A plan for healthy eating involves a multi-stage approach. Sounds difficult but really isn’t. Knowledge is the starting point – without knowledge you can’t plan. So to begin with, you need to understand a few basics or technical aspects to plan for healthy eating.
The 5 Knowledge stones to your plan for healthy eating are:
- Knowing how much and how often to eat.
- Knowing how to eat – sounds ridiculous? Believe me, this one will be an eye-opener.
- Knowing how to control your food intake.
- Knowing the relationship between the food we eat and the activity level.
- Knowing how vitamins, minerals, proteins and fats interact, metabolize and keep us healthy.
So, how much to eat and how often to eat?
When you’re drawing up a plan for healthy eating, first off, you don’t need to precisely measure everything you eat for the rest of your life but you do need to measure everything for the first month. Trust me, after the first month you will automatically know how much food is the right quantity. Also, here are a few tips that will help you ensure you don’t over eat and that your plan for healthy eating does not go haywire.
My Plan for healthy eating calls for five small meals a day.
Your breakfast should be approximately 60% of your current quantity. Sure enough, you will feel hungry in a few hours. Have another meal consisting of a light, 2-slice whole grain healthy sandwich or a small apple or some other small fruit. Drink some water.
At lunch, eat 60% of your current quantity and a few hours later follow it up with a small bowl of soup or a small glass of fruit juice. Your fifth and final meal of the day should be had no later than 8 p.m. and again, should be no more than 60% of your current quantity and preferably not contain any meats.
Avoid eating in front of the TV. Preferably, stop whatever you are doing.
Eating is a whole activity by itself and although you might pride yourself about your multi-tasking abilities, this one activity needs to be done on its own – the state of mind does matter when eating.
Here are some more pointers how to eat healthy:
- If you were using 9-inch plates, use smaller ones – 7-inch plates should do well.
- Serve yourself one-third less than what you normally used to
- Pay attention to the chewing process and chew the food attentively and carefully
- While chewing the food, figure out the various flavors. See if you can figure out what has gone into the food
- After the first few mouthfuls, begin to pay careful attention to your stomach – look out for the “I’m full” signal. Trust me, the stomach does talk.