When I imagine someone that fits the definition of malnourished, my mind goes straight to emaciation, bones protruding etc. I never thought that I, as a plus size woman, would be considered malnourished. The results  I've gathered from the site, MyPyramid.gov. are much more shocking than I thought they would be. After imputing 24 hours of my food intake into their program; my results really gave me a dose of reality. The first set of results is called the Dietary Guidelines. It compares your intake vs. the guideline recommendations. It uses emotion faces as indicators of your results.

Here are some of mine:

                     Intake:               Recommended:

veggies     1.2 c                    3.5c

  fruit          0.4 c                    2.0c

  sodium      3433 mg              less than 2300   

(this one was really disturbing as sodium can raise

pressure, cause water retention making you look bloated etc.)

I did have one and that was under the 'meat' category. My intake for the day I analyzed was 12.3 oz. The recommendation was 9 oz. Maybe I should have had one with a finger pointing at me; as this was obviously OVERdoing the meat, but I guess it was considered better than not having enough protein. I was lacking in all major nutrients like fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, Vitamin D, Iron. I guess it's just so much more shocking when it's in your face like that. And, what's amazing is that my calories were around 2300 for that day. 2300 calories and I don't have the proper nutrition! There were so many numbers that were so wrong, that it would be impossible not to be impacted. Sat. fat intake: 40.6 supposed to be 25.1. Cholesterol intake was 496 supposed to be 300 or less. This may not seem too severe for one day. But that's just it, it's only one day! Imagining the accumulation of years is a real wake up call. I am looking forward to studying up and finding out just what all of these 'things' do to and for your body. That should be really eye opening as I start this JOURNEY pretty blindly. I have known for far too long the external ramifications of what I ingest, now it's time to find out the internal ones.

I am very thankful to those that care about me enough to want to see me live, really live...knowledge is power and I intend to stop being powerless!!!