We take pictures of our meals a lot to showcase how we prepare our meals. Our clients send us pictures of their meals as well to see if they’re on the right track. (keep those coming we love them!) So we figured, why not give you a few pointers on small easy things you can add to your meals to make them super healthy AND delicious.
Protein. Yep this is a no-brainer. Protein keeps you full! It doesn’t have to be meat either. There are tons of high-protein vegetarian options as well. General recommendations are to consume 15-30g of protein in each meal to keep you satiated.
Options include:
High-quality lean protein such as chicken, grass-fed beef, pork
Lentils or other legumes
Tofu
Tempeh
Edamame
Eggs
Greek yogurt (as a sauce or topping or dressing)
High-quality fish (shoot for fatty fish at least once a week such as salmon, mackerel or sardines)
Healthy Fat. Once again - this keeps you full. This would be a smaller portion though. There’s no need to put an entire avocado in your salad to reap the benefits of high-quality healthy fats. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends that you get 20–35% of your daily energy intake from mono- and polyunsaturated fats and less than 10% from saturated fats. Options include:
Salmon or other fatty fish mentioned above
Avocado (as a dressing or topping or just as is!)
Nuts and seeds - we love throwing these in our grain bowls for some crunch or to top our chicken or fish with it as a “breading” instead of bread crumbs
High quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil - cooking with it or as a dressing
Probiotics. Keeping our gut healthy is really important for our overall health and immune function. Eating probiotic-rich foods can help keep our gut happy and healthy! Probiotics are anything fermented, but it doesn’t have to be dairy! Here are a few options and how to use them.
Kefir - we love to use this in our smoothies
Greek Yogurt (plain) - as a dressing or topping (try Greek yogurt mixed with cucumber and a dash of honey on top of salmon - so good!)
Kimchi - delicious in a grain bowl or on top of a burger
Sauerkraut- super good on a burger
Pickles - ahem again on a sandwich or burger
Miso - as a soup or a sauce
Kombucha - it’s a nice refreshing drink! Watch the sugar content and read your labels!
Tempeh - a great source of vegetarian protein and probiotics - win win!
Veggies. Eat the rainbow!! Each color represents a different phytonutrient and has different vitamins and minerals that are beneficial for our health. So the more colorful your plate, the healthier it is! We don’t need to list out all the veggies here, just shoot for half your plate being vegetables and include a cruciferous or leafy green in the mix! Another upside to veggies, is they’re nutrient-dense (high in nutrients) and not calorie-dense so you can eat a lot of them, and still feel full (thanks to fiber!) but not eat a ton of calories. Win-win!
Water. Oh yes, don’t forget to hydrate!!! You want to be drinking half your body weight in ounces for optimal hydration. However, especially in the summer months when it’s hotter, you may want to drink even more water. If you tend to sweat a lot and spend a lot of time outdoors definitely kick up the water intake. Remember if you’re thirsty you’re already dehydrated.
These are super simple things you can do to make your meals that much healthier. We hope this helps! Send us a picture!!
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