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We are what we eat and our body does care WHEN we eat our food. Nutrient timing is just as important as meal timing, and it does matter WHAT we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Knowing when to eat carbs, protein and fat can significantly boost your weight loss and improve your overall health.
Our brain needs sugar for proper functioning, but let’s face it — we eat too much carbs and at totally wrong times. To fix that, you should cut back on refined grains and corn, wheat flour, cereal, white rice, bread and pita, and focus on whole grains. Mornings are for energy fuelling foods. Have some berries or fruits right before breakfast. For breakfast you can have a mini portion of whole grains with vegetables and greens on the side, or a rice cake.
Lunch is the time to get loaded with high-carb, healthy food. Having enough carbs for lunch gives your body energy and helps avoid getting carb cravings later at dinner time.
You can easily pair quinoa, wheat, buckwheat or brown rice with starchy vegetables.
Remember, there’s no carbs after lunch. No more whole grains, bread, pasta and pitas. We do not eat starchy vegetables like potatoes for dinner. Dried fruits, honey and cookies are not on your dinner menu as well.
The best time to consume carbohydrates is before 4 p.m. Having most of your carbs for lunch and just a little bit for breakfast would be ideal and here’s why: if you eat a large amount of carbs in the evening when you are the least active, your body won’t be able to absorb all that sugar and will store it as fat.
Carbohydrates are great but they need to be consumed at the right time of the day. Dinner is IMPORTANT and it’s all about fiber and protein. Seafood, white fish, eggs, goat cheese on special occasions, paired with non-starchy vegetables and greens make the perfect meal for dinner. You should remember that dinner is not really the most important meal of the day. Having some vegetables with a portion of light protein for dinner is more than enough.
Over time unhealthy habits like overeating, late night snacks and imbalanced diet slow down your metabolism. To boost it up, you need new eating habits. They are the key to a healthy body and mind. It takes some time but you’ll get there.
here are 3 main meals of the day and 1 snack in between before 4 p.m. You only eat when you are hungry, not because you are bored. If you do feel the urge to snack, have some berries with nuts (25 pieces a day max.) If you have digestive issues from eating nuts, opt for raw or soaked pumpkin seeds, coconut or guacamole, grain-free crispbread crackers, aged goat or sheep cheese, olives. It’s OK to occasionally have a piece of dark chocolate with nuts or cocoa with coconut milk.
For example, if you have a flaxseed coconut pudding topped with nuts, sesame seeds and strawberries for breakfast. For lunch you have quinoa with olives and bell pepper, or maybe some wild rice with tahini, salted salmon, a piece of goat cheese, tomatoes and avocado, there is a chance you won’t even need a snack later. In fact, a properly balanced, nutritious lunch reduces the chances of overeating in the evening by 70%.
Whenever you fancy some cheese, remember that you can only have a piece the size of index finger, and only 1-2 times a week. Opt for a cheese made of whole, raw goat or sheep milk. Pecorino, Roquefort cheese are also great choices.
Having a glass of wine (or two glasses on special occasions) won’t be a crime either. Just make sure it’s dry and of high quality. Hard liquor and sweet drinks are out of the question.
Mindless eating and eating just to “keep company” is no longer an option for us. No more distractions while eating a meal. No more eating in front of a TV, or a laptop, or browsing on your smartphone. You don’t eat on the go or while talking on the phone, at the gas station, in the car. It’s all about time management! Now you eat at home. You cook delicious food. You meal-prep and bring food to work. You focus on the food itself: what it tastes like, its texture. Is it crunchy? Is it salty or maybe spicy? You focus on main meals, not snacks. You want it to be full, delicious and varied.
Speaking of varied meals, we recommend eating fish and seafood 3-4 times a week as protein is very important for us right now! Have 1-2 vegetarian days a week by eating eggs, cheese, soaked beans and tofu-tempeh. 1 day a week you go on VEGAN detox — no eggs, no fish, no butter and no cheese, only vegetables, seeds and greens.
