Create Balanced Meals For Healthy Eating

My wife and I recently switched our household roles…

She used to cook and I would clean. We (she) decided what our roles would be based on how I used to cook in college. FYI it was really bad. I’m not a cook and I don’t claim to be!

It may seem hypocritical that I teach others how to cook healthy meals and meal prep but I wasn’t doing it myself. At least, that’s what I thought. In truth, I have always been stressed about the time and energy needed to prepare a meal. I know many of you also feel that way, especially after an exhausting day at work.

It’s much easier than I expected it would be to cook some amazing, healthy, quick, and simple meals.

The reason it was simple was that I’m trying to create a balanced meal.

Balanced meals are created with a healthy source of protein, fat, and carb . While planning a meal, I’m looking for a source of each macro + vegetable that goes well together. Then, I plan 1/4th of my plate to be protein, 1/4th to be a carb, and 1/2 to be veggies. Fats are usually blended in with meat or as oils. The specific portioning part of this is known as the plate method. This method is great for people with specific body composition goals that don’t want to weigh or measure their food.

It’s simple, check it out:

Meal 1:

-Grilled salmon seasoned with Himalayan salt, pepper, garlic, and onion (protein source, fat source)

-Baked broccoli seasoned lightly with garlic salt and sprayed with olive oil (0 calories for the spray oil) (veggie source)

-Cherry tomatoes on the side (veggie source)

-Jasmine Rice (carb source)

-Lemon and garlic butter sauce added to the fish (not too much) (fat source)

Notes:

• Check out how few ingredients this meal had. Less is best when you don’t want to spend all night measuring, blending, stirring, etc.
• Fish/Rice/Broccoli/Cherry Tomatoes. That’s it! To make it taste good add seasoning and spices. You can add sauces but be careful they aren’t too full of sugar and/or fat.
• I don’t count veggies as carbs. They are technically a carb source but they also have so few calories (and grams of carbs) that I view veggies purely for nutrients and health.
• This meal took less than 30 minutes to prepare and cook without help.
• Yes, all this garlic kept the vampires (and all other lifeforms) away from my wife and me!

It is so easy to overcomplicate what healthy eating is. My goal with this post was to simplify. Creating a balanced plate (that includes a healthy protein/fat/carb) is enough to make cooking fast and simple while also being an easy way to eat so you can lose weight (or build muscle depending on portion sizes) and get healthier without doing another restrictive fad diet.