You’ve decided to live a healthy life and change your eating schedule, and it’s great! However, many people struggle with where to start. Changing your eating schedule can be daunting and trail behind many challenges.
Learn how to balance your diet and stay on track to proper eating.
Plan a balanced diet properly
Changing your eating schedule is closely connected with an adequately set diet.
When planning your eating schedule, scientists recommend relying on your body’s biological rhythms. For example, the digestive system rests during the night hours and activates gradually in the morning.
This is why it is recommended to stick to the following timings:
- The ideal time for breakfast is from 6 to 9 am
- The second breakfast is 10 am. It is not recommended to skip it, even if the feeling of hunger has not yet appeared
- The approximate time for lunch is from 12 to 2 pm
- Afternoon snack from 4 to 5 pm
- Dinner from 6 to 8 pm
Tips to change eating schedule and build a healthy diet
A nutrition regimen doesn’t add up overnight. Typically, it takes an average of 21 days to form a habit. It also takes time to build a proper diet. That is why it is important to plan your meals for the week, calculate the required number of calories, and stick to other rules that will help you to change your eating habits.
Step 1: Get enough sleep
Lack of sleep provokes sugar and carbohydrate cravings because it affects appetite hormones. People that are deprived of only two hours of the recommended eight hours of sleep show an increase in hunger, a decrease in appetite suppressant hormones, which leads to cravings for sugar and simple carbohydrates.
When you do not get enough sleep, your body lacks energy, which is why you can consume more digestible sugar and, as a result, ruin your eating patterns. Sleep is the best way to build a healthy eating schedule. You can literally fight your cravings for carbohydrates with sleep and the extra weight along with it.
Step 2: Make sure your diet is balanced
Diet should include the right mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats for your body. That sets the correct metabolism for your body, and you won’t have to make drastic changes to your usual diet.
It is also important to control the amount of food consumed.
Daily calories can range from 1500 to 2000 kcal depending on your activity. And, of course, calories should not be gained at the expense of fast carbohydrates and sugar.
This will help to restructure your eating habits and give impetus to change your lifestyle and schedule more efficiently.
Step 3: Right eating patterns
Now that we know what to include in your diet to change your eating habits, it is important to understand how to do it.
For a good metabolism and stable eating schedule, eating four meals a day every 2-3 hours is recommended.
Suppose you decide to build a consistent diet. In that case, you’ll also require a calorie diary with the right amount of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. There are many ways to calculate the daily intake of these nutrients, but for a balanced diet, the most important thing is to keep the right ratio.
For weight loss, you need 30-35% protein, 25-30% fat, and 40% carbohydrates; for gaining weight, you need 35% protein, 15-20% fat, and 40-60% carbohydrates.
It is important to remember that a balanced diet should be divided into portions: at least 3-4 times a day in small portions, and the last meal should be three hours before bedtime.
Sticking to these proportions, you can quickly and effectively achieve your goals in changing your eating schedule.
Step 4: Don’t forget about water
Drink a few glasses of warm water in the morning (you can add lemon juice and honey). Water and lemon help start cleansing the digestive system, boosting your metabolism, increasing energy, and dissolving and destroying toxins.
Step 5: Eat sweets properly
If you like sweets and cannot break this habit yet, you should distribute its consumption during the day as follows:
- Morning – natural sweets (fruits, berries), dried fruits, dairy sweets, honey.
- After dinner – confectionery sweets (pastries, candies)
How to plan your meal for a consistent schedule
A balanced diet is 80% of success if you want to achieve more consistency in your eating schedule. Therefore, it is important to consider the following tips:
- Breakfast is the most important meal. It should be rich in proteins and fats.
- The second breakfast is a light snack. You can limit yourself to a glass of juice, sour milk drink, or fruit.
- Lunch should consist of protein sources and a small amount of healthy complex carbohydrates.
- Afternoon snacks, like the second breakfast, are carbohydrates. Fruit and cereal would be great.
- Dinner should be well-balanced in terms of protein and carbohydrates. Fatty foods are best eliminated.
Proper carbohydrates intake
When planning your meal, it is important to focus on the quantity and quality of carbohydrates it will contain.
Simple carbohydrates like honey, sugar, sweet and soft non-fibrous fruits, and berries should be included in morning meals.
Complex carbohydrates and polysaccharides, such as starch and fiber (cereals, potatoes, grain bread), should be included in meals in the first half of the day. Such food will not provoke blood sugar spikes but will provide the necessary energy for the muscles and the brain.
In the evening, it is recommended to reduce the number of carbohydrates and include to your meals unsweetened berries with high fiber content (currants, strawberries) and vegetables; their carbohydrate content is not high at all.
Proper fruit intake
Eating fruits before the main meal or even after it as a dessert is not recommended. When mixed with other food, fruit lingers in the digestive system. It leads to fermentation, impeding digestion and assimilation of food. It can also cause bloating, abdominal pain, and even dysbacteriosis.
All of this, however, applies only to fresh fruits. If the fruits have been heat-treated or stewed, the organic acids will be destroyed, and there will be no problems with digestion.
Wrapping up
Be prepared that the process of changing your eating schedule is not limited to time planning. Consistency and a healthy diet are essential. If you fail to stick to it, get back on track as soon as possible.
Healthy and consistent eating is not a temporary diet for a month. Instead, it is about restructuring your eating pattern and changing habits.
With these tips, you will not only change your eating schedule but also improve the health of your body as a whole. So don’t put off healthy eating until later; start correcting your eating habits today.