Building a Balanced Plate: A Guide to Creating a Nourished Plate

In today's fast-paced world, eating well can often feel like a daunting task. The hectic schedules, tempting fast-food options, and the ever-present budget constraints make it a real challenge. However, it's crucial to remember that eating a balanced diet is essential for our overall health and well-being. In this blog post, we'll explore why it's difficult to eat well, and how to build both a balanced meal and snack. My goal is to educate you to nourish your body, feel fuller for longer whilst still enjoying the food that you eat!

Why It's Difficult to Eat Well

Eating well is a challenge for many reasons, including the following:

Busy Lives: In our fast-paced lives, we often prioritise convenience over nutrition, leading to unhealthy eating habits.

Tempting Options: Unhealthy fast food and processed snacks are often more accessible and affordable than fresh, nutritious options.

Budget Constraints: Eating healthily can seem expensive, but with some smart planning, shopping at your local fruit and vegetable shop, and cooking meals from scratch with basic ingredients, it doesn't have to be.

Conflicting information: Every magazine, social media post, and trainer seems to give differing advice. It is so confusing what to do! Below is a simple, sustainable approach you can use forever to improve your nutrition and energy levels.

Building a Balanced Meal Plate

Creating a balanced plate is a simple yet effective way to ensure that you're getting the right nutrients in each meal. It allows you to have a template for meals so that you can still enjoy the foods you love, nourish your body better, and achieve your goals. It also means the options are endless as you create new and exciting combinations. In New Zealand, we tend to focus on the carbohydrates and protein portions of meals and eat very little vegetables. One of the best ways to start improving your nutrition is to simply tweak the portions of what is on your plates!

Here's a step-by-step guide to building a balanced plate:

Step 1: Half the Plate - Vegetables

Fill half of your plate with colourful vegetables. This step ensures you get a variety of vitamins, minerals, and fibre, which are essential for your overall health. Vegetables also provide “volume” to your plate because you can eat quite a large volume for a very small caloric hit. So not only will more vegetables keep you fuller, and nourish your body but they will help you achieve your fat loss goals by eating less of the high caloric foods.  

Step 2: Quarter of the Plate - Complex Carbs

Allocate a quarter of your plate to complex carbohydrates like whole grains, oats, brown rice, quinoa, soba noodles, kumara, potatoes, grainy bread, wholemeal pittas, and wholegrain/ pulse pasta. These carb sources provide long-lasting energy and keep you feeling full as they are digested slower.

Step 3: Quarter of the Plate - Protein

The next quarter of your plate should be dedicated to a lean protein source. This can include options like chicken, fish, tofu, or legumes, eggs, Greek yogurt, protein powders, lean mince, legumes, and steak. Protein is vital for muscle growth and repair and aids satiety so it helps to keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Step 4: Thumb-Sized Healthy Fats

Healthy fats, like avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil, are essential for overall well-being, many of the vegetables we eat contain fat-soluble vitamins so including a fat source with our meals can ensure the vitamins are digested. Add a thumb-sized portion to your plate to keep your brain, heart, and skin in good health. Healthy fats also aid satiety when combined with protein, fibre, and carbohydrates.

Building a Balanced Snack Plate

I often see clients asking for snack options but confused as to what to buy or prepare. A snack should act as a bridge to your next meal, just like with building a plate, when you use the below template, the options become endless!

Here's a guide to building a balanced snack plate:

Step 1: Protein

Include a source of protein in your snack, like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, protein powders, eggs, or hummus. Protein helps keep you full and stabilises blood sugar levels.

Step 2: Fruit or Vegetables for Volume

Add a serving of fruits or vegetables for fibre, vitamins, and volume, which will help you feel full and satisfied until your next meal.

Step 3: Complex Carb or Craving

Include a complex carbohydrate like whole-grain crackers or sometimes, a small portion of your favourite treat to satisfy cravings. So instead of just eating a bag of chippies or half a block of chocolate, build a snack with your craving

e.g., 1 row of chocolate with a pottle of protein Greek yogurt and a piece of your favourite fruit OR 1 small kids-size bag of chips with cottage cheese and chives as a dip and some chopped vegetable sticks.

Eating in this way allows you to reduce the portion size of the caloric-dense foods that you crave but also stay fuller for longer, this is an excellent strategy to lower your daily caloric intake and aid fat loss.

Don’t reinvent the wheel

I often see women who start “diets” by completely overhauling everything they eat. This may last a few weeks before inevitably, it is too hard to uphold and you either throw in the towel altogether or enter into the binge/ restrict cycle where you binge on the foods you miss, followed by a period of restriction….and repeat!

One of the best tools for fat loss is enjoyment!

Try taking your current meal and instead of restricting ask yourself the following;

How can I reduce or increase certain components of the meal to follow the “make a plate” template e.g.

You normally eat a bowl of creamy pasta alone (which likely will have a large caloric hit and not keep you full for long)

TRY reducing the pasta portion to ¼ of your plate, adding ¼ plate of protein such as chicken, and serving with ½ a plate of salad greens and your favourite vegetables. This option will fill you up for longer, satisfy your pasta craving, and provide you with vital micronutrients to fuel your body better

Eating well doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. By following the steps to build a balanced meal plate and snack plate, you can prioritise your health and well-being without depriving yourself of the foods that you love. Remember that small changes in your eating habits can lead to significant improvements in your overall health. So, start today and make a commitment to a healthier, more balanced diet.