What Should I Eat In a Day??
What should I eat in a day, is probably one of the most common questions asked by clients/friends/family/followers.
The answer will be different for everyone, because it all depends on your lifestyle, preference of food, if you are vegetarian, vegan, gluten free or dairy free etc.
I believe that if you stick to the basics of healthy eating then modify that to suit your personal preference and lifestyle then you are on the right track.
So what are the basics?
The basics of eating healthy are:
- Consuming a variety of vegetables, try and have vegetables with every meal.
- Consuming a variety of fruit, nuts and seeds.
- Consuming enough fibre, protein, good fats and good carbohydrates.
- Drinking at least 1.5-3 litres of water per day.
- Consuming enough vitamins and minerals (you can get these from your food, you don't have to take supplements).
- Try not to have meat with every meal
- Eliminating processed foods and refined sugars.
- Eliminating sugary drinks such as fizzy, energy and sports drinks.
- Eating food that agrees with your digestive system, even some healthy foods aren't going to agree with our bodies.
-Be prepared by having meals organised for the week/next day.
-Always make food shopping a priority so you have food in the fridge/pantry and don't have to resort to buying take aways all the time.
- Buy as little food from the centre isles in the supermarket as possible.
- Buy fresh produce when you can, I like to shop at the local fruit and vegetable shop because I know it will be a lot fresher than most supermarkets.
What could a typical day look like:
BREAKFAST: 2 Eggs dairy free scrambled, with spinach on a piece of paleo toast
SNACK: Handful of activated nuts
LUNCH: Tuna nourish salad bowl
SNACK: Homemade hummus with celery sticks
DINNER: Roast sweet potato and pumpkin salad
AFTER DINNER: Herbal tea
This "typical day" would be a day I would be focusing on being 100% healthy with no treats. I would then follow this day with another day of 100% healthy. The next day I would again be 100% healthy until dinner time because I am going out to an Italian restaurant with my girlfriends- this would be a treat meal and part of my 20% of the week.
It is best not to class yourself as a specific diet type (unless your body can't process dairy or gluten, classing you as gluten or dairy free), it can actually make you fail with trying to eat healthier "diets don't work". If you put yourself on a strict diet 9 times out of 10 you will fall off the band wagon and end up right back to where you started.
If it works for your lifestyle to be paleo or keto or vegan and you can stick to it then that is great, good on you for finding a specific diet type that suits your lifestyle and works for you.
The majority of the population however find it hard to stick to a restricted diet that doesn't allow you to have foods that you love. That is why I recommend 'BALANCE'. 80% of what you eat should be healthy foods like what I've listed in the "healthy basics list" and 20% of what you eat/drink can be whatever you want.
To make that easier to understand 3 of your meals that you have in a week can be whatever you like that can be a wine or 2, chocolate, pizza or a hamburger...whatever you love the most that you know you shouldn't have all of the time.
This is what a typical day would look like with a treat meal included:
BREAKFAST: Oats with Chia, LSA, Almond butter and berries
SNACK: Activated nut mix
LUNCH: Broccoli, kale and chickpea bowl
SNACK: Cacao smoothie
DINNER: Slow cooked lamb pene pasta with a glass of rose
AFTER DINNER: Herbal Tea and a macaroon
Dinner and my after dinner treat is apart of my 20%, what makes it even better is you are actually more excited to spend some time with your girlfriends and appreciate the food a lot more because its not something that you would indulge in all the time.
FOR YOU TO DO:
-Create a meal plan for yourself using the 80/20 rule and see if you can stick to it for 7 days! (Be sure to include 3 days where one meal is a treat=20%, the rest of your meals healthy- use the basics guide to help you)
-Email me: balanced.active@gamil.com for a meal planner template
-If you don't know any healthy dishes check out my Instagram @PTWRENEE or search some recipes on Pintrest or Google.
S