spread sheets.

Have read the posts & will do again.Thanks for all the shared info.

zeejane03

trisH_7183 wrote: »

Good morning. Lots of info on your thread.The DASH way of eating seems fairly close to my normal diet. The problem is,the more I read...about different DASH plans there are,the more confused I get.
The 1400 plan is my choice,but can’t find a tracking plan to copy. Ipad doesn’t do Google docs spread sheets.

Have read the posts & will do again.Thanks for all the shared info.

Starting out I just made my own tracking area on a google doc (using the information from the NIH site, for the 1,400 calorie intake). Now I'm experimenting with an app I found to track my servings, I'm going to see which tracking option I like better over the next few days.

We've love to have you join in with us-don't worry about tracking perfectly or hitting all the recommended servings every day, it's all in fun

sonyuq

Trying to follow the DASH diet hubby and I bot on BP meds trying to get off. The only thing I have problems with is the protein we like more than 3 oz a day but am tracking what we eat.

lemurcat2

Welcome to the thread, new folks!

emmamcgarity

sonyuq wrote: »

Trying to follow the DASH diet hubby and I bot on BP meds trying to get off. The only thing I have problems with is the protein we like more than 3 oz a day but am tracking what we eat.

I’ll admit that my normal diet has far more meat than DASH. Tracking in this thread has made me think of other options. A smaller portion of meat with black beans added in is just as satisfying for me. Plain Greek yogurt in lieu of sour cream with reduced fat cheese on a baked potato feels indulgent and goes well with DASH since potatoes are potassium rich. The kids were excited when I made eggplant Parmesan for dinner last week. I used a heart healthy premade pasta sauce and thought my protein would be lower but it was right in the range the MFP default settings use. I think the emphasis on dairy helps with protein. Sodium is hard to avoid but I’m noticing that it naturally goes lower in the app when I eat more Whole Foods. Not sure what today will bring for me food wise. I have lots of errands and don’t know yet if my meals will be at home or out.

margbarco

Thank you zeejane03 for starting this thread and to everyone who’s contributed all this great info!

I just finished reading “Blood Pressure Down” and have been trying out the DASH diet for a few days. My family history has hypertension and I’ve had a few borderline blood pressure readings when I’ve been super nervous at the doctor’s office.

I’ve lost 17 pounds since the summer and I’m trying to get 30-45 minutes of moderate exercise 6 days per week (in addition to my daily 12K step goal). I hope that eating a DASH diet along with my other lifestyle changes will keep hypertension at bay!

emmamcgarity

Welcome!!

zeejane03

Grains & Beans (all): 5
Veg: 6
Fruit: 2
Dairy: 4
Meat: 4oz shrimp and 2 eggs
Fat: x
Added sugar: 1/2 piece of homemade fudge (made it for a church bake sale and had to do some quality assurance ); fat free Catalina dressing, cocktail sauce

Hit maintenance calorie intake again today (or just slightly above). Was doing well, with 300 calories left for supper-then I went grocery shopping at Aldi and ended up with a few items I'd never seen before. Supper ended up being 1.5 servings of breaded jumbo shrimp (so good!), with Wheat Thins and this amazing Greek yogurt dip (Parmesan Spinach flavored). Still stuck with DASH for the most part, besides being a bit higher on the meat and dairy numbers (I had the eggs with my lunch salad, before the shrimp happened lol). Tomorrow I'll be more intentional about hitting my calorie target.

emmamcgarity

I’m doing ok on calories but my sodium is through the roof due to frozen and canned foods. I’ve been playing with meal logger and it seems to punish me if I go over on fruit servings. That was not my interpretation of DASH

zeejane03

emmamcgarity wrote: »

I’m doing ok on calories but my sodium is through the roof due to frozen and canned foods. I’ve been playing with meal logger and it seems to punish me if I go over on fruit servings. That was not my interpretation of DASH

I'm just using it more to keep count, with the DASH plan integrated to my meals I can click on that bar thing on the top of my diary and it pulls up how much of each category I've had that day. I'm ignoring the colored circles with percentages though, yesterday it had me at a 0% red, because I ate so many veggies lol.

Another app I already have is Goal Meter (there was a small fee, 2.99 I think?). That one you can make goals for anything and earlier I had categories/goals set up for when I was experimenting with Dr. Gregers Daily Dozen list. I may try it out for DASH-it takes some time to set up all the goals though (you manually have to do each one). It might work though if I did a weekly or monthly format, but then I wouldn't be focusing on my daily totals.

I'll keep tweaking until I find a good tracking system

There was talk of a DASH app being developed through a university, I read a couple articles about it and saw some screenshots-it looked perfect, but I don't think it was ever released. It still boggles my mind that there's not a DASH tracking app out there, with it being a check-off system it just makes sense to have an app!

emmamcgarity

Back when I did WW they had checkboxes at the bottom to track the good health guidelines (which are basically DASH). I miss that. But I am happy tracking calories instead of points. And from what I understand the new WW program no longer has those checkboxes in the app

zeejane03

Ok, found another app that seems very promising for checking off servings-called Thing Counter (free). Very simple-you set up different things to checkoff (so I have all the DASH categories set up) and then you just add/subtract as you eat servings. There's a reset to zero option on the top, so at the end of the day you can reset all the categories (it looks like it saves a history though). You can have it make a clicking noise every time you add a serving, or it will speak it, kind of fun lol.

This would be a very basic counting/tally option, might be a nicer option than tracking on paper though (especially since I've been tracking on a google doc on my desktop in my bedroom and I can take my phone into the kitchen)

if you click on the link-look at the first example, with the different colored boxes. I have those boxes filled in with the different DASH categories (Grains, Veggies, Fruit, etc)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.sleak.thingcounter&hl=en_US

emmamcgarity

My sister set up checkboxes in “notes” in her iPhone for each serving and was using it to keep track daily. I don’t know if android has a similar feature

zeejane03

emmamcgarity wrote: »

My sister set up checkboxes in “notes” in her iPhone for each serving and was using it to keep track daily. I don’t know if android has a similar feature

Hmmm, I'll have to look into that for an android option, thanks!

I have such a hard time remembering how many servings I've put together in salads, stirfrys, etc by the time I get it put together, tidy up the kitchen, eat it and then get back to my desktop to record it all-such a silly problem to have but I spend half my lunch time trying to remember the number of servings of what's in my darn bowl

margbarco

emmamcgarity wrote: »

Welcome!!

Thanks!