To Your Health
June, 2009 (Vol. 03, Issue 06) |
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Don't Wait to Lose Weight
A Healthy Meal Plan for a Healthy Weight and Lifestyle
By Donald L. Hayes, DC
You've started working out consistently: step one in your quest to lose those extra pounds and achieve a healthier weight. But wait a minute - are you forgetting about sound nutrition? When it comes to weight loss, what you eat (and when you eat it) can make all the difference. Here's a healthy meal plan to make things easy.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to make the right choices when it comes to meal planning. Junk food and hectic lifestyles are expanding waistlines and deteriorating health at an alarming rate. More than two-thirds of adult Americans are either overweight or obese, and obesity-related health problems are reaching epidemic proportions.
Your health is your most prized possession, so it's important to learn how to make healthy food choices for life. Most people understand that the body has a built-in ability to maintain health and heal itself as long as it is provided proper nutrition. Most people also understand that being overweight contributes to health challenges and sickness. Therefore, the healthiest meal planning approach to consider is one that uses healthy whole-food meals and snacks in tandem with a simple and easy calorie-controlled meal replacement strategy. Daily meal planning that incorporates both of these concepts will end up supporting healthy weight management and overall health.
Controlling hunger is one of the most difficult issues facing people today, particularly people trying to lose weight. A healthy meal plan must offer a satisfying way to control hunger for hours at a time, helping to reduce the temptation to overeat between meals. What's more, all foods eaten on the meal plan should provide a good source of all three macronutrients - protein, complex carbohydrates (in this scenario, primarily vegetables) and healthy oils - in a balanced format that provides the recommended daily intake for most essential vitamins and minerals.
Think Six for Success
Even with people who are trying to lose weight, the ideal healthy meal plan involves eating six meals a day so you're never hungry. These six meals should be broken down into two whole-food "regular" meals, two whole-food snacks and two high-energy, nutrient-dense, low-calorie meal replacement shakes. Daily scheduling of these meals could be as follows:
- Breakfast: meal replacement shake
- Mid-morning snack: whole-food healthy snack
- Lunch: whole-food regular meal
- Afternoon snack: meal replacement shake
- Dinner: whole-food regular meal
- Evening snack: whole-food healthy snack
