Eating small meals throughout the day will help achieve your goal of healthy eating.
I believe that you should look to eat at least 6 times a day to try to set yourself on the path to healthy eating. 6 small meals eaten about 3 hours apart. Yes, small meals, focusing on the ‘right’ foods, regularly throughout the day is going to do so much more for you than larger meals.
Here are a few times for planning your meals around:
Meal 1
All plans should start with with real food instead of cereal and a sugar hit. Controlling these first meals can be the ultimate way to controlling the rest of your life with this yo-yo snacking society. Always start with a good source of protein and fats. This tells the body that today, we want to focus on using fats as our fuel source. Now, fats can come from adding a small amount of coconut butter to your coffee (honestly it is great!) or adding avocado to your smoothie (again don’t knock until you have tried it). Eggs also contain 6gms of fat in the yolk and are a great source of protein.
As a rule of thumb, when thinking about how much protein, fats and carbs to have in each meal, let’s use our hand as a good tool to measure.
For healthy eating, 1 palm of protein for woman, two palms for males is the easy way to work out how much protein for each main meal. Fats, two to three fingers and depending on what carbs you might choose to eat, one fist size for females and two for males. Leafy greens carbs I tend not to worry about measuring at all. They are great for you, they are low on carbohydrates, high in fibre and a good filler for any meal. Have as much as you like of green veggies. For more on each and which food sits under each category, check out this article here.
Meal 2
2nd meal should be 2-3 hours after your first. This is a snack which could include some almonds (10-12) and small single serve tub of Greek yoghurt (watch the sugar content!) or maybe cold chicken, turkey or hams from the deli. All these are really easy to bring to work and enjoy without being too much hassle.
My biggest tip for success, is making sure you are prepared. Everyone is busy and if you don’t plan your meals it is too easy to be lead astray. The night before plan your meals and snacks, and where possible, take them to work with you. is just getting your first 1-2 meals organised and prepared.
Meal 3
This should include a serving of each of the 3 groups of food; protein, carbs and fats.
This could be chicken, sweat potato and avocado salad – it’s as easy as that. Keep the dressing to a minimum, (1tablespoon) but I believe you can still include some dressing for taste, especially if you are doing everything else right.
Meal 4
Another snack 2-3 hours after lunch.
Meal 5/6
My guess is meal five will potentially be a meal at home (hopefully you aren’t still at work!) and if you could look for a plate full of vegetables, a protein source and a serving of fats you will be in a very good place (sounding familiar!?). This is going to set you up for tomorrow and many more days to go.
Try not to eat too late at night – as much as you can to ensure a good nights sleep. If you are working late, or maybe have afternoon commitments, have some protein a couple of hours after your previous meal. I carry a can of tuna for a protein snack if it looks like I am going to have a late dinner.
If you are still hungry later in the evening, look to your protein snacks again – almonds, Greek yoghurt. Even a boiled egg. Most people, if looking for something later in the evening to nibble on, tend to be be seeking out sweetness. A table spoons of frozen blueberries are great to nibble on while watching your favourite TV series.
So as you can see, when to eat is pretty easy as long as you are prepared. However, if you like me to work with you to create a personalised meal plan, or maybe put some systems in place to educate your staff on healthy living, you will find some more information here, or feel free to contact me directly here.
