#fitnessweek

Within the first week of my internship I got a task, which was to design a meal plan, that met all the requirements from the so called ‘kostprogram’ and I could only make use of recipes from Vægtkonsulenterne. Furthermore I should come up with a theme for the week, and also make kind of a sales speech for why this particular week plan is ideal to try out.

I should probably mention that this specific program, which is developed by Vægkonsulenterne themselves, is a unique program, where members are able to eat from all food groups, but they need to weigh their food and follow the guidelines within the program – this is fore example only to eat 3 fruit portions a day if you are a woman. Overall there is a lot of things which needs to fit together, and even though I know the program by memory, it wasn’t exactly easy to put this meal plan together.

I started out by brainstorming about what could be the main theme of the week. One of my learning objectives is to integrate more physical activity within the Vægtkonsulent concept, since a healthy lifestyle also requires regular physical activity. This is why the main theme of the week got the name: Fitness week! The guideline towards physical activity within this week ranges from 30-60 minutes a day. I also made a section where I described why it’s important to do physical activity every day and the benefits of doing it – both physical and psychological.

Some other thoughts about this week, was to include foods high in vitamins and minerals and thereby contributes to an efficient immune system, strengthen brain function and helps building up muscles. These vitamins and minerals are for instance vitamin C, E and most of the B-vitamins and selenium, zinc and calcium. I used a lot of knowledge from module 2, but I also needed to do some research, to find out what new things have been discovered within this field.

It took a long time for me to develop this meal plan – it was kind of a puzzle that wouldn’t fit together – again because all requirement in the program needed to be fulfilled. However, after doing a loooot of calorie calculations, both with help from the online recipe database from Vægtkonsulenterne and DTU’s foodcomp, I managed to make it all fit together, and the plan where ready to go online a few days after.

To make my idea more credible, I wanted to try out, the meal plan myself, and also get another perspective on it as well, which my good friend, Christina, signed up for. We ate according to the plan and did physical activity every day, and here is what came out of it:

Christina:

Lost 0.3 kg of pure fat.

Gained 0.3 kg of pure muscle mass.

Mie:

Lost 0.1 kg of pure fat (percent wise: from 31.1% fat to 30.4 fat).

Gained 1.3 kg of pure muscle mass.

Furthermore, both of our basal metabolic rates gone up. Psychological we both agreed that we had a lot more energy throughout the entire week and I slept all night long, without waking up in the middle of the night, which is a thing I am normally do.  

To some up, it was a good challenge and I feel like a gained a lot of knowledge about general nutrition but also learn how difficult it actually is to make an actual meal plan for a specific target group. Many things needs to fit together, and also you need to sell your idea to the audience, so they want to try it out.

Todays healthy fitness breakfast and lunch + a big smile from me! :-)

Breakfast: 100 g of skyr with homemade 'müsli' mad of 30 g of oats, lightly toasted on a hot pan in sukrin (natural sweetner), cinnamon and 1 tsp. of sugar free jam. Let it cool down on some baking paper and then you'll have a delicious crispy topping.