Principles for eating

Photo by Jim Chaput
Written by Jim Chaput
After a 19-year career in financial services, Jim left a leadership position to focus on health and fitness. Jim is a Master Practitioner of Applied Movement Neurology and holds Certificates in Applied Functional Science and 3DMAPS from the Gray Institute. His passion is empowering people to help resolve the pain, tension and insomnia that prevents them from living well.

There is no diet that is great for everyone. What and how you eat depends on what is most important to you and how your body reacts to different foods. To help you figure out what works best for you, keep in mind some principles:

Processed food is not as good as whole food, which has more nutrients and digests more slowly. This keeps your blood sugar lower and you feel satisfied longer.

You can typically eat as many vegetables as you want. If you eat a good mix of colors and prepare them in a variety of ways, it is hard to eat too many.

High quality protein has a lot of nutrients and tends to be satisfying. If you are trying to add lean muscle, eat lots of protein.

Liquid calories are absorbed faster and tend to be less satisfying. It is also easy to get lots of sugar without thinking about it. How many oranges would you need to eat to match a glass of orange juice?

If you are naturally thin, higher carbohydrates and lower fat tends be good for you. People like Trish can eats loads of carbs and stay lean. Many of us are not so lucky.

If you are naturally big or are presently overweight, lower carbohydrates with higher (healthy) fats tends to be better.

If you try to cut calories too much or too fast, your body will slow down your burn rate. If you are not sure you are getting enough, add nutrient dense foods like dark colored fruits and vegetables or lean protein.

How well you do depends on the choices you make for most of your meals and snacks. You can probably do fairly well if you make healthy choices more than 60% of the time. You can do exceptionally well if you make healthy choices 90% of the time.

If you are looking for a change, how can you make better choices?

1 Comment

  1. Pat

    Thanks for the 60% idea. Better chance for success.
    Good choices 60% of the time is manageable.