now i have my chart...

and im dismayed.

at least that's how i felt the first time i looked at my sorry list of a week's worth of food diaries. when i saw what i was REALLY feeding myself - or not feeding myself - i was appalled. now what, i wondered?

the first guideline i received was to eat a complete protein food at each meal. so what does that mean, i remember wondering. what proteins am i supposed to eat?

Annie, answered the Angels gently, what kind do you LIKE?

so the third step - after you've kept a list of what you really eat for a few days, and made your first rainbow chart, is to make another chart, a blank one this time, with lots of space. your chart should have the following categories:

white

red
orange
yellow
green
blue/purple/black

brown

processed/artificial

fats

sweets

some of the categories do overlap. many foods fall into more than one category. the key is to put them where they feel like they belong to YOU. for example, i put chocolate in hte sweets category, originally. it feels like a treat to me, so that's where i put it. i put french fries from mickey d's in fats, not cause they are made of just fat, but because they FEEL fat when i eat them. and then i feel fat, too. but we all need a little cushion in our lives, which is what fat helps do, and the Angels don't want us to feel denied or deprived.

however, the most important thing to keep in mind as you begin to fill in each category is what foods do YOU like in each category. this is not for your family, your partner, your children, your room-mate. fill the chart in with the foods you would prefer to eat every day. include foods you could easily eat every day. for example, i love yogurt so much that if i had to exist on it alone for the rest of my life, i'd be happy. yogurt is a complete protein food, so it went down first in my white-foods category.

so... what is it you love to eat?