Most people eventually get tired of doing that and fall off their “diet.”
There’s a better way: Follow what makes you feel the best. Follow
your intuition. Why blindly follow some menu when you can do
what every other animal on earth does — eat small amounts often,
stop eating when you’re satisfied, and eat what your body needs and
what makes you feel the best.
Unfortunately, none of the popular diet approaches consider how
you respond to your meals. Do they make you feel more hunger?
Tired? Energized? Pay attention to how you feel immediately after a
meal, and for the next few hours; one of the best indicators of whether
that type of meal works well for your needs. As you consider this and
other factors we’ve discussed in previous chapters, you’ll be on your
way to knowing what works best for you. What is really happening,
is you’re developing your natural intuition.
For many people a plan that makes sense is to determine the
types and amounts of foods that work best for you, and then devise a
schedule that divides this food up over the course of the day.
Typically this means three regular meals with two or three healthy
snacks. Eating right is often a matter of planning. You plan your day,
often writing it down in your planner; you plan the clothes you’re
going to wear and you plan vacations. If you plan your meals as care-
fully, you’ll be much healthier. Let’s plan a sample day’s menu, begin-
ning with the breaking of your all-night fast, breakfast.
Breakfast
There’s no better way to start your day than with a healthy breakfast.
This includes real food, including some quality protein. Keeping your
carbohydrates to the proper level will help optimize blood sugar,
which will give you more physical and mental energy for the day’s
tasks ahead.
Of course, eggs are the perfect breakfast food. While they’re not
just for breakfast, they just could make your first meal of the day
ideal, and a bit easier to prepare — whether poached, scrambled, soft-
boiled, fried, hard-boiled or in an omelet, eggs are a quick meal.
I begin my day with a delicious smoothie. I soft boil a dozen eggs
at a time and keep them refrigerated, so preparation for this is about
five minutes. Here’s my large, one-serving recipe:
178 • IN FITNESS AND IN HEALTH