Find out your current Nutritionally Fit to Live level:
1. Describe your normal eating pattern:
a. No time for meals: You tend to graze whenever and wherever you can. Fast-food restaurant workers know you by name.
b. Hitting it mostly right: Usually you eat three healthy meals a day.
c. Eating the right amount of the right things: You eat three modest healthy meals and two or three appropriate-size healthy snacks.
2. You've just had a day from hell. The boss hated your report, you just found out that your checking account is overdrawn, and your kid is flunking Spanish. So you:
a. Stuff your face with as many Doritos as you can.
b. Allow yourself a modest indulgence like a small piece of dark chocolate.
c. Comfort yourself with a good book, a soak in the tub, or a run.
3. Do you eat breakfast every day?
a. Absolutely.
b. Most days you'll grab a bran muffin or have a bowl of cereal.
c. Yeah, right. You're too busy racing out the door to work to be bothered. Besides, it's a great way to take or keep weight off.
4. How many alcoholic drinks do you have each week?
a. 0 or 1.
b. 2 to 6.
c. Who's counting? But if you had to, it's 7 or more.
5. If you live with other people, how often do you sit down and eat as a family?
a. You're off in all directions, so almost never unless you're going through the drive-through together.
b. At least one meal a day, usually breakfast or dinner.
c. Sporadically; more likely to happen on weekends.
6. When it comes to food labels you:
a. Glance at the front of the package. Who can understand those darn things on the back anyway? Besides, you love the taste. That's why you're buying it.
b. Scan the Nutrition Facts for fat or sodium levels.
c. Make purchases based on both Nutrition Facts and ingredients.
7. Your work is full of food challenges--bowls of candy, the vending machine, pizza and fried food in the cafeteria--or you are a Road Warrior and often find yourself at the airport or minibar with similar choices. You:
a. Look for the least bad thing--like salad or nuts.
b. Eat whatever is there and hate yourself later.
c. Keep healthy snacks and emergency food like power bars in your briefcase so you can have healthy alternatives.
8. How many servings of fruits and vegetables do you eat each day?
a. Do french fries count? If not, you'd guess 0 to 2, but you're not quite sure what a serving size is anyway.
b. 3 to 6.
c. You can't get enough--7 to 10.
9. What's the most common beverage in your day?
a. A good balance of water, lots of herbal tea, and up to 3 cups of caffeinated coffee or tea.
b. Mostly caffeinated sodas and coffee. You singlehandedly keep Starbuck's and Coca-Cola in business.
c. A lot of water, but also some carbonated and caffeinated drinks.
10. It's Thanksgiving and you're at your mother-in-law's house. You:
a. Stuff yourself with whatever there is. After all, it's a special occasion. Plus you don't want to make waves.
b. Take small servings of the fatty meats, larger servings of whatever vegetables are offered, and exclaim you are "too full from all that wonderful food" to indulge in dessert.
c. Arrive bearing gifts! Bring a vegetable tray with low-fat dip, salad, or a colorful fruit platter or other healthy food. Even if they won't touch the stuff, you'll be covered!
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Fitness Assessments are reprinted with permission from Fit to Live by Pam Peeke. Copyright 2007 by Pamela Peeke, MD. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc. Emmaus, PA 18098. Available at the Discovery Store, directly from the publisher by calling (800) 848-4735, or wherever books are sold.
