My dietician and my nutitionist have both talked to me about utilizing the plate method as a tool to stay on track with eating, while not having to calculate a bunch of numbers or tracking calories or macros. I’ve attempted in the past, and have done well and have been successful, but sometimes I just didn’t have the motivation to do it because I love carbs.
The plate method is basically using your plate as a proportion guide to the food you consume. It’s pretty simple, and has been fairly effective for me. Half of your plate is a veggetable, a quarter of your plate is protein, and a quarter of the plate is carbohydrates. Not included in the division of the plate, but also included, is one fat.
I am ideally supposed to eat the veggies and protein first, and if I’m still hungry go for the carbs. I’ve been able to do this fairly well, but some foods definitely are larger than the portion of the plate it’s supposed to be designated to. Like my scrambled eggs above or a serving size of salmon or a personal pizza.
The biggest challenge has been figuring out how to incorporate veggies into breakfast. I had a really hard time conceptualizing veggies at breakfast because I associate veggies with lunch and dinner unless the veggies were in an omlet. So I started by incorporating spinach into shakes because that was easy enough and masked by the shake flavors. And then I moved to adding things to my eggs like scallions, mushrooms, spinach, and tomatoes. Eventually I worked my way up to incorporating veggies into my breakfasts as a side or main dish. Cucumbers and broccoli are my main go-to breakfast veggies now. One of my favorite breakfasts is 1-2 fried eggs, mashed avocado, broccoli and fruit. Mashed avacado on eggs is heavenly, but the butter-like texture of the avocado mixed with steamed broccoli is divine.
My other challenge is knowing if I’m getting enough protein. Since I am supposed to reduce carb and sugar intake and increase my protein consumption, I at times will do more protein than the plate method would suggest and I will reduce the fruit or other carb of choice. But otherwise, I feel like this method has been easy to stick to and I have really enjoyed the meals I prepare.
Intention Transform 