Nutritious diet recipes for three meals a day

Each meal covers the basic framework of "1 punch of staple food + 1 palm of high-protein food + 2 handfuls of green leaves/fresh vegetables", and then flexibly adjusts according to one's own activity level, dietary preferences, and physical indicators. There is no "perfect recipe" that applies to everyone. Effective plans are those that can be adhered to for a long time.

When I helped my friends adjust their diets in the past two years, I encountered two extremes: one was a boy who ran half-marathons three times a week, copying the fat-reducing blogger's three meals, and his legs became weak after running twice in half a month; there was also a girl who worked in an office from 9 to 5, who imitated the fitness blogger and ate brown rice and chicken breast every day, and still suffered from acid reflux and constipation. In fact, there is no standard answer, it is all a matter of fine-tuning the basic framework.

Let’s talk about breakfast. I followed the trend two years ago and tried a low-carb breakfast for three months. I had fried eggs with avocado and a small handful of spinach every day. I really didn’t have the problem of being sleepy in the morning in the first two weeks. But after 10 o’clock in the third week, I started to feel panicked and my hands were shaking. After switching back to half a fistful of multi-grain steamed buns, fried eggs, 6 small tomatoes and 10 almonds, my condition stabilized. There is now a lot of controversy about breakfast: low-carb diet advocates believe that refined carbohydrates can cause large fluctuations in blood sugar in the morning, and recommend that people with insulin resistance and high blood sugar prioritize high-protein and high-quality fats without deliberately adding staple foods; and the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)" recommends that the energy supply of carbohydrates in breakfast for ordinary healthy people should account for about 40%, which is more suitable for most people's four or five hours of work and study in the morning. You really don’t have to stand in line. If you’re in a hurry, just grab a hard-boiled egg, add sugar-free soy milk, and half a corn, and you can go out. If you have time on the weekend, you can bake a vegetable egg pancake with a small bowl of oatmeal. If it’s too complicated, you probably won’t last three days.

When it comes to lunch, the most common questions asked are whether bringing in overnight food can cause cancer and how to choose takeout without risking any pitfalls. I have also been worried about the nitrite problem in overnight vegetables, and I specifically checked the experimental data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: the nitrite content of stir-fried vegetables stored under refrigerated conditions for less than 12 hours is far lower than the national food safety standards, so you can safely take them. Don’t panic if you’re a takeaway party. Don’t choose soupy rice bowls. Look for businesses that offer portioned meals. A fistful of white rice or brown rice will do. Choose a high-protein dish like steamed fish or fried chicken breast, and two stir-fried vegetables. Just don’t order the included soup. Most of the merchants’ soups are made with starch and MSG, and one bowl will account for one-third of the whole day’s salt. If you are in the muscle-building period, just add an extra palmful of high protein. If you are in the fat-loss period, replace one-third of your staple food with steamed pumpkins and steamed yams. You don’t have to cut off carbon completely.

Dinner is even more controversial. Many people cut out the staple food for dinner to lose weight. I have done this before. I was so hungry that I got up at 2 o'clock in the morning and opened a bucket of braised beef noodles. In half a month, I gained two pounds. Only later did I figure out the rules: If you lie down after eating at night and don’t consume any extra, you can reduce the staple food to half a fist or even eat nothing; but if you have to work overtime at night, or go to the gym to do weight training and exercise, you can eat less than half a fist of sweet potatoes or lotus root slices, which will avoid overeating in the middle of the night. The light fasting school usually recommends that dinner should account for 20% of the day's calories and be as low in fat and carbs as possible. It is suitable for people with a large body weight and no activities at night. However, my best friend who is a fitness instructor will also eat a small bowl of brown rice, fried chicken breasts and blanched broccoli after class at 9 o'clock every night. Her body fat rate is stable at 18% all year round, and she has not gained weight.

Let me talk about a point that many people overlook: the calories of seasonings are much higher than you think. I used to eat a reduced-fat salad, pouring half a bottle of Thousand Island dressing on it, and the calories were higher than eating a bowl of white rice. Later, I switched to a less oily and vinegar sauce, or just mixed it with a little light soy sauce and sesame oil, and the calories were directly cut by two-thirds. There is no need to completely give up my favorite foods. I eat butter hot pot every Friday, including duck intestines and beef. As long as I maintain a basic diet for the other six days, my weight has been stable for more than two years.

In fact, nutritious eating is never about forcing yourself to eat "correct but unpalatable" things, nor is it necessary to make three meals like solving a math problem. If you like white rice, you don’t have to switch to brown rice. If you like braised pork ribs, you don’t have to eat boiled chicken breasts. As long as the amount is stuck within the basic framework, you can feel comfortable. After all, the best nutritional recipes are those that make you happy to eat and last a lifetime.