Healthy Meals to Lose Weight

Choose healthy to lose weight.

We often hear about all of the unhealthy foods that we should avoid – especially if we want to lose weight.

These foods include sugar, simple carbohydrates, fried food, heavily processed foods, products that have a long list of ingredients on the packaging and foods that are high in sodium.

In place of these, we should be eating more natural foods. These include fresh fruit and vegetables, healthy forms of meat like fish, chicken and lean red meat, nuts and legumes. 

If your primary goal is to lose weight, it is hard enough to cut out negative food choices. Finding a good way to build healthy ingredients into full meals can also be quite challenging.

For that reason, I am going to show you three basic meals that you can use to support weight loss while giving your body the essential nutrients that it needs.

Meals that help you to lose weight

- Breakfast: Greek yogurt and rolled oats

- Lunch: Grilled chicken breast, a boiled egg and fruit

- Dinner: Tuna salad

Stay healthy.

Healthy breakfast for weight loss

Greek yogurt and rolled oats

This meal is one of my favorite breakfasts because it gives your body the nutrients that it needs without flooding it with sugar.

Most cereals have more sugar than what we should consume in an entire day.

Greek yogurt is a good source of protein.

This will help to stabilize your blood sugar so that it does not drop too soon. Blood sugar drops lead to cravings for sugar and other unhealthy meals.

Rolled oats are a low GI (glycemic index) carbohydrate. Low GI carbohydrates take longer to digest in your gut. Foods that take longer to digest will leave you fuller for longer and give you a more stable supply of energy.

Oats are a good source of fiber. Your body will use it to clean out the digestive tract.

The cultures in Greek yogurt will contribute to better gut health. Weight loss, as many say, starts and ends in the gut.

Add half a cup of rolled oats to half a cup of plain, Greek yogurt. You may add a dash of honey to sweeten the taste.

Honey takes a little longer to break down than plain sugar and has a variety of health benefits of its own. 

Spice it up: Add flavor and double the health benefits at the same time

If your budget permits, I would suggest adding a sprinkle of nuts, seeds or berries.

Nuts can include almonds, hazel nuts, cashews, walnuts, pistachios, peanuts and macadamia nuts. Seeds may include flax seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and poppy seeds. Berries may include blueberries, raspberries, goji berries, cranberries or strawberries. Added fruits like bananas, apples, citrus, watermelon or pineapple are also a great idea.

You may be thinking that this will add to the amount of calories that you consume in the morning, but the difference is that these foods are high in fiber.

Fiber slows down digestion and increases the feeling of fullness. They are also super-rich in important micronutrients like vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, anti-oxidants and plant compounds.

Important notes

• Avoid using instant oats. This version is more processed and is digested sooner in the gut. This leads to rapid nutrient absorption and quicker cravings for more food.

• Avoid sweetened yogurt. Sweetened varieties are more processed. Extra fat, sugar, colorants and preservatives are added to this type of product to increase sales. Don’t let the labels fool you, either. ‘Low fat’ products often contain more sugar, while products that are labelled ‘less sugar’ often contain more fat or unnatural sweeteners to make up for the loss of taste.

• If you are using nuts in your breakfast, avoid salted nuts. This will increase your sodium intake. Excess sodium intake is closely linked to high blood pressure. Raw nuts are generally healthier than roasted nuts because heat destroys some of the precious micro nutrients. Roasted nuts are still okay, although raw nuts are always better.

• Avoid pre-mixed muesli. These products often contain a lot of added sugar.

Splurge on goodness.

Healthy lunch for weight loss

Grilled chicken breast, a boiled egg and fruit

A boiled egg, grilled chicken breast and fruit is a simple and easy-to-prepare meal.

Chicken is healthy and good for weight loss. Grilled chicken is healthier than baked or fried chicken because less oil is needed to cook it. Chicken breasts are high in good protein while also low in fat.

Grilled chicken and boiled eggs are simple to make the night before. You can also make them days in advance and freeze them if you don’t want to prepare your lunch every night.

Many people prepare lunches like grilled chicken and pack them into 5 or 7 separate lunch boxes for the rest of the week. Boiled eggs will last for days in the fridge.

You can add a little variety by swapping out the chicken for fish, but it won’t last as long as chicken before spoiling.

By pre-making your lunch boxes and bringing them to work every day, you greatly increase your chances of resisting unhealthy foods. It is difficult to make the right food choices when you are rushed to get food and eat up before your lunch break is over.

You also don’t need to eat everything in one go. The fruit, for example, make great snacks throughout the day. I recommend 5 servings of different kinds of fruit.

You may want to include vegetables if that is easier for you. Carrots, tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce, for example, are great choices.

You may choose the fruit that you like the most, but try to eat a variety of colors. Aim to eat at least one green, one orange and one yellow, purple or red color every day.

Don’t be scared of the sugar that you find in fruit. Many people want to avoid fruit and vegetables because of their sugar content. Natural sugar is a nutrient. Without it, we would die.

The problem is not whether or not we should consume sugar - It’s about how much sugar we eat and where it comes from.

Fruit are healthy sources of sugar. They also contain a lot less than most commercial products. A large apple, for example, has around 23 grams of sugar. That sounds very scary until you realize that 16 ounces (less than 500 ml) of soda has 52 grams of sugar.

The sugar in the soda is classified as added sugar (sugar that is added to a food). Added sugar is very unhealthy. The sugar that is found in fruit is classified as intrinsic sugar (sugar that is naturally found in food). Intrinsic sugar is not nearly as fattening or unhealthy as added sugar.

Fruit is mostly made up of water. An apple is about 86% water. The fiber in fruit slows down digestion and stops sugar from being released as fast as added sugar.

Spice it up: Add some flavor to your meal without decreasing its health value

It is best to use as little sodium as possible when making the grilled chicken or fish.

Instead, opt to use garlic, chilies, pepper or lemon juice to make it more enjoyable. All of those ingredients have super health benefits of their own.

Black pepper extract, for example, is commonly used in weight loss supplements because it encourages the body to burn calories when it is in the gut. You can also add a sprinkle of turmeric to the eggs. Turmeric is great for gut health.

Healthy foods give you long term benefits.

Healthy dinner for weight loss

Tuna salad

There is a common stigma that salads are unsatisfactory and bland. This does not have to be the case. A salad is technically any combination of foods that have a large portion of plant-based ingredients.

This tuna salad includes beans and a low-calorie (yet surprisingly delicious) sauce. Go on: You deserve it.

Add a tablespoon of salt and 350 grams (or 12 ounces) of cut green beans to boiling water. Cook until the beans start to soften. This will take three to four minutes. 

Make your own dressing

Puree one shallot, a cup of basil, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, half a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper in a blender.

Mix half of this dressing with the cooked green beans, 4 cups of chopped lettuce, 500 grams (15 ounces) of canned white beans and two 28 grams (5 ounce) cans of tuna.

Use the rest of the dressing as a sauce.

Spice it up: Mix and match different ingredients

Once you’ve got the recipe down, you can mix it up by adding different ingredients.

Why not try using chicken or another kind of fish instead of tuna?

Try using spinach instead of lettuce. Add a pinch of garlic or mint to the blend. Use a different kind of bean.

Salads are easy to make, low in calories and surprisingly satisfying. 

Make it tasty.

Add fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes and spices to every meal that you can. This will improve the flavor, give you a sense of variety and nourish your body with ever-important micro nutrients. Stay Strong!