Rhythm Is The Key: Main Meals

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are enough for a healthy meal plan. Breakfast and lunch (till 3-4 p.m.) should cover 70-80% food intake of the day. Snacks are allowed only if you endure severe hunger or one of the main daily meals was skipped.

Avoid long pauses. Try drinking warm water to damp your appetite.

Breakfast 6:30-8:30 a.m. 

Focus on protein-fatty and fatty foods. Perfect ratio counts: 40% proteins, 40% fats, 20% carbohydrates. Opt for copious breakfast that amounts up to 50% of calorie intake. Make sure to add a serving of non-starchy vegetables. Its ratio to protein-fat products should be 2:1.

Start your day with a cup of black or red berries (currants, blueberries, blueberries, raspberries, lingonberries) and only after 10-20 minutes proceed with breakfast. Perfect morning set is:
eggs in any form, goat cheese, salted salmon, salted fish and marinated or grilled seafood, sometimes cod liver, caviar (herring, pollock or any other type), olives, avocados, nuts (raw or soaked), salads sprinkled with sesame seeds, flax and pumpkin seeds.

Vegetables – any (1/2 plate): spinach, cilantro, parsley, dill, chard, arugula, all dark leaves, cucumber, tomato, mushrooms, radish, pepper – as a salad or cooked. Home-made squash spread, guacamole, etc. Brown rice crisps or some quinoa or buckwheat are an option, but focus on good fats and protein with greens. Carbohydrates should be reduced to a minimum.

As for dessert – some berries or a few pieces of dark chocolate will do. A cup of coffee with coconut or soy milk but without sugar is allowed.

Minimize sugary breakfasts. You can keep your favorite baking or cookies with fair ingredients to enjoy occasionally after breakfast. 

If morning eggs with herbs, anchovy and vegetables won’t fit – try an omelet or tomatoes with jamon, whole grain rice crisps with avocado + an egg. Or scrambled eggs, porridge salad with quinoa, buckwheat or whole-grain rice. 

Lunch 12:00-14:00 p.m.

Perfectly composed lunch consists of 60% proteins, 20% fats, 20% carbohydrates. Opt for lighter protein with a carbohydrate side dish (gluten-free cereals, starchy vegetables) and a serving of salad. 

It is the main meal of the day, which falls on enzymes activity peak. Always start thinking about vegetables and then about protein or carbohydrate side dishes.

For instance: 

  • Hummus or salad with baked beets.
  •  Dorade or boiled eggs with herring caviar. 
  • Boiled fish, quinoa and salad mix with vegetables and dark greens. 
  • Tuna / cod liver with buckwheat, baked or fresh vegetables, mushrooms, sesame seeds, eggs.
  • A bowl of stir fry.
  • Tuna steak or grilled calamari, hummus, salad with olives. 
  • Lentil pasta with pesto and seafood, chocolate for dessert. 
  • Curry and stewed greens, a coconut for dessert.
  • Warm vegetable salad, baked potatoes in their skins, cod liver.
  • Big bowl of mussels in tomato sauce and a couple of whole bread toasts + big salad.

If a serve seems too small – increase a dose of hearty products (cod liver, caviar, nuts, seeds, not rice or bread). Lunch remains the main meal just like breakfast.

Emphasize your lunch out. If you have to choose from delivery or restaurant menu – stick to the same groups of products that you have in your diet plan. But still, the best option for eating out is taking your meal from home. 

Carefully reduce the amount of certain legumes. Especially if you suffer from bloating and flatus. The hard-to-digest beans should be excluded. Lentils and chickpeas should be previously soaked for 24-48 hours and eaten at lunch when the digestion is strong.

Dinner 5:30-7:30 p.m.

It’s simple: choose green vegetables and sometimes protein. Potatoes, carrots, beets, anything made of flour or cereals (a little quinoa or buckwheat is sometimes ok) and meat should be excluded.
Choose non-starchy vegetables with oil dressing or fats (nuts). Protein is optional but it is recommended to avoid it. Dark al dente vegetables served with eggs\goat cheese\olives  are preferable. 

Your perfect dinner is: 

dark lettuce and greens, dark green al dente vegetables with sesame seeds and flax. Stewed / baked / grilled vegetables in any combination. Occasionally add whitefish, seafood, eggs, legumes with tahena, tofu or white cheese, simple vegetable dishes / lentil stew or tempeh.

Following parts of the articles series:

Rhythm is the key: Main Meals

Rhythm Is The Key:5 Hallmarks

Alyssa Lightman
Alyssa Lightman - sarcast, fabulist, content expert. Her basic rule is: no matter what you write - keep it short. As no matter how rewarding as tackling and immersive longreads can be, short but strong texts inger with us the longest and often become lifechanging.

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Meal Plan