Rate my eating habits!

[Drewno]

Just curious if there is anything that I'm leaving out here, or anything I should be working to improve on:

(What I ate yesterday)

10:45am: 1 myoplex (original) chocolate shake with 1.5 tbsp peanut butter, about 2 cups of water, and a handful of ice
12:25pm: about 1/4 pound of deli sliced lean turkey in sandwich form with two slices of whole wheat whole grain bread
2:45pm: 1 myoplex (original) chocolate shake with 1/2 banana, 5 strawberries, about 2 cups of water, and a handful of ice
5:45pm: 1 8oz chicken breast, marinated by me using olive oil + vinegar salad dressing the night before, half a head of broccoli, 1 banana (I know chicken + bananas usually don't mix), 2 tbsp ketchup.
8:45pm: 1 myoplex (original) chocolate shake with 1.5 tbsp peanut butter, about 2 cups of water, and a handful of ice
11:45pm: 1 8oz top sirloin steak, 1 small baked russet potato, 1/2 head of broccoli. 2 tbsp ketchup, some salt + pepper.

I don't regularly plan out the times, and I really just eat whenever I start to feel a bit hungry. I don't keep track of water on a daily basis because I drink a very large amount of it, and have no problems keeping up with the requirement.

I ordered a variety pack of original myoplex last month. I love the chocolate, the vanilla is 'ok', and the strawberry makes me want to wretch so with my new package I got 100% chocolate. I'm pretty sure I could drink 6 chocolate + peanut butter shakes a day and never get tired of them. My biggest problem with this plan is probably that I eat ketchup and salt with a lot of my meals. It's probably not terrible that I include those things, but I know it's not 'good' for me by any means. What's included above is pretty much all that I put in the meals: I don't put butter or cooking oil, or anything like that on any of the food. I boil or microwave the vegetables, and grill pretty much all the cooked meats.

I work out in the mornings just before my first meal. Typically I'll wake up, lounge around for about 30 minutes, work out, and then drink my first shake about a half hour later.

I started about 5 weeks ago at 235lbs, and right now am down to 221. My goal is not to be a giant mass of muscles, but rather to just be a damn fine looking guy at about 190lbs (When I was in fantastic shape in high school I was at 185lbs). Sadly I had to scrap the entire process during week 2 while I moved across the country, but I picked it back up and am back at week 3 right now (I restarted). For the weight training I'm very by the book: I have a set of dumbbells and a weight bench, and alternate between upper and lower body on Mon/Wed/Fri.

My major concerns are as followed:
A) How bad is it for me to marinate chicken using basic salad dressing overnight?
B) How bad is it to regularly put ketchup with meals?
C) How bad is it to regularly include 1.5 tbsp of peanut butter with my shakes?
D) Should I be taking a multivitamin with this plan?
E) How bad is it if I occasionally ditch one of the shake meals per day and only go with eating 5 meals? Sometimes I'm just really not hungry at all towards the end of the day even though usually I squeeze in 6 anyways.
F) How bad is it to be consuming whole wheat whole grain bread? Specifically how bad is it to be eating, for example, a chicken sandwich or hamburger on a whole grain whole wheat bun?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can provide for me, and thanks for keeping this site going - It's the best source of BFL information I've found yet, and I hope to be a regular poster here.

[Chris]

First off, your meal plan looks great. I have a few minor tweaks for you, but they will be addressed as I answer your questions from above.

A: Not bad, in fact it's good for you.
B: Ketchup isn't terrible for you, but it's less than optimal. Try to just cut back on it, but there's no need to eliminate it, IMO.
C: As long and your pb is NATURAL pb (Jiff, skippy, etc. all contain trans fat and sugar, i.e. bad stuff), it's fine to include it in your shakes. The one exception would be after a workout. Fat slows carb digestion, which is good most of the time. Immediately after a workout you need to blast your metabolism with fast digesting carbs. This will keep you burning all day. So drop the pb immediately after your workout, but include it any other time (no more than 2x per day though).
D: Yes, absolutely! Get a high quality mulit. GNC's mega men is good, so is NOW Adam.
E: It's better to get 6 meals, but it's ok to occasionally only get 5 meals. As long as you eat every 2-3 hours, that's all you need to worry about (and this means some days you may even eat 7 meals).
F: Whole wheat bread is what you're supposed to be eating. Whole grains are slow digesting, complex carbohydrates. Eat up!

Sounds like you're doing great! Keep it up!

[RobBroadhurst]

Originally Posted by Chris

The one exception would be after a workout. Fat slows carb digestion, which is good most of the time. Immediately after a workout you need to blast your metabolism with fast digesting carbs. This will keep you burning all day. So drop the pb immediately after your workout, but include it any other time (no more than 2x per day though).

I didn't know that, that's very interesting! Good tips, Chris.