CLEAN & MEAN ROUTINE: TIP 2 – MEALTIME: LISTEN TO YOUR BODY

TBR Clean & Mean Routine is a series of nutrition and wellness tips from for people who wish to start the year right by living cleaner, healthier lives. New tips are posted every Monday from Jan. 13 to Feb. 24.

MEALTIME: LISTEN TO YOUR BODY

As mentioned, our TBR Clean & Mean Routine is about eating clean food. It’s also about being MEAN. M in Mean is for meals of 3 and snacks of 2, but, at the end of the day, we advise you to listen to your body.

Tip 2: 3 MEALS + 2 SNACKS

This week, focus on eating clean, wholesome, nutritious food (as in Tip 1) and eat them during your three meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and two snacks (mid-morning and mid-afternoon.) This is what works for most people, especially us Pinoys.  Personally, this is what works for me, too.

But, as I mentioned in the past posts, we’re not going to go on a “diet” but we’re going to start living a healthy lifestyle. So, while I recommend what works for most people to help them maintain a healthy weight and make good food choices, you should still listen to your body and choose a way of eating that works for you.

Nowadays, you’ll always hear about diets that allow you to eat more and still lose weight or recommend you to eat 6 mini meals a day. I tried it in the past and it was a nightmare. I was bringing out fruit containers during meetings and parties because I had set this strict rule of eating clean every 2 hours. After 4 months of attempting to live that way, I realized that it was completely unrealistic for a busy working mom like me to inconvenience myself with any type of diet. I started eating 3 healthy filling meals and two snacks.  It was simple and easy and, best of all, it was sustainable . That’s what we all want right? We don’t want to be constantly thinking of what to eat, where to eat, and when to eat, we just want to live healthy so we can go on living!

Truth is, experts have said that it really doesn’t matter when or how often you eat. What is important is what you eat and the total calorie intake for the entire day.

HOW SHOULD YOUR PLATE LOOK?

We all grew up with the vision of that Food Pyramid in our heads.  Little of us know that that has been updated.  While I’m not familiar if our government has released its own food guide, I am familiar with the new My Plate of the US.  This is how it looks and I like it!

This is how I generally eat except for the dairy portion.  I don’t believe one has to take dairy daily (if at all but that’s an entirely new issue).  I only take milk along with my coffee or as post-workout drink (Enervon HP) after a long run to aid in recovery.

Anyway, that is how your plate should look during each meal.  It may quite difficult to execute during breakfast so aim at least for lunch and dinner.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

• Eat a good breakfast.  Breakfast is a key meal. It sets the tone for the rest of the day. If you skipped breakfast, you’ll usually end up bingeing later in the day. If you eat junk, like leftover pastries or soda and crackers, don’t you notice you don’t take care of your body throughout the day, too?  Take the time to eat a healthy, wholesome breakfast with family instead of rushing out the door.
• Dine at home. It will be easier for you to eat clean, good-sized meals if you eat at home. You can control how much salt goes into your food. You can use olive oil instead of cooking oil. You can skip the loads of butter drizzled on veggies. And, you aren’t confronted with a plate that looks like it’s meant for two!
• Drink a lot of water. Drinking water before your meals fills you up. Skip sugar-laden soda and juices and you save yourself tons of calories too.
• Listen to your body.  Like I said above, there is no one diet that works for everyone.  Do what works for you and what fits your lifestyle.  The key is to be mindful of what you put in your mouth and when you do it.  Don’t just eat all throughout the day without paying to attention to your nourishment and nutrition.

ARE YOU READY TO COMMIT?

If you want to join me and others on our TBR Clean and Mean Routine for 2014, just do this:

Post a comment on TBR FACEBOOK PAGE that you commit to practicing the tip for the next 7 days. If you don’t have FB, you can post your comment on this blogpost.

Watch out for our weekly TBR Clean & Mean Routine tip every Monday. I will ask you to post a comment on each of those weekly tips until February 24.

Throughout the week, feel free to chat and converse with others in the TBR FB Page who are trying to apply the weekly tips in their lives.

By the first week of March, I will ask you to submit a story on how this plan worked for you and what changes you saw in your life. The most compelling and interesting submission will win a pair of running shoes from me.

Let me know how this week goes for you! See you next Monday!

Read:
TBR Clean & Mean Routine – Part 1 & Part 2
Tip 1: Eat Clean