How to Find Your Balance with Nutrition + 20 Easy Meal Ideas
There are loads of tips and tricks when it comes to ways of eating healthier, but it can be a bit daunting or even confusing at times, especially when you’re DONE with dieting and wanting to create more of a positive relationship with food.
As a non-diet dietitian, I wholeheartedly believe you don’t need to rely on calorie or macro counting, weighing and/or tracking your food, and certainly not eliminating the foods you enjoy to find balance. All you need is a bit of guidance that isn’t coming from diet culture and to begin trusting yourself and your body.
In this blog post, I’ll be giving you the details on what balanced eating is, the benefits of achieving balance, and how you can find your balance using my simple method! Oh, and TWENTY meal and snack ideas to help get you started!
What Does Balance Mean?
Finding and achieving balance can hold different meanings depending on who you ask. While some meanings may stem from diet culture ("you must eat clean all week so you can enjoy ice cream on the weekend”), you can define and feel empowered by your own definition. As a dietitian, I believe achieving balance means finding what will be sustainable while also being flexible for YOU and your lifestyle. This is what nutrition is all about: identifying your individualized needs and wants and making adjustments accordingly to help you feel your very best.
So, your balance may look a bit different than that of the next person, and that is perfectly okay! As long as you are doing what feels good for your mind, body, and overall well-being, then I would say you’ve found your balance in nutrition.
Finding Balance in the Midst of Diet Culture
Like most of us, you’ve probably been on at least a diet or two (or dozens), which means you probably have all sorts of food rules floating in your head, like sugar is so bad, so you better keep it out of the house, or carbs equal weight gain, so you better not have any for dinner since you ate a sandwich for lunch, or you should always buy the low-calorie versions of items in the grocery store.
When you’ve got hundreds of food rules playing, finding a balance between them all can be a bit confusing and frustrating, to say the least, but it doesn’t have to be! It just takes a bit of patience and learning to understand you and your body!
Because right now, your relationship with food may look like a constant swinging motion.
Imagine a pendulum. On one end, there is dieting, aka restricting, and your food rules. On the other end, there is out-of-control eating, binge eating, and chronically overeating. Maybe you start a diet and you’re doing really well and sticking to the rules, but eventually, after pulling so far towards that end of the pendulum, you stop the diet for whatever reason and you swing hard to the other side. This goes on for years and years.
Finding balance means landing in the middle, where there aren't food rules dictating your every food choice or that agonizing feeling inside your body after a binge.
The middle of the spectrum is where you view food simply as what it is rather than slapping labels on it like good, bad, healthy, unhealthy, clean, or toxic. Food is just food to you, but at the same time, you’re able to notice how particular food choices can make you and your body feel. When you’ve reached the middle of the spectrum, there is no more guilt attached to what you choose or do not choose to eat.
For example, you noticed that you’ve not eaten many vegetables since being on vacation (no judgment or guilt, just observing), and now that you’re home, you choose to prioritize adding more fruits and vegetables to your meals for a fiber and nutrient boost. You aren’t forcing yourself to pile vegetables onto your plate; you’re simply being intentional about providing your body with nutrients to help you feel your best.
Again, this will take time! There may be times where you eat past your comfort zone or eat something just because it’s in front of you; this doesn’t mean you’re doing things wrong. Life happens, and this isn’t about trying to “perfect” all the time.
Looking Beyond A Balanced Plate
Oftentimes, you’ll come across the idea that eating balanced means making sure your plate is filled with a variety of nutrients. While this is absolutely true, I don’t want you to hyperfixate on this “definition” of balance. Rather, I want you to look beyond the plate and begin to see your balance as something that occurs over a period of time. Sure, as a registered dietitian, I am going to encourage you to eat balanced meals (keep reading below on how I teach clients my simple method), but I also love to use the phrase with clients “most of the time.”
This phrase allows space for spontaneous outings, celebrations, cravings, or simply because life happens and all you want is some mac-and-cheese.
Look at it this way: The one meal (or heck, even multiple meals) that may not have all the nutrients isn’t going to wreck your health because you will eat again.
On average, you eat three meals a day.
That’s 21 meals in a week.
That’s 84 meals in a month.
That’s over 1,000 meals a year.
The burger and fries you had when celebrating your friends’ birthday—yeah, it’s not that big of a deal when you expand on your definition of balance.
The Simple Method to Creating Sustainable Balance
As a dietitian, I honestly believe that nutrition can be fairly simple for the majority of people when you focus on the basics. Diet culture loves to make nutrition complicated and make you feel that you need all sorts of rules, supplements, detoxes, etc. in order to be healthy. By removing diet culture from your life and placing your focus on the basics of healthy nutrition, it can help you feel good, both physically and mentally. Even if you’re someone who has been diagnosed with diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, PCOS, etc., focusing on the basics can help you start feeling better.
*Please, if you have a diagnosis, it is always best to speak with your care team. This blog post is not to be replaced by medical nutrition therapy, and working with a professional, like a registered dietitian, is always emphasized to best suit your individualized nutritional needs.
