Ten Principles For Your Healthy Eating Checklist

Everyone is on the lookout for the perfect diet. This article gives you ten principles for you healthy eating checklist. Use them to design an eating plan that speaks to your individual needs.

If nutrition research has shown us anything, it’s that the perfect diet is unique and flexible to each person. There’s no single regimented way of eating that will yield the body and energy levels you want. Use this healthy eating checklist to design a nutrition plan that meets YOUR needs.

#1: Stop Skipping Random Meals

Although there is a time and place for intermittent fasting, skipping meals because you’re too busy to eat sets you up for problems down the road. When you skip meals, the stress hormone cortisol goes up. Over time this leads to anxiety, trouble sleeping, and belly fat gain in the abdominal area.

#2: Adopt A Set Meal Frequency

Instead of leaving your eating up to chance, plan what and when you’ll eat. This will help you maintain healthy blood sugar levels and cope with stress because eating resets your entire hormonal cascade. It also allows you to hit macronutrient goals so that you consume the right amount of protein, fat, and carbs for optimal cognition and energy levels all day long.

#3: Frontload Water

How many times have you gone all day without a drink of water? Even when people meet their hydration goals for the day, they often end up “backloading” water, consuming the majority at night. This leaves you dehydrated because too much water all at once will flush out electrolytes and nutrients. Start the day with a big glass of water and make sure you get more than half of your daily goal in before lunch.

#4: Plan Meals Around Protein

By prioritizing protein for every meal, especially breakfast and lunch, you improve neurotransmitter release for better energy. You also provide the amino acids necessary to trigger protein synthesis so that your body stays in tissue repair mode. Finally, protein foods keep appetite in check and lead to better blood sugar levels.

#5: Include Healthy Fat

It’s easy to develop food allergies to protein foods. Consuming healthy fat with protein improves absorption of nutrients, reducing the risk of developing an intolerance. Many proteins naturally contain fat—fish, meat, eggs, but if your protein of choice doesn’t, add some nuts, avocado slices, or other healthy fat for a healthy meal.

#6: Vary Your Protein

Being consistent with nutrition is key. Once you create a basic structure to your eating, variety is important to ensure a range of nutrients. Varying your protein source is especially important because food intolerances are likely when you’re eating the same foods without fail. Even something as simple as varying how you cook your eggs can help: Try hard boiled one day, an omelet the next, and poached after that.

#7: Eat Veggies At Every Meal

Vegetables are great for antioxidants, nutrients and fiber, and they also help protect your GI tract from inflammation. This is a game changer because an inflamed gut “leaks”—a condition when waste products escape the GI tract and enter the blood stream—not something you want to happen!

#8: Don’t Cry Over “Mistakes”

How many times have you veered off course from your nutrition plan, and then gone on a food binge that does way more harm than your initial indulgence? Or maybe you beat yourself up for eating something you didn’t plan, hammering your emotional reserves with guilt?

This just makes everything worse. There’s no need to “start over” or blame yourself. Just learn from your actions, pick up the pieces, and get back at it.

#9: Focus on Workout Nutrition

Optimal nutrition around your training will set you up for a great workout and accelerate recovery. It also helps you avoid “compensation”—that tricky habit many have of rewarding themselves with food for a job well done.

#10: Look For Solutions Not Problems

When on a restrictive nutrition program, such as a gluten-free or low-carb diet, we often concentrate on what we can’t have. Instead, focus on what you can have. For example, if you’re on a very low-carb diet, fruit is generally off limits, but avocado, blueberries, or blackberries are often okay.

Final Words

Use these simple but deliberate steps to set your healthy eating checklist in motion. Your body, brain, and health will thank you for it.