Making a healthy, delicious, and nutritious meal is difficult when socially meals are defined as a burger and fries, a slice of pizza, and/or spaghetti and meatballs. Not saying that these foods are bad, but they are not complete in nutrient content. Whether starting a fitness journey or trying to care for your body in the best way possible, eating balanced meals gives you your nutrients to live a long life.

From trial and error, I’ve learned that nutrient-rich eating requires you to know your body, shop strategically, prepare your food properly, and portion control for your dietary needs.

Know your body. Your body is a temple that warns you when a food agrees or disagrees with it. Just look for basic indicators of change. Soft tissue and skin are changed mostly by foods consumed, whereas, muscles/fat are changed mostly by exercise. Key indicators of food sensitivities and/or responses include changes in acne, bowel movements (consistency and frequency), increased/decreased heart rate, and boating. To test for food influences, you can get a blood test done with your doctor or those fancy allergy testing companies. You can also do a cleanse/fast and then reintroduced foods while keeping a critical eye on my body response. Knowing your body and how these different sensitivities influence you, you can eventually get to a point where you can tell when you need more protein, carbs, veggies, or less food.
Be strategic with your grocery purchases. To make a meal you need groceries. And what you buy will ultimately end up on your plate. I’ll do a separate post about grocery shopping and shopping cost-effectively for quality products, but for now, I’ll discuss the tools I use in the store to ensure a balanced plate.
1. In the grocery store, do not go without a list that corresponds with the meals you plan to make.
2. Second, try to shop the outside isles of the store and the freezer section. These sections are produce, meat, dairy, and frozen goods. Stay away from the processed isles as much as possible. If I do need to go into the isles, be strategic, and purchase nonperishables like rice, oatmeal, and seasonings.
3. When buying any food, try to buy whole foods. The least processed the better, so instead of buying chicken nuggets and broccoli and cheese pasta, buy chicken breast, broccoli, cheese, and the pasta.
4. When buying fresh produce, ensure that you are buying as local and seasonal as possible, this ensures the maximum nutrients when you eat the food. The food also lasts longer in the fridge.
5. If something is not in season, buy it frozen or wait.
6. I detail in the attached videos which foods I find to be the best for my digestion and lifestyle, see below.
Prepare your meals. When preparing food, DO NOT skimp with the seasonings. Even if just eating a piece of lettuce and two carrots, but seasoning/appropriately dressing them gives the mainly water-based vegetables a full mouth feel when eating. ALSO, SALT AND PEPPER ARE NOT SEASONINGS, so learn about broader flavor profiles. Between seasonings, sauces, and dressings, you don’t have to sacrifice nutrition for taste. I disclose in the video attached which seasonings I find to be most basic to build a ton of flavor.
Assemble your plate. Depending on your responses to the previous three points, how you build your plate will change. Also, your goals will change how you build your plate. However, from a general perspective, according to Harvard University, almost half of your plate should be vegetables. Most vegetables will work, but understand that foods such as corn, potatoes, and plantains are considered high carb starches, not vegetables. Also, the inclusion of whole grains is important, but these are carbs as well, so you can replace whole grains with those starchy vegetables described before. Lastly, the fruit is an important part of the diet. You can save some for dessert or add a natural fruit juice as well. Understand that fruit too is a complex carb. When measuring your carb count, keep that in mind.
Lastly, portion control your foods. To ensure that you’re getting all of your nutrients, start by weighing out and tracking your macronutrients (carbs, protein, and fats). I have discussed before, but I use the MyFitnessPal app. After taking a short quiz that identifies your age, activity level, and goals, you are given a basic profile with macro-nutrient and caloric recommendations. So far it has worked quite well for me. I have also used IIFYM, which gives even more detailed specifications for macro-nutrients and caloric recommendations. I’ve tried these as well, and have also found them helpful. This process is a necessity when first starting to determine what your body needs and how your body reacts to different amounts of food.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/

That's it. It’s that simple! Building a healthy meal and turning over a new lifestyle with your food starts with just 5 easy steps. In the following videos, I give detailed information concerning which foods I like to buy most often and which seasonings and sauce/dressing combinations I build my meals from. The fact is that to build healthy, delicious, and nutritious meals it takes trial and error. The tools I give are a base, but to advance and diversify your flavor profiles, play with the basics and you’ll find what you like and don’t like concerning what’s good for your body.