Tracking foods can either be prescriptive or descriptive - meaning you either write your foods down ahead of time and eat them (prescribing your diet) or you write your foods down after the fact (describing your diet). the closer you get to prescription, the more likely you are to succeed in your fitness goals.

Today I prescribed all but dinner. Dinner is the only meal I don't prepare myself (my wife likes to cook - and fortunately, she makes healthy meals). Usually by dinner time, I need 500 to 700 calories, so winging that meal is easy.

I'm trying to be better about planning my foods in advance so I don't have a repeat of lunch yesterday.

Yesterday
Calories and macronutrient totals turned out well yesterday, in spite of the botched order from Taco Bell. I didn't have enough food for lunch, so I went to taco bell for my usual chicken gordita fresco style (three of these come out to 690 calories, they're low in fat and high in protein.) Unfortunately, what I got in the bag was some bizarre thing they don't have on the menu. Instead of the usual gordita bread, I gordita bread glued to a taco shell with cheese. That weird concoction added 400 calories to the meal!

Choices
Thinking back, I did have some choices. I could have eaten the 375 calories of soup that I brought and eaten one snack wrap from McDonalds, or one gordita from Taco Bell... but instead, I opted to get my entire meal from Taco Bell. Heck... if you get right down to it, I could have had two servings of soup and skipped the fast food altogether. I could have even taken the taco shells and cheese off and eaten what was left - that would have been what I ordered.

What I ended up doing was calculating the calories and macronutrients, then eating 2 of the 3 gorditas with the taco shell, and one gordita without the taco shell. That meal was over 1000 calories.

Variety?
I'm trying to get down to the reason I decided to do what I did. Did I just want a change? Maybe. I eat soup and tuna every day for lunch. In fact, every day is pretty much a carbon copy of the last.

Breakfast: flax enhanced PB+J with milk.
Snack: fruit + 2 servings cottage cheese
Lunch: soup + tuna + potatoes
Snack: fruit + 2 servings cottage cheese
Dinner: Wildcard

To be honest, I'm pretty happy with that menu right now. I don't feel like I'm stuck in a rut... Dinner is the way I introduce variety into my menu.

There is a lot of sodium in there, but there are some great natural foods, too: potatoes, raw tuna, fruit, fat free cottage cheese... these are all great foods! The flax enhanced bread and flax enhanced peanut butter are good additions, too.

Good Food Choices
Tom Venuto has a paper titled "The A-Food, B-Food Lecture" in which he produces lists of foods broken down by macronutrient (protein, fat, carb) and nutrient value. Each food receives a grade from A+ to F.

Identifying Grade A vegetable foods is easy. Just ask yourself, "Did this food come from the ground or off the tree this way?" (Venuto, p.2) Proteins are a little trickier because some meat that comes "straight from the bone" is not very healthy. (Bacon, for example). Skinless chicken, egg whites and most fish are Grade A proteins.

The A+ List
There are lots of good A+ carbs in the list (broccoli, black-eyed peas, lentils, long grain brown rice, oatmeal), but surprisingly few A+ proteins. The only A+ proteins he lists are salmon, rainbow trout and herring. I thought for sure albacore tuna would make the list. A+ grade fats are flax oil, a product called Udo's Choice (EFA blend), and fish fat.

The A List
One step down is the A list. A grade carbs include red and white potatoes, carrots, and all fresh fruit. A grade proteins include turkey breast, shellfish, top round steak, non-fat cottage cheese and whey protein (as well as chicken, egg whites...etc. mentioned earlier) No A grade fats are listed... though he does mention that foods containing flax seed oil or fish oil qualify. (Tuna is probably here, though it isn't specifically mentioned. It gets a slight ding for being high in sodium.)

The B List
B grade carbs include 100% whole grain bread and white rice. B grade proteins include non fat cheeses, 1% low fat cottage cheese, and sliced chicken or turkey breast. Natural peanut butter ranks in with the B grade fats, though I think the flax-seed peanut butter deserves a B+.

...and the rest
C and D foods are increasingly processed, sweetened and fatty. F foods contain sulfites, hydrogenated oils, and/or excessive sugar and fat.

I keep 4 of my 5 to 6 meals per day in the A/B range. Dinner is probably a C on most days. Sometimes there will be pasta or cheese... but in small to moderate amounts. My goal is to have a stage-ready physique and get some professional photos done at my peak... In the weeks leading to the shoot, I will be eating A and A+ foods exclusively.