How to Eat (Personal Plan)

Eat healthily?

This post serves to share my tips on healthy eating and I am not expert in any sense, I just found the diet that best suited life style and I enjoyed it. I am sure everyone have different diet plan and some may face eating problems that I may not be able to help. Do note that you can always approach nutritionist and dietician as they will provide you with the best advice based on your body type, metabolism rate, allergies and other important factors. With that being said, let's get right into it!

General considerations

I am a student and cooking is not my passion, and hence I do not cook often. Thus, I may not say things like cooking is best for you, well in fact it is but here I am sharing things other than cooking healthy food that keep me healthy (at least I feel healthy). I often eat out at the cafeteria, almost every day and I do cook when they closed on weekends.

Factors that I considered

Here are the top 5 factors that I incorporated into my diet plan and I try my best to follow my plan whenever possible. 

Eat consistently 

In my dictionary, eating consistently means having your meal at a consistent time, every day. I practiced 3 meals per day and I generally have my breakfast at 8 am, lunch at 12 pm and dinner at 6 pm. Eating consistently helped me stay full throughout the day and this programmed my body to be hungry at certain time but active at non-meal time. Sure, we can be busy sometimes that we skip our meal but try not to stray too far from your normal meal time, you can always find time to snack on some food to replenish energy. For me, when I know I am going to be busy at certain time, I will be sure to pack some food (biscuits or bread) so that I will not have excuses to skip a meal.

Keep in mind the type and amount of nutrient you need 

When you cook, this is easy to keep track of as you control the amount of food you will prepare to achieve a balanced diet. But as a student that rarely cook, I often buy food at the cafeteria. I have the option to choose what to take and in what portion. We all learn what the food pyramid is and I picture that as my guide when taking my meal, getting enough vegetables, protein and carbs in a plate. Portion is another thing to note. We may like certain food so we will take that more and avoid the food that we disliked, in which I think will lead to an unbalanced diet. Of course you can vary the amount of food intake to see whether it will last you till the next meal. One tip from me is never eat too full as it makes you drowsy and hampers your ability to focus.

Drink plain water 

Try to only drink plain water and avoid other sugary drinks. I know some of us may need coffee (including me) but you can always choose not to add in creamer or sugar, just black coffee. If not, 1 small cup of coffee with milk and sugar is still acceptable so try to limit your intake. Alternatively, drink tea (just plain tea). Do not get me to started on soft drinks. REPLACE them with water. I do not really like soft drinks as they are too sweet (and vibrant) for me but I cannot say everyone should be like me. What I always do is to avoid going to the corridor where soft drinks are sold to avoid temptation. And yes warm water is preferred than cold water.

Control your cravings for junk food 

We know junk food is named junk food because... they do not provide much essential nutrients to us but generally just have a lot of sugar, salt and fat. Sometimes I do find myself wanting to eat something sweet whenever I study. In that case, I always have some kind of snacks to keep me going. Do not get me wrong, it is not about eliminating sweets and snacks at all costs as that will make your cravings worse in the long run but to keep the intake low and gradually decrease it till you do not see them as temptation anymore. One thing before I take my snacks is to look at the nutrition fact, it scares me how much a small bag of chips packed so much salt and fat so I will remind myself to keep the amount low. You can a step further by looking at the nutrition fact at the supermarket before buying, I avoided a lot of junk food this way, plus I saved a lot of money too!

Reduce fast food 

This goes without saying, a lot of fat, salt and sugar are used in fast food. In Malaysia, fast food are comparatively more expensive than the typical food I eat so I have another factor to avoid eating fast food but in some countries, it may be cheaper to choose fast food over healthy alternatives. Hence, you can choose 'healthier' options on the fast food menu. For example, opt for chicken breast than wing or thigh, choose plain wedges without the cheesy sauce or pick ala carte meal without the side dish or soft drink. Every little actions helped in the long run.

Conclusion 

As you read the article, you can see I am not that strict on my diet plan and I do reward myself sometimes (do not worry, I can assure you I am on the fit side). I always take care of my weight and food intake and the key is moderation. Every thing is a poison if the dose or intake is not right, in a chemistry sense. So you do not need to punish yourself for eating that sweet but remember you are responsible for your every action you took and that small actions add up in the future.