What is Balanced Eating?

What is balanced eating? Combining foods that nourish your cells and your soul. This means consuming foods that nourish your anatomical cells, but also eating that cake because you truly enjoy it! It can also mean taking note of what foods make you feel good and what foods make you feel, not your best. Balanced meals are meals that contain each macronutrient; carbohydrates, fats, and protein.

Why you should be eating this way - Creating a meal that contains protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats. By doing this you increase your satiety, meaning you will feel fuller longer and energized longer. This leads to typically eating less frequently, and can help you develop your stabilized weight. Also, your blood sugar stays regulated which can help manage sugar cravings.

What balanced eating doesn't mean - Eating “perfectly” balanced meals now and forever! The entire point of this method is to keep it simple! After understanding what foods contain each macro-nutrient, and you learn how to combine them to each meal, you can eliminate time that you otherwise may have spent counting calories, weighing food, stressing over not eating enough of a “good” food or too much of a “bad” food.

“Does NOT mean eating “perfectly” balanced meals now and forever!”

I know, Crazy Right! Finding balance in eating is about eliminating the stress and food rules you have developed for years, or possibly decades. Instead, listen in. Check in with yourself. What is your body needing right now? Have you only been eating salads, so tonight when you go out with friends you can let yourself enjoy that time with friends, eliminating food guilt and enjoy that chocolate ice cream? Or have you only been eating chocolate ice cream, and maybe you can try to find a way to insert more healthy carbohydrates into your next meal?

The food scale spectrum -

Most people either fall on one end of the spectrum. Either all in which includes eating only “good” or “perfectly healthy foods” or all out which binge eating is an example of. Neither are sustainable.

Typically what happens is someone who eats all in for a long period of time, will eventually crack and binge eat foods they have been avoiding. After this happens, guilt kicks in and most people tend to feel like they need to fast, or eat only good foods for now on, or go on a juice cleanse, find the current trending diet, or find the next 10 day quick fix to lose 10 lbs. Does this sound familiar? Eating like this creates a cyclic pattern going from all in, to all out, to all in and around and around we go!

While this is not your fault, it tends to be ingrained in most of us due to how the media portrays diets, quick fixes, and weight loss plans. It is not sustainable for long term health to eat this way.

Instead learning how to create balanced meals, preparing for long term changes instead of 30 quick fixes, learning how and when to check in with yourself before meal times can help you relearn how to eat sustainable balanced meals, for your unique needs.

What are specific foods for each macro-nutrient?

Carbohydrates - are the brain's primary energy source. There are two main types of carbohydrates; starchy and non starchy.

Food sources include; Fruit, Vegetables, Beans, Legumes, and whole grains.

• Fruit - starchy carbohydrate source - apples, bananas, raspberries, mango, pineapple

• Vegetable - starchy carbohydrate - potatoes, peas, corn ;non starchy carbohydrate - lettuce, peppers, broccoli, and leafy greens

• Beans +Legumes - black beans, lentils, pinto beans

• Whole grains - quinoa, wild rice, oats

Protein - foundation of hormones, muscle, antibodies, enzymes, structure, transportation molecules and more.

Food sources include: Meat, eggs, and plant based sources including beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, tempeh, and algaes.

• Meat - Chicken, beef, pork

• Eggs

• Beans + legumes - black eyed peas, lentils

• Nuts - walnuts, cashews, peanuts

• Seeds - pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds

• Tempeh- tofu, soy based products

• Algae - spirulina

Fat - important in our diet for digesting vitamin A, D, E, and K. Fat provides insulation and protection, aids in hormone communication and provides energy as a backup for when the body may be low in carbohydrates, starving or in a state of ketosis. Different types of fats include unsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, monounsaturated fats and saturated fats. Unsaturated fats tend to be noted as “healthy fats”. Saturated fats tend to be noted as the “bad” fats.

Food sources include:

• Unsaturated fats - vegetable oils that are liquid at room temperature, salmon, walnuts, avocados, chia seeds, nuts and seeds

• Monounsaturated fats - olives, pumpkin seeds, olive oil

• Saturated fat - palm oil, coconut oil

How to start incorporating this into your current lifestyle?

Starting something new can seem overwhelming but it doesn't have to be. Start by adding to what you are already eating on a daily basis.

For example if you already eat cereal for breakfast, this counts as a carbohydrate source. What could you add to the same meal to increase its protein and healthy fat value? You could add some walnuts for fat and protein sources.

For example if you already eat barbecue ribs for lunch, this counts as your primary protein source. What could you add to the meal to increase carbs and healthy fat? You could add a salad full of leafy greens for your carbohydrate source and dress it with olive oil and vinaigrette for healthy fats.

For example if you already eat a salad for dinner full of leafy greens, this counts as your carbohydrate source. What could you add to it to increase its protein and healthy fat? You could add a hardboiled egg for your protein and avocado for your healthy fat source.

Remember, by learning to eat balanced meals you increase your satiety, meaning you will feel fuller and more energized longer. Your blood sugar stays balanced, this can help manage sugar cravings.

If you or someone you know struggles with "clean eating", eating perfectly healthy all the time or binge eating please reach out to me, I can help.

If this post resonates with you, I would love to hear about it. Email me at nutritionbalancedbybre@gmail.com .

If you are interested in getting away from diet culture and would like to learn more about balanced eating I am currently creating a 9 week method to help you! Message me if you would like to reserve a spot for this method before sign ups begin. Other wise I am available for $35 per hour for 1:1 nutrition coaching session. Email me for details or if you have any questions.

Balanced nutrition is my passion! I can't wait to work with you!

This method of eating is inspired by intuitive eating method and the nutrition philosophy of nutrition stripped.