I am a dreamer so it sort of follows that I dream, or visualize, about food too.

When I think about my meals I sort if hold an image in my mind about what to eat.    I ‘see’ my plate as being half fruit and vegetables or salad,  quarter protein (meat, fish, eggs or poultry ) and quarter carbohydrates or grains (rice, pasta or breads – here’s the good part  - I love potatoes and depending on who you listen to they can fit in two categories – veg or carbs!?)

When I put this image in mind I find it easy to help me choose how much of what to eat… it’s kind of fun trying to ‘untangle’ foods like fried rice too. It’s easy to fix if your plate gets distorted – sometimes the quarters look more like thirds –  ’cos lets face it, it is usually the fruit and veg half that gets the nudge – just eat a carrot, tomato, orange, apple or a handful of grapes and your picture gets ‘right’. (According to the health guys, about 2/3′s of us don’t get the half bit right – so that is why they are always going on about it!?! )

The other day I learnt another cool trick – it’s 20/20. As you are taking your food stop and and consciously take 20% more fruit and vegetables and 20% less of everything else. I gotta say 20%  more and 20% less isn’t hard at all – doesn’t make much difference to your meal but does to your skin and jean size!

So there you go – see a picture of a plate and play 20/20 – both easy…

PS:  No matter where you live,  you’ll have heard it –  mix it up, 5 to 10 a day,  go for 2 & 5, more matters or 5+ A Day - whatever your country is banging on about  my two tricks will just help you get there!!!

Tags: Claire Gourley, nutrition for kids

This entry was posted on Friday, September 23rd, 2011 at 6:34 am and is filed under Foodie Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.