Eating a full, nutritionally balanced meal makes it less likely for people to “top up” on convinent, highly processed snacks. So wherever possible, aim to make as many of your daily meals balanced, like in the Healthy Eating Plate below…
To make your meals more balanced:
- Look at the next meal on your plate.
- Map the different foods onto the Healthy Eating Plate categories below:
- Fruit
- Vegetable
- Healthy protein
- Wholegrains
- “Treats”
- See if there are foods missing from your meal, or if the proportions are way out.
- Decide how you can improve your meal the next time you make it.
It is as simple as that! Of course, there are other ways it can be used, and depending on the person and the situation, I might use different methods, but the above steps work for most of the people, most of the time.
Fruit and Veg
Hopefully these should be faily obvious. We all could benefit from plenty of different fruit and veg. The more variety, the better. When I was learning this stuff, I was told a line that has stuck with me all this time:
“No one has ever gotten fat from eating too much fruit and veg… so tuck in!”
Fresh, frozen, whizzed in a blender… I don’t care, as long as it gets in your belly.
Healthy protein
The protein we eat is used to build and repair our own bodies. To get an excellent idea of protein, click here to the clever people at Harvard for more.
Wholegrains
Wholegrains give us energy and importantly, fibre. Again, see what Harvard has to say about them here.
Treats
I put everything that doesn’t belong in the above categories, in the “treats” pile. Nothing wrong with treats, but they are not nutritionally needed in our meals. Because of this, if you are looking to cut back on your calories, these are the foods that you should look at first.
Personal Weight Loss Coaching
If you want or need help changing your eating and exercise habits for the better, make sure you click here to check out my Weight Loss Coaching service – My Healthy Behaviour Coaching programme to help you change your life for the better.