See complete graphic below.
There is no one diet “program” that fits all. As is it, even if there was, people have different food preferences, require different amounts of foods and have unique nutritional needs based on the previous usual way of eating, their current condition, how their body functions (more or less), activity levels etc.
That said, we all require the same nutrients, and there are basic eating patterns that tend to work for most people because many of us face similar work / rest routines and believe me, these routines have a big effect on what you eat, when you eat and how much you eat.
Also, it’s a not-so-commonly understood fact that your body needs micronutrients to function, so a nutrient-rich, healthy eating style works for everyone on that basis alone. Eating foods that are lacking in nutrients never works.
Last, but not least, as most people have experienced; if your approach to changing the way you eat, is not based on “small changes” and completely doable, you won’t be able to sustain a routine, which you can then build on and develop. What you think you can’t do, you won’t do.
What works best?
Think about the average person who’s eating the Standard American Diet. They do what they think they can do and that results in the world’s most common eating routine. The problem is, it only seems to be working for them, only on the basis that eating whatever they can whenever they can is all that works because they’re so busy; but most of the time that means eating nutrient poor food.
Nutrient poor food promotes weight problems and health complications and if you look around, you can easily agree with this observation. This way of eating does not work for us, it works against us.
- For Breakfast, most people wake up, drink a big cup of coffee, with or without a light meal. People are so busy in the morning they just fly out of the house. Besides, many people aren’t that hungry in the morning, because they’ve likely eaten a rather large dinner the night before and haven’t yet been active.Tired, they are, because they’ve gone to bed overwhelmed by all the night time seductions (TV, iPhone in bed, other things or people in bed 😉 the biggest of which is recreational eating–going to bed on a full stomach and not getting a sound enough sleep, hence the perceived need for coffee.
- For lunch, they are still so busy, after perhaps a few snacks to keep going, they eat a relatively light lunch, larger than breakfast because they have been active and they need more calories and nutrients. Worried about falling asleep, and suffering from the mid-day drag, most people are careful not to slow down too much, for too long or overeat at lunch because any masked hours of sleep debt, can be triggered by both and not one wants that drag during the day. So they eat a rather light lunch and carry on with the pace of the day.
- For dinner, this is the first time most people have the time to eat a rather robust meal. First, we have the most time, we are the most social during dinner, we have time to digest, we are usually not under the gun. We are also not as afraid of being tired during these hours and for many eating is a night time past time while watching TV or working late. And eating late helps many people as a sleep aid, with the proverbial “full stomach”.
It’s a cycle and so it repeats.
Now, how does this author, trainer, coach, entrepreneur know this and how do you get the world’s most common eating routine working for you, not against you? Besides asking my clients and noticing these patterns for years, I’ve done it myself!
It’s a relentlessly busy world out there, with a faster pace that we’ve ever experienced before as a human population, with stress that is ever-persistent as we’re all driven by technology, competition, this fear or that, keeping up etc. So to some degree, we’re all faced with similar work / rest demands and therefore similar eating patterns. I’m not saying they are exact for everyone, I’m simply saying, “similar”.
This is why, even hugely successful companies like Slim Fast, used to promote the ole’ drink a shake in the morning, one in the afternoon with a light meal and a “sensible” dinner. Not because they were simply brilliant but because it works for most people’s lives. Today, though, they’ve bought into a different plan, to change things up. It’s likely in response to another pattern that has been emerging over the past several years–because so many people are stuck in the vicious cycle of eating nutrient-poor, calorie-rich foods, and that is eating animal products and refined foods, a common patterns is now eating 5 times per day in such a way that keeps you on a treadmill of undernourishment, and overeating, boosting your energy with sugar-laden foods, then trying to manage your weight with low carbohydrate eating–just look at this nutrient poor menu!
By the way, when I say “nutrient poor”, I’m talking about a diet that is lacking vitamins, minerals, fiber and most importantly the thousands of phytochemicals that enable your body to function, and then of course, health-promoting versions of protein, carbohydrates and fats. Not all calories are created equal.
So, how could you get the world’s most common eating routine, working for you?
First of all, you need to break the vicious cycle of eating nutrient poor, and make the Switch today, for your best health tomorrow and that is the switch to a nutrient-rich, healthy eating style! Why? Because eating more plant-based nutrient rich, is the healthiest way to eat, especially when 80-90 % or More, of the foods you eat are from vegetables, fruits, beans, legumes, raw nuts and seeds, and whole grains. Plants are where all the nutrients come from.
An eating routine is a just routine, but the quality of the foods you orient that routine around makes the difference.
Learn how to do that right, and you will literally detoxify your body, lose weight naturally, reverse lifestyle-induced diseases from overweight and obesity to diabetes and heart disease… age slower from less nutritional stress, look younger and live longer.
The problem is, for so many of us, the promise of a plant-based, or plant predominant eating style, can “seem” to be too time-consuming not convenient enough and for those who’ve been eating the SAD Standard American Diet for far too long, rich in highly addictive foods, not tasty enough. All of which, could not be further from the truth. But when you’ve been trained to eat in a certain way for a long period of time, usually for commercial reasons that are marketing-based and just aren’t true, by what appear to be respectable organizations like Slim Fast, among countless others promoting high consumption diet traps, people get “stuck” in these addictive ways of eating.
So the answer is this:
You continue to follow the world’s most common eating plan, because the routine works. Only now, you do it with great-tasting nutrient-rich foods, not nutrient-poor foods. So, your eating plan might look like this: (there are many variations to this…)
Note: Today, it’s just as easy to eat nutrient rich (healthy) as is to eat nutrient poor (unhealthy) as you’ll see below:
The Simplest, Quickest and Easiest Way to Eat Healthy!
- A Superfood Drink in the morning, with or without some fruit or whole grain cereal.
An ideal superfood drink is juiced vegetables and fruits or a live juice powder combined with whole food concentrates and nutrient dense ingredients such as Living Feast, which you just mix with water. - A Superfood Drink in the morning, with a soup or salad including vegetables and fruits, an oz seeds or nuts, beans, etc.
- A Robust Nutrient Rich Salad Meal for dinner, with raw or cooked (steamed greens) nuts or seeds, loaded with vegetables, and other whole food toppings, including some whole grains or other starchy food, with a fruit based dessert.* if you want to include a small amount of animal and refined foods keep it to 10% or less of your total calorie intake and make it white meat chicken or fish only a couple times per week and a whole grain products that are legitimately whole grain.
You can look into this menu and label it countless ways, but one thing it is, it’s nutrient-rich, satisfying and filling, it won’t overwhelm your body with too many calories, will flood your body with micronutrients and given you the fuel your body requires to sustain a long demanding day free of the distractions caused by unhealthy food (fuel) choices.
It works; give it a try! When you eat in this way, the simplest, quickest and easiest way eat nutrient rich “healthy”, you can begin imagining and realizing a life with a whole new set of health dynamics supporting you. Read about them here.