How to Create a Balanced Diet Plan That Works for You?
And that you can stick to forever (hopefully)
Hey there,
So a little about my newsletters from now on, it’s going to be sent out each day covering a different topic. Here are my schedules moving forward:
Relationships (Monday)
Health (Wednesday)
Wealth (Friday)
Purpose (Sunday)
This way I can be more in-depth with each topic and give you guys the value you deserve (and a little variety too)!
Topic of the day: How to Create a Balanced Diet Plan That Works for You?
So, back to the balanced diet.
Trust me when I say it can be so f**king hard to maintain a balanced diet. If I were to identify the causes, I could think of several reasons:
Busy schedules: I work a 9-5 and I work some more after work so I often get in a quick meal which usually ends up being instant noodles.
Eating out is cheaper: In my country, eating out can sometimes be cheaper than cooking it yourself especially if you live alone. Sometimes when I buy groceries, I waste a lot of them, which is more expensive than if I buy it outside. Plus, I don’t need to cook, wash, or wait ages before my food is done.
Lack of knowledge: I know I need my veggies and I know I need to reduce carbs to help my weight loss goal but I don’t see anything happening??? Plus, I’m not great at making my food taste good.
Healthy is sometimes boring: I mean I crave more sweets, cakes and ice cream than grilled chicken. And the temptation is reeeaaalll.
If it’s so hard to maintain a balanced diet, how can I ever get healthy?
Well, here are my practical steps to help you with just that:
Identify personal trigger foods and don’t buy them
Everyone has a trigger food. For me, it’s ice cream. I just make myself a deal to never keep ice cream in my house. Ever. Now that doesn’t mean I can’t have ice cream at all. Every 2 weeks, I tell myself I can have one. But only at an ice cream place and never in my home.
If you’re looking to completely eat clean, then get rid of everything in your house that’s unhealthy. If it’s not there, you can’t eat it. Simple as that.
Trust your hunger
I was told by my dad that French people eat when they’re hungry and stop when they’re 70% full. I don’t know how true is this but I found it quite valuable. Your body can indicate when you’re hungry and when it’s not. All you have to do is listen to stop overeating. Sometimes, that means you would have to skip a meal because you weren’t that hungry. Or you might even have an extra meal.
Either way, I would forget about “traditional meal times” and the whole “3 meals a day” and “breakfast is the most important meal” BS. Just eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re almost full.
Drink water (or any other flavoured water) before a meal
It’s important to drink water. Yeah, we know that but the most strategic way to drink water in my opinion is to drink it before a meal.
Why?
Well, for some reason (and this could be another mind trick), you feel a tad bit fuller after drinking water and that way you eat a lot less. This is great if you struggle with overeating. You could even change up the water with green tea or lemon water if you don’t particularly like plain tap water.
Never go for a meal or grocery shopping super hungry
I’ve made these mistakes a ton and now I know better than to eat when I’m hungry. Every time I go for a meal or do grocery shopping while I’m in rampage hunger, I end up getting more than I thought I could eat and that ends up in a lot of waste and junk food. So now, I make sure I have a small snack first and then go for a meal. My brain works better that way.
P.S. And make sure if you’re grocery shopping, you have a list of what you need to buy so you stop yourself from buying any additional junk.
Thow out “diet foods”
Diet foods are the ones they call “low fat” or “low sugar” etc. Usually, these are compensated for the lack of “fats” which has most of the flavour with other ingredients that are just as equally bad if not worse.
Moderation is key.
If you want ice cream, just get the “bad” version. Forget the “sugar-free, low-fat ice cream” and just eat your “full-fat” ice cream in peace. It tastes better too.
Invest in an air-fryer
I honestly cannot tell you enough about how friggin-cool an air fryer is and how you probably should get one if your budget allows it. It has changed my cooking game completely and this is coming from someone who does not cook and does not “like” cooking.
Here are some recipes you can use with an air fryer and it’s life changing!
These are just some of the tips I’ve learned in my health journey so far.
Recipe of the day
I absolutely love pancakes but eating them everyday might not be a good thing. So I wanted something that strikes somewhere in the middle. A little health and a little naughty. So, I thought…banana pancakes!
Try it out because I loved this recipe quite a bit.
Poll of the day
The End
That’s it for this week’s edition on the health side of things. See you next week and stay healthy :)