Balancing Your Plate - Part 2

I am also not a dietician or food-a-tician or any kind of expert. I feel like, at this point in time, it’s important to say that.

Also, this is maybe just two big pointers. I might give you more later. 

1) Work Within Your Means. 

Am I buying the organic apple or the regular apple? Well, how much money do I have for food? Is the organic apple what I want to spend extra money on? Do they have organic apples in the apple type I like? I’m an apple snob in that I prefer Pink Lady apples, sooooo, it probably won’t be organic. 

I’m also not dead yet, so I don’t think the non-organic apple is going to kill me. 

The same applies to buying local and fresh. Yes, totally buy local and fresh if you can afford to. Otherwise, you buy what you can to survive and not starve. I do prefer fresh and frozen over canned because #Sodium. 

I’ve also been in the position where my last $20 has to feed me for the rest of the week. In that case, it’s totally a big pot of canned beans and saffron rice with some protein (cheese and salsa if I have the money). It’s fairly cheap and lasts for days. Not the most healthy, but filling. Thankfully, I haven’t been in that position in awhile, but I can empathize with people who are. You do what you have to survive.

 

2) Keep It Simple.

Eat some fruits (fresh or frozen) or some veggies (fresh or frozen).
Eat a protein. Can be meat, but could also be protein powder, lentils, tofu, or edamame (to name a few).
Eat some form of fat. Peanut butter is my favorite, but I’ll eat avocado (sometimes). Nuts like almonds also work as a fat. 

The picture, for reference, is Fage Greek Yogurt, frozen fruit with kale (I'm not sure I am excited about kale in my yogurt, but I'm working with it), almonds, and chia seeds. 

Eat these every freakin’ meal.

I didn’t include carbs specifically because lots of food already have carbs. Fruit – carb. Vegetables – carb. Yogurt – Protein and carbs. 

 

Once a day I have pasta, rice, quiona, couscous or some other similar more of a carb type substance. I eat mine at dinner, but you could eat it at lunch or breakfast.

I’M NOT TELLING YOU WHAT TO DO! You can eat carbs every meal if you want!

Okay, the other morning I did put 2 TBSP of rolled oats in my breakfast smoothie.

CAUGHT ME RED HANDED!

If you try to incorporate fruit and/or veggies, protein, and a (healthy) fat into every meal you’re pretty close to being balanced and you won’t have to worry so much about are you eating enough.. blah blah blah… 

My goal is to eat 45% carbs, 30% fat, and 25% protein. Remember this is healthy fats friends. I am usually pretty close and -- seriously--- I just make sure I have some of the three groups each meal. I don't get too nitty gritty.

 

This is especially true the simpler your foods are. I don’t have to worry about added sugar because they don’t add sugar to fresh fruit. I buy frozen fruit that is just frozen fruit (no added sugars). Same with vegetables. Yogurt – plain. If I need sugar (because honestly, that Fage Greek Yogurt that has tons of protein is not the yummiest stuff around), I add some of my own – usually maple syrup or honey. Because YUM.

I season all of my plain stuff on my own. That helps cut down on sodium and it’s not really hard. I just pick a few spices.

YOU! Rosemary. Get in my food. Dill. You too! Maybe some lemon. I just find combinations that work for me.

I try to use less oils for cooking. I don’t use cooking spray – I go for Olive Oil and Coconut oil. I switch it up. But if a recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil to cook the meat, I might just think… I’m pretty sure I can cook this with 1. Oddly enough, it comes out just fine.

As a parting thought – if you like the butter, eat the butter. Just like the cake. Sometimes you get butter. But when do I REALLY REALLY want butter? I want butter on bread or English muffins. And on that really nice spicy pasta I sometimes get that doesn’t go with red sauce. So I eat it those times. 

Just not every day.