How to build Your Own Balanced Diet?

A balanced diet implies more than just meeting your nutrition requirements––it is a personal plan that balances with your likes, your dislikes and your lifestyle.

People often inquire me, “Is dieting good, or bad?” It is such a common question that I often do not quite know how to reply––partly because we throw around the words' “diet” and “dieting” so much that they have nearly lost their meaning.

In fact, we’re all on a diet every day. We each have our own dietary routines and styles that make up our usual “diet.” Occasionally we make changes to that diet––often to reduce our calories––in which case you might say you are “dieting” or “on my diet” (that is, until a few weeks later…when you’re “off my diet”).

What Makes a Diet Good or Bad?

There are surely “good” diets and “bad” diets. We all know people who choose foods cautiously and eat well, while we know others who sound to eat nothing but fast food and soda. And if you want to lose weight, then “dieting,” in the most common sense, is perhaps a good thing. But it actually depends on how you style your weight loss.

If your weight loss diet is one you can uphold with is well-balanced and leads to a healthy amount of weight loss, then yes, in that case dieting is definitely “good.” But if the weight loss diet you’re trying to follow is unbalanced, if it’s so firm that you can’t stick with it, or if it’s so little in calories that you have no energy or you lose weight too rapidly, I’d say that’s “bad.”

The Best Diet is the One that Works for You

The most successful “diet” is a nutrition plan that works for you day in and day out, providing your body with the nutrients it needs and the foods that you adore eating. It’s a diet that works with your lifestyle, that you are able to follow for the rest of your life and is individually yours.

With so many different “diets” out there, how do you put together the plan that works for you? The best way to initiate is to follow some main values, and then improve you are eating style until you find a way of eating every day that works for you.

Construction a Healthy Diet from the Ground Up

I like to think of building your diet in much the same way you would if you were creating a house. You start with the main foundation, you build up your supporting structures, and then you add the finishing touches to personalize it, and make it individually yours.

If you were building a house from the ground up, you’d have a budget. Likewise, if you’re building your diet, the first thing you have to know is how many calories you have to work with. Just as houses come in all different sizes, so do people and their calorie demand. Calorie needs are individual to you, and are identified, in large part, by your body structure and the
quantity of activity you get. You can’t arrange what you’re going to eat until you have an idea of your regular calorie needs to help you achieve your dietary targets (whether it’s to lose weight, gain or stay the same).

Now, just like your house, your diet needs a strong foundation. Perfectly, the main of your diet will be made up of lean proteins, health carbohydrate sources (in the form of vegetables, fruits and whole grains), and modest amounts of beneficial fats. Your aim is to split up your calories from protein, carbohydrates and fats in a way that suits your needs.

Generally, about half your calories are going to come from carbohydrates. The other half will be, more or less, nearly separated between protein and fat. The proteins, carbohydrates and fats you eat, along with the vitamins and minerals that your body needs, supply the supporting construction to your diet.

Personalize Your Diet for Long Term Success

Just the main structure is ended, you get to decorate and personalize your house. The same holds true for your diet. You get to personalize your nutrition plan by selection and electing the
foods you’ll eat that work with your likes and dislikes, your lifestyle, your budget––while still meeting your nutrition targets.

Personalization is really the key to your success. Emphasis on selecting the healthy foods that you enjoy the most. What really matters is the overall quality of your diet. And with so many healthy foods out there, there are no lack in substances to pick and select from. It wouldn’t be “good” if you felt painful every time you walked into your own home––if it didn’t feel like “you.” Also, a diet is only “good” when it’s good for you––because it feeds you, and because it just feels right. And once you feel natural and comfortable with the diet that you can “call your
own,” your weight ought to take care of itself.

The best diet is the one that works best with your lifestyle, your budget, your food preferences and how much effort you’re willing to give.

One of the more entertaining aspects of my work is that whenever I meet a new weight-loss agent, I never know where the talk will lead. Habitually, I’ll begin by getting some history. I want to know what’s the most and the least they’ve ever weighed, what motivates them to eat better and get into shape, and also what’s worked for them in the past and what hasn’t. That sort of thing. From there, I can get a sense for how much effort each particular patient is willing to put forth and what their outlooks are. Then we come up with a plan for their best diet. But I can’t just tell someone what they need to do. I need to help them figure out how they’re going to do it, too. We work together to figure out what’s going to be the best diet for them.

How to build Your Own Balanced Diet?