Compared to my previous post, this part 3 of healthy eating is more practical. Let me reiterate. Remember how to "eat smart", it's not just what you eat, it's how you eat. Now that you know what is healthy to eat and what is unhealthy, here are a few ground rules to healthy eating.
- Stick to 3 meals a day (breakfast, lunch & dinner). Don't stray from it and munch anything in between. Most people tend to overeat if they have 6 meals a day. Once you can control your portion size for each meal then you can go for 6 meals a day plan.
- Never skip meals. Stick to 3 meals a day no matter what.
- Avoid sugary drinks/sweet foods/fried foods.
- Avoid snacking especially junk foods. Snack on healthy food like fruits, wholemeal crackers etc. Drink a glass of water before snacking. You will feel full thus eat less.
- Indulge in "unhealthy reward" right after a workout to "burn it off".
- Never binge eat. Never over eat. Stop before you feel full.
- Reduce your food intake progressively. Cut down your food quantity by about 5-10% every month.
You should aim to get a healthy eating plate that looks like the image below. BUT I know, it's difficult because culturally Asian diet is different from that of Western. It's not impossible though. Remember the road to success is to make it simple, do it gradually and remember that every change you make to improve your diet matters.
A friend correctly pointed out that 6 small meals a day would probably be better & to go for low glycaemic diet. Yes as I have updated in my post, it is better to have 6 SMALL meals a day. But only when you can control your portion size, you could go for 6 meals a day plan.
ReplyDeleteI found out that once you reduce the portion size of your main meal, naturally you will feel hungry after 3-4 hours. Now I snack on something healthy like nuts, fruits, wholemeal crackers with a glass of water. So it works out as 6 meals a day! Thank you Suresh for pointing that out.
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