Hi everyone

I have started a new fitness and healthy eating plan. I'm 5'8, female, 27 years old, and 150 pounds. I have been going to the gym now for the past month 3-5 days a week to do weights and I generally do cardio outside of the gym but I am starting to do some HIIT now at the gym.
I read lots of the posts on nutrition in this forum (all the stickies) and figured out that I need to be taking in about 1800 calories a day, with a 50% carb, 30% protein and 20% fat split. I've been using fitday to track my intake and yesterday I was almost bang on with about 1840 calories.

Yesterday (and most working days) my diet consists of 5-6 smaller meals every 3 hours. I started by having a banana, some cottage cheese and unsweetened applesauce and some kashi cereal with soy milk. Next meal was more cottage cheese and applesauce. Then I went to the gym to do weights, and came back to have my third meal: protein shake and oatmeal and a banana. Dinner was a chicken breast, broccoli and cauliflower and a sweet potato.

I vary it a bit by day and include things such as almonds, tuna, salmon, tofu breakfast patties, egg white omeletes, other fruits and veggies.

How does this all sound? Should there be other things I should be adding or eliminating from my diet? Also, I plan to allow myself to have 1 cheat day a week- is this a good idea or not?

Thanks everyone!

First off, welcome to the boards! I think you'll like it here, everyone is very friendly and willing to help.

I think that looks like an excellent plan. One reccomendation -- incorporate some evaluation tactics into your plan. This will help you track your changes, let you know if your plan needs modification and fuel your motivation. Things like regular weighings, body fat tests and taking pictures of yourself will help you evaluate your results.

As for the cheat day, I think a little cheating is fine at first if it helps you stick to the overall program. However, you might think about having one or two cheat meals a week rather than one whole day. I think that people who have an entire day of cheating tend to go a little overboard, and a few cheat meals through the week offers nice flexibility to your plan.

Again, welcome. You have the education, now with a little work you can see great results!