My eats, MyPyramid.gov and Carbs

Hello blog readers!
Food first, then other stuff.
B - banana
L - quesadilla made up of flour tortilla, tomato, cheese and cilantro, Campbell's light italian veggie soup
Snack - 1.5 serving reduced fat triscuit, 1 wedge laughing cow cheese
D - 2 Morning Star Farms ginger teriyaki veggie cakes, 1.5 cups baby spinach with tomato, avocado, feta cheese and salsa verde, small peach, 1 serving Ghirardelli dark chocolate
Snack - cashew cookie flavored Lara bar
I'm calorie cycling and today is supposed to be an up day but I'm not going to reach the number that I should. Ah well.
I found a link to MyPyramid.govhttp://www.mypyramid.gov/ this evening and have really enjoyed looking around. There's a section to customize your nutritional needs based on age/weight/height and/or you can base it on desired calories. I'm happy to report that I pretty much eat what I'm supposed to as far as grains, veggies, fruits and meat and beans. The only area that I lack in is milk. I hate drinking milk and I go through stages of liking yogurt and am not currently in that stage. Go there and check it out!
I wanted to touch on the subject of carbohydrates. I will preface this by saying that I am so not hating on low carb eaters but this is from reading that I've done and personal experience. I've done a low carb diet (Atkins) and was successful. I lost around 50 pounds in about a 6 month time period, butttttttt, for me it just wasn't sustainable. What I love about low calorie eating is that you can have a wonderful variety. Our bodies need carbs, good carbs. What's the difference between a good carb and bad carb you ask? Well, (and this is taken from goodcarbs.orghttp://www.goodcarbs.org/) the best of the best "good carbs" are unprocessed, or close to it, foods. This ecompasses fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. Your second tier of good carbs is whole grains. Bad carbs are refined and processed foods including, white breads and pastas, candies, snack foods, etcetera. Why do our bodies need carbohydrates? Simply? Carbs are fuel for our bodies and the foods that this energizer are packaged in contain tons of nutrients, fiber, vitamins, etc. that our bodies need to function properly. All this being said, I do try to keep my carbs within a certain percentage but I'm definitely not turning my nose up at them, love them! The Lara bar that I professed my love for the other day contains 23 grams. If I'm remembering correctly, the daily allowance once out of the intro part of Atkins calls for no more than 20 grams per day. But look at the Lara bar that I'm about to eat, ingredients are cashews and dates. Two wonderful sources carbohydrates but also of fat, nutrients and fiber that are also incredibly important components for our diets that I would be missing out on if I was low carbing it. All this to say, please do your research before jumping on the latest and greatest dieting crazes, quick fixes, worked for Aunt Sally's fifth cousin, etc. You only get one body; do your best to run it at optimum levels.
til tomorrow, TGIF!
Oh, oh, oh, as this is a food blog and until I get a working camera again, I leave you with a picture courtesy of my camera phone of my fave food of the moment