The Healthy Plate and the Bulky Plate

Wouldn’t you like to be able to judge of the quality of a meal at a glance, whether you are in a restaurant or at home? Or be able to know if you are eating the right proportions for each food group? The healthy plate (for weight loss and maintenance), and the bulky plate (for weight gain and active people) are two simple and colourful meal models that provide just enough calories to meet your requirements, while helping you reach your weight objective.

What do they look like?
Ideally, we should eat a healthy or a bulky plate for each meal, i.e., three times a day. If we feel hungry or if we have greater needs, we can add one or a few snacks throughout the day (see my article “Snacks “For Dummies””). If you leave food on your plate during a meal, it is also possible to eat it on your next snack.
Here is what these two models should look like:

Advantages of both models
The beauty of these models is that once they become familiar, they can be useful in many situations outside home:

• At the restaurant, practice building your own healthy or bulky plate with the items available on the menu. For example, at a restaurant, you can choose a sandwich (starch, meat), a salad as side dish (vegetables, fats), a small carton of milk (dairy products), and apple slices dipped in a little bit of caramel (fruit, sugar).
• At the buffet, build your servings according to the proportions of the healthy or the bulky plate. If you have the habit of eating two plates, choose a smaller-sized plate and apply the healthy plate model twice rather than once.
• At the grocery, your cart should also have the same proportions as your healthy or your bulky plate. This way, you will be sure to have most of your nutrients for the week, without allowing in too many products that are very fat or sweet (soft drinks, candies, chocolate, pastries, etc.).

In short, either with the healthy plate or with the bulky plate, there are plenty of options. These models can become precious allies in a weight loss or weight gain process! Try them!

By Vanessa Martin

The Healthy Plate and the Bulky Plate is a post from Nautilus Plus. The Nautilus Plus blog aims to help people in their journey to fitness through articles on training, nutrition, motivation, exercise and healthy recipes.
Copyright © Nautilus Plus 2012