Healthy Eating

Healthy Eating is very simple or it should be! Your goal, or healthy diet habit at each meal should be to get as much nutrition as you can. Choose foods that provide nutrition! Make good choices. Choose foods that contain many vitamins and minerals. Yes, these would be fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein or beans, and lower fat milk products. These are healthy foods, full of nutrition. Choose them!

Keep your calories under control by choosing proper portions, and preparing your food in a healthy manner. Secret meaning: Don’t use lots of fats to prepare your meals! Learn how to cook correctly!

Plan your meals and snacks to contain healthy foods full of nutrition. If your meals and snacks are healthy, you will feel satisfied and experience fewer cravings for sugar. You will be full, and not have room to eat bags of bar-coded foods.

You will face food choices all day long. Choose foods that are healthy. Accept the discretionary foods category that is built into the new food pyramid. It says: Discretionary Calories: a small amount. An allotment of 100 to 300 calories can be used on foods with fats or sugars, like dessert. Accept this. It is okay to choose foods that taste great, but you must do this carefully, and make most of your choices healthy ones!

The simplest way that I know to do this is to follow the half plate rule. Fill your plate half full of lower carbohydrate vegetables. Fill your plate 1/4 full of your higher carbohydrate choice, and 1/4 full of your lean protein or bean choice.

Easy, helpful translation: make sure you are only including one grain choice at each meal! This is not that difficult. Plan one discretionary choice per day into your meal plan that stays within the 100 to 300 calorie range. Maybe plan chips with lunch, or a small dessert with dinner. You can do this! See my Sweets, Treats, or Dessert Page and my Sweet Substitutions Page, for some great ideas!

Is this overwhelming? I hope not! Lifestyle Solutions should be simple and workable! Healthy diet habits can’t be complicated and succeed. Make simple and healthy choices! The new USDA "My Plate" offers many simple guidelines on how to follow the half plate rule!

Additional Information:

• Food Guidelines
• My Plate Guidelines
• Fruit Guidelines
• Vegetable Guidelines
• Grain Guidelines
• Protein Food Guidelines
• Beans
• Dairy Guidelines
• Oil Guidelines
• Empty Calories
• Mediterranean Food Guidelines
• Eat Right America Program