Real Fit Values

TEN PRINCIPLES TO HEALTHY EATING

Following are our ten principles that will work for everyone, no matter which eating pattern you choose to follow.

Paint your plate.

• Plant based—Make the majority of the foods you eat plant based. This is the number one thing you can do to improve your health and performance, and the health of the environment. Focus on eating fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, grains, spices, and teas. Consume fewer animal foods and eat more plants.

• Sustainable—Think local, peak, seasonal, and small scale, whenever possible. The more you support local farmers, the more we’ll be able to improve food quality as a community. Try to eat produce at the peak of its freshness. Look for farmer’s markets, local farms, or local products highlighted on grocery shelves. A community garden or window box of fresh herbs—that’s as local as you can get!

• Strong—Food should make you feel strong. If something makes you feel weak, tired, heavy, or sluggish, then it’s not the best choice for you. Let food work for you.

• Pure and Simple—Eat food in its simplest form. Choose an orange, not a bottle of orange juice. Have plain whole yogurt, not a flavored, low calorie yogurt. The less processed a food is, the more of it you can have.

• Colorful—Paint your plate. It’s that simple. Include as many vibrant colors as you can in each meal. If you tend to eat the same foods every day, try a different color combination. Make food grab your attention. It’s your masterpiece. Let color guide you.

• Consistent—Set a realistic routine so you can be consistent with healthy behaviors. Create an approach simple enough that you can do it on a daily basis. That might require regular food shopping or prepping food the night before so you’re ready for the next day.

• Balanced—Choose a variety of nutrients at each meal to help with portions, fullness, and overall nutrition balance. Too much protein? You’re probably crowding out another nutrient. Too many fruits? You could be eating too much sugar. Choosing to eat different nutrient proportions relative to your activity level is a key to balanced eating. (More on this to come; see the Five Fingers method and Powerful Plates).

• Intuitive—There are simple ways to make better food choices without being overly focused on the nuances and numbers of nutrition. Add a cup of frozen vegetables to a soup. Grab a banana at the breakfast staff meeting. Toss some beans into a salad. Drink more water during the workday. Split a dessert with a friend. The more seamless and intuitive your choices are, the better it is for you. Eating with intention and mindfulness helps guide more intuitive choices. Think out loud, “How can I make this better?” and you’ll do just that.

• Yours, Not Theirs—The more you can cook, prepare, or flavor food yourself, the more control you have over what goes into it. Cook at home more often. When you’re eating at a restaurant, ask for food the way you want it: vegetables roasted with olive oil and a lemon wedge, salad dressing on the side, or fresh fruit for dessert.

• Real—Change your perspective. Look at the ingredients not at the nutrition facts, percentages, health claims, and endorsements. Avoid artificial sweeteners and colors. Skip anything marketed as light/lite, low fat, low sugar, diabetic, or carb friendly. Real food requires no health claims.

We believe in balanced nutrition, not an all-or-nothing thinking. In our nutrition practices, the healthiest eaters are those who enjoy real food and respect it for its nourishment. They have active lifestyles but also realize the value of productive rest and relaxation.

Real food requires no health claims.

On any given day, the healthiest eaters will eat pretty darn well most of the time (80 percent) while also mindfully enjoying something downright indulgent some of the time (20 percent). A vivid vegetable-packed salad with quinoa, marinated tempeh, toasted pine nuts, and homemade cranberry dressing can be followed by a piece of spicy dark chocolate and a favorite glass of red wine.

Nothing is off limits. There are no cheat meals or cheat days, no being good or being bad. Avoid labeling yourself as being bad or cheating on your diet; food isn’t a test. You are empowered to make decisions based on what suits your body and mind. No matter what we consume, our philosophy is that we are eating, not cheating. Good food choices fuel an active lifestyle on a sustainable level.

We had the opportunity to meet award-winning food author, Michael Pollan, when he was at Harvard to talk about his book, Cooked. We shared that, as nutrition professionals, we were in total agreement that getting people to cook is the biggest way to improve nutrition and health and to strengthen relationships with friends and family. We also told him that we were intentionally leaving out nutrition facts for each recipe in this book. Our rationalization is simple: The recipes use only healthful and real ingredients, so there should be less focus on the numbers. He smiled in agreement and asked us to not get pressured into adding numbers that do not do justice to the true quality of the food.

