5 Simple Habits to Eat Well
Eating well doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, a few simple habits applied consistently will naturally lead to improvements in your diet. No fuss, no stress, no drama. Bon appetit!
EAT SLOWLY AND STOP AT 80% FULL
This is less about what you eat, and more about HOW you eat. Nowadays, it’s common for many of us to grab food quickly on the go, or to view the food on our plates as just another task that needs to be finished asap.
In our busy lives, we tend to ignore appetite and hunger cues and instead reach for food on auto-pilot. By slowing down, you will start to become more aware of your own hunger and appetite cues. It actually takes about 20 mins for our brains to realise whether we are satisfied and should therefore stop eating. So you can imagine that when you eat too fast, you are likely to miss the signals from your brain and overeat. Some tips to slow down include: taking smaller bites, putting your knife and fork down every few bites, chewing every bite….you could even set a timer in the beginning to realise how fast or slow you are already eating.
Ideally you should stop when you are 80% full. This will improve your digestion, lead to better performance for exercise and heighten those appetite cues.
But what does 80% full actually mean? Well, a simple guideline is to eat until you are no longer hungry rather than eating until you are full. You can also check yourself through the day. If you are not hungry 3-4 hours after you finished eating, you probably had too much food at your previous meal.
2. EAT PROTEIN DENSE FOODS WITH EACH MEAL
By ensuring you include the right amount of protein in to your diet, you will stimulate your metabolism, improve muscle mass and recovery, and reduce body fat.
So what is the right amount? An easy way to measure this, is to simply use the palm of your hand. For women, it should be one palm sized portion of protein with every meal. For men, it should be two palm sized portions of protein with every meal.
Where can you find it? Protein sources include: Eggs, Lean meats (chicken, turkey, minced beef), Fish (cod, salmon, tuna) Dairy (cottage cheese , greek yoghurt, cheese), Beans, Peas, Legumes, Tofu, Tempeh
3. EAT VEGETABLES WITH EACH MEAL
Most people are aware of the nutritious power of vegetables and the key role they play in our overall health. But did you know that as well as being packed full of essential vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals - vegetables also provide an alkaline balance to the acid load in proteins and grains. Keeping this balance between alkaline and acid levels will ensure good bone strength and muscle mass.
Vegetables are a prime example of food that has high nutrient density and low calorie density. If you are someone who finds vegetables ‘boring’ or a chore to eat, then it’s time to get out there and explore. With a huge variety of veg now available to us, as well as numerous ways to prepare it, we are no longer restricted to the over-boiled sprouts that you used to push around your plate when you were a kid. Make it your mission to discover vegetable dishes that you love - that’s the key to making this one a habit for life.
4. FOR FAT LOSS, EAT MOST OF YOUR CARBS AFTER EXERCISE
If you are looking to lose excess weight, then planning to eat most of your carbs within 1-2 hours after your workout is a strategy that will help. Essentially it is about ‘earning’ your carbs through exercise - not lowering your carb intake, or cutting them out completely.
This approach does not include fibre-rich carbs like fruit and vegetables (see above - you should still be eating vegetables with every meal). It is for other starchy carbs like whole grain breads, pasta, sweet potatoes, quinoa, oats and rice.
Carbs after exercise will also speed up the recovery process, reduce muscle soreness, decrease protein breakdown, increase the use of body fat and enhance immune function.
And always aim to get your carb intake from nutrient dense whole foods (i.e. foods that are unprocessed or at least minimally processed).
5. EAT HEALTHY FATS DAILY
About 30% of your daily intake should be healthy fats. So here the emphasis is of course on the ‘healthy’ !
In order to optimise your health and performance, it is important to make sure that 30% is balanced equally between saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Rather than trying to calculate exactly which type of fat you had, the easiest way to achieve this balance is to focus on the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats - since the saturated fats are very likely already in your diet.
text adapted from source: www.precisionnutrition.com