The Balanced Plate

I work in the medical field and see a variety of different problems but very commonly I see diabetes, heart and vascular disease.

Before I go further let me just give a quick disclaimer:

I am in no way giving anyone who reads this medical advice.  

In medicine we treat people as individuals.

Each person has his or her own past medical/surgical/family history, kidney and liver function, med list, food allergies, dietary needs etc.

Medicine is not a one size fits all prospect.

You should always talk to your own doctor about what is best for you personally.  

Now that that's out of the way...

When I'm at work I often talk with patients about following a low salt Mediterranean type diet.

I usually mention that the typical dinner plate would be 50% non-starchy vegetable, 25% lean protein and 25% complex carbohydrate.

I'm not a fan of radical all or nothing diets and I usually tell patients to find balance.

Doing WW is generally an 80/20 type plan.  So 80% of the time I follow the above plan and 20% of the time I eat indulgent foods I crave.

For me that 20% helps me stick to the plan because I don't feel deprived.

I just have to plan.

The thing is that even now I really have to remind myself to balance my plate.

In the old days I might make a healthy casserole but that's all I'd eat....

And eat...

And eat...

I didn't eat a salad or anything else with it and so invariably I'd overeat that casserole like crazy.

As silly as it sounds casseroles can be kind of dangerous for me.

It's so easy for me to overeat on those.  I very intentionally avoid fixing them if I've been a little off track.

When I do fix them I immediately portion them out as soon as I pull it out of the oven.

It's funny that something so common sense as balancing your plate should be hard but sometimes it just is.

At least being aware of my triggers and bad habits helps me avoid potentially unhelpful scenarios.

So if you're having difficulty with not feeling full or not losing the weight you want to use you may take another look at your plate.

Creating balance might make all the difference in the world.