© The Plate Coach

We like visuals and use them with our clients. And we feel that eating with a balance of nutrient categories at each meal can help maintain energy, increase satisfaction, and supply the vitamins and minerals necessary for a healthy immune system. We encourage our clients to follow this chart to achieve balanced meals.

The Five Fingers method, is a quick way to categorize nutrients and a visual way to remember each category.

Some foods fall into more than one category, and that’s fine. Such a food can be a very efficient choice, as it offers you multiple nutrients. Nuts and fatty fish such as salmon or sardines are great examples; they have both protein and healthy fat. The Five Fingers chart helps you balance your meals so that you have one food choice from each category (or a few choices from each category for intense athletes). It’s all about eating food from each category, at each meal.

Many athletes eat at least three protein choices at a meal but no fruits or vegetables or healthy fats. To balance the meal, limit yourself to one or two protein choices and add a fruit or vegetable and a healthy fat. Athletes doing intense exercise may have multiple choices but should still look to include foods from each category.

1. Fruits/Vegetables—The more the better, especially fresh fruits and vegetables locally grown. Think color for variety. We give our clients the green light with this category with these exceptions: juice, dried fruit, canned produce, and starchy vegetables, such as potatoes and corn.

2. Carbohydrates—Choose carbohydrates that are high in fiber. (Except when you are eating immediately before, during, or immediately after intense or prolonged exercise as the gut will not digest them in a timely manner. At those times, lower fiber carbohydrates are preferred.)

3. Proteins—Include protein from a variety of sources. People who choose animal proteins can also include a significant amount of plant-based proteins, too. Vegans and vegetarians should rely on whole food plant sources rather than on the more processed forms.

4. Healthy Fats—A little goes a long way with fat. Healthy fats help with satiety (fullness) and also improve the nutrient absorption of many antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables. Fat can help both those trying to lose weight because it has appealing mouth feel and increases satisfaction, and, those trying to gain weight because it is calorie dense so it adds calories without a large increase in food volume.

5. Fluids—Hydration is so important. You should drink fluids with your meals and continuously throughout the day. Water and naturally flavored water are our favorite choices. Caffeine is fine in moderation and when consumed early in the day so it does not interfere with sleep.

Finding the right amount of food to eat will change based on how active you are and the type of exercise you do. A marathon runner trying to gain muscle mass should be eating very differently than the CrossFit athlete who is unable to exercise due to a leg injury.

There are four Powerful Plates. Choose your plate, and keep in mind that it might be a different plate each day.

Trying to gain weight or lean muscle mass? Double (or triple) the plate but keep the proportions of nutrients the same. Use larger plates.

Trying to lose weight? Use salad plates. If you’re still hungry, go for an extra plate or large bowl of nonstarchy vegetables with vinegar or lemon juice and spices to add flavor.

Endurance The Endurance Powerful Plate is designed for distance runners, cyclists, swimmers, cross-country skiers, triathletes, or any athlete doing continuous exercise for 2 or more hours in a day. This athlete requires more carbohydrates than others to best replenish muscle glycogen (the storage form of carbohydrates). If muscle glycogen isn’t replenished, the athlete will struggle at the next workout session.

Strength and Endurance The Strength and Endurance Powerful Plate is designed for athletes in soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, tennis, basketball, gymnastics, golf, mixed martial arts, CrossFit, wrestling, vinyasa yoga, weight lifting, or any sport requiring both endurance and strength combinations. These sports generally include intense but intermittent bouts of exercise with brief rest periods mixed throughout the workout.

Healthy Weight The Healthy Weight Powerful Plate is designed for active people who work out for shorter durations (less than an hour) or with less intense exercise such as walking, water aerobics, or restorative/relaxing yoga.

Less Active The Less Active Powerful Plate is designed for minimal activity, due to injury or a hectic schedule. The less active you are, the fewer carbohydrates you need. Choose, instead, large amounts of nonstarchy vegetables. The Less Active Powerful Plate also works well at dinnertime for active people trying to lose weight, provided that high-fiber carbohydrates are included in earlier meals.