My simple method to help you find balance is that, for the majority of the time, I want you to include carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber in your meals and snacks.
This is a method I teach my clients from the very beginning; it helps to establish a foundation of providing your body with a variety of nourishing meals, maintaining steady blood sugars, and allowing you to begin noticing how different foods and food combinations make you and your body feel.
When you intentionally skip out on one or more of these nutrients during mealtimes, it’s very possible that you’re not reaping all the nutritional benefits that you could be getting when eaten together. Maybe you decide to skip out on the carbs because you feel that you’ve eaten “too many” for the day, but then you find yourself low on energy, in a brain fog, and craving all the sweets later on. This simple, yet impactful, method acts as a powerhouse for your body.
Carbohydrates = energy. Adding carbs to your meals and snacks will provide your body with the energy that it needs (aka, you will have the energy to chase your kids around). Fun fact: just your brain alone needs 130 grams of carbohydrates every single day! So yeah, carbohydrates are pretty important to your physical and psychological health—you can read more on carbohydrates here in this blog post!
Protein = the builder. Adding protein to your meals and snacks will provide your body with amino acids to help build and repair cells, muscles, and tissues. Including sources of protein in your diet can aid in better digestion and decrease your overall appetite (aka keeping you full for longer, so you’re grazing on your kids leftovers). If you want to know simple ways to bulk up your protein without dieting, you can read this blog post!
Fat = the filler. Adding sources of fat to your meals and snacks isn’t something you need to fear, nor is it something you need to go all ham on either. Being intentional about your fat choices can help provide your body with the necessary fuel it needs for your heart and liver, aid in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, and slow down gastric emptying in the stomach (aka fats keep you full for longer).
Fiber = bulking. Fiber is my absolute favorite, and I love talking about the importance it can play in your overall nutrition! Adding fiber to your meals and snacks can help to support a healthy gut microbiome, lower cholesterol levels, keep a balanced blood sugar, promote regular movement in your digestive system (goodbye constipation), and so much more! Fiber is truly your best friend and can be an absolute game changer in your nutrition when done appropriately. You can read more on fiber here!
I want you to see these nutrients as best friends and that they love being together as much as possible. When one or more are left out, it’s just not the same and can leave your body wanting and needing more. In a diet-culture-filled world, it can seem a bit strange to have all four nutrients on your plate three times a day (this is an average; you may need more meals or snacks during the day), but when you begin implementing this simple method into your daily routine, you will truly see the difference it can make in how you feel, both physically and mentally!
Balanced Meals and Snacks
As promised, here are 20 meal and snack ideas to help you find your balance with nutrition!
Breakfast
Greek yogurt, berries, granola
Eggs, avocado, and toast (whole grain or sourdough for a boost of fiber!)
Easy Oatmeal (high in protein and fiber!)
Chia seed parfait - combine 2 tbls of chia seeds, 1 cup milk of choice, 1-2 scoops protein powder (optional for added protein), ½ frozen berries, drizzle of honey or maple syrup
Simple Smoothie - 1 cup frozen fruit of choice, handful of spinach, 1-2 scoops of protein powder, ½ cup greek yogurt, ¼ cup milk of choice, optional to add hemp or chia seeds
Lunch and Dinner
Chicken or Tuna Salad on whole wheat bread, side of vegetables (bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers, etc.)
Simple Southwest Quinoa Bake (such an easy meal prep to keep in the fridge!)
Turkey and Cheese Wrap (whole wheat wrap, sliced deli turkey, cheese of choice, spinach, bell pepper, tomatoes), side of chips or crackers with hummus
Easy Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad
Adult Lunchable - I love these ideas shared here!
Easy Ramen (ramen packet, protein of choice like chicken, salmon, or edamame, chopped bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, spinach)
French Onion Meatballs with mashed potatoes and roasted green beans
Simple Protein Pasta (choice of protein, chickpea, or lentil pasta, roasted red pepper and tomato soup, can of diced tomatoes, spinach) top with cheese and sour cream
Snacks
Cottage cheese with corn chips (or any chip of choice)
Greek yogurt, frozen berries (thawed), granola
Popcorn, mixed nuts, dark chocolate
Turkey, cheese, whole grain crackers, grapes or sliced oranges
Apple or Banana with peanut butter (or any nut butter)
You can also grab my Simple Snacking Guide for more ideas and understand the importance snacks can bring in establishing your balanced life!
Leaving You With This
Finding your balance will take time, especially when you’ve been dieting and since we live in a diet-culture obsessed world. But, I don’t want you to feel discouraged because it IS possible to make peace with food and find what feels good to you, both physically and mentally. From here, begin focusing what foods you’re choosing (without judgement) and lean into how those foods are making you and your body feel.
If you’re wanting a more structured, individualized approach to finding your balance and establishing a positive relationship with food, click here to work with me! Together, we can overcome your food rules, binge eating or overeating habits, and I can support you in understanding nutrition in a way that helps you get to feeling good in your own body.