Patient/caregiver was educated on measures to plan for ADA diet recommendation as follows:
- Prepare your meat on removing extra fat, before you cook it. Cutting away all the visible fat from the meat and/or roasting the meat on rack, can help with removing all the extra fat and calories from the meat.
- For meat, choosing fish, chicken, and turkey, over beef and pork, twice a week, can help cutting down on extra calories associated with beef and pork.
- While eating chicken and turkey, choose to have meat that is skinless as skin has more fat and is associated with more calories.
- Also, with white meat, choose to have more lean cuts of breast meat over thigh and leg pieces. Thigh and leg pieces comparatively have higher fat content and so, more calories.
- Choose to have your beef steak from sirloin or a tenderloin versus a ribeye, porterhouse, or a T-bone, as they have lesser amount of saturated fat and are comparatively healthier.
- Choose to have your pork steak from tenderloin or a top loin versus a center loin or a rib chop, as they have lesser amount of saturated fat and are comparatively healthier.
- Food acts as a source of emotional outlet or comfort measure for many during stressful situations. Keeping a close watch on your emotions, being aware of how they influence your behavior, and maintaining a list of all the emotions that have the potential to trigger your desire to eat, can help with cutting down on unwanted calorie consumption. In the event of any emotional factor influencing you to overeat, observing compliance with behavior modification and healthier alternative stress management measures, such as, talking to a counselor, addressing your emotions with family/friend, having some physical exercise, or taking some quiet alone time can help.
