Finding a healthy eating plan has been a struggle for thousands of people. In fact, this plays a big role in the obesity epidemic of late. Think about it; did you start eating fast food, processed foods, and sugar because you wanted to gain weight? Did you gain weight because you thought it would be cool to get fat? Or was it just easier to grab something from the corner fast food chain? Or maybe even just less time consuming to heat up a frozen dinner? You get the point; eating choices are made based on convenience and ease.
But here is the good news, eating healthy is much easier than many realize. A healthy food pyramid is based on a diet full of vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy, and nuts and grains. There really isn’t much to it. So, what you want to do is focus your meals around these foods. To make it even easier, so you don’t have to worry about how many portions you had of each, have 1 portion of each at every meal.
Since replacing your entire menu may seem a little overwhelming, start with one meal at a time. Dinner, for example, start with a lean piece of pork, broccoli, pineapple, and vanilla yogurt topped with walnuts. There are, obviously, many variations to this meal. Point is, it is quite simple to come up with a well-rounded meal that includes all the necessary ingredients.
Once you have successfully replaced one meal, move on to the next. Each meal should only take a couple of days of implement. Let’s say four days tops, for each meal. By day 12 you should be eating at least three well balanced meals; meals that increase your metabolism and help your body to function more efficiently. Now you will want implement 2-3 snacks each day. To do this you may need to cut down the amount that you eat at any given sitting.
The goal here is to be eating 5-6 smaller meals every day, typically about three hours apart. This not only helps to increase your metabolism, but it also keeps you from getting too hungry and it helps to eliminate the cravings for the “not so healthy” foods that you are eating now. So, rule of thumb, no serving should ever be larger than one cup, another cause of obesity, large portions.
Finally, stop eating when you are full – yes, even if there is still food on your plate. (Over time you will learn to portion your food to your appetite which will lead to much less food thrown away.) Some of you may be thinking that this sounds easy enough but you still have no idea what to prepare. Preparing the food is the fun part, experiment and enjoy it. Make a menu before you shop, plan out your meals, you will find that this comes much more naturally than you thought. Work it one healthy meal at a time.
