90/10 Eating: How to Find Balance When Making Better Food Choices 🍎🍫⚖️❤️
It can get old when you are always mindful of what you eat, that’s one reason I love the ninety/ten eating plan. Following this plan allows you to eat the foods you want without the guilt and gives you clear parameters for how often you can do this and still be on track with your eating goals.
How It Works:
90 percent of the time, you eat clean, and 10 percent of the time, you eat less healthy. When I eat the less healthy meals I call them flex meals. They are not cheat meals because they are part of the plan and being flexible in your diet is one of the keys to making it last long term.
Allowing yourself to eat a limited number of flex meals is a great way to balance eating the foods you love without getting derailed. As long as you continue to eat your required protein and eat it first, you can eat whatever you want in moderation. You should always make mindful choices, no matter what. You want to eat the foods that will serve you best, and if that is pizza, then go for it!
How to Do it:
If you eat three meals and one bigger snack each day. That equals twenty-eight eating events a week. So ten percent of twenty-eight is 2.8. If you round up, that means you can eat three flex meals a week.
A Flex meal is not a free pass for unlimited consumption or impulsive eating. It is, however, an opportunity for “balanced enjoyment,” suggesting that while some less healthy options are acceptable, making purposeful choices and planning your happy meals with consideration and intentionality is essential.
The key to the ninety/ten eating plan is to avoid eating in excess and maintain a sense of control. You should continue to keep portion sizes reasonable and not overindulge. This must be done sensibly and without abandoning all healthy eating principles.
Pro Tips:
- Plan your flex meals toward the end of the week or in the evenings. Doing this can help keep you motivated throughout the day/week, and you will be inspired to eat better because you know you have that flex meal coming. It’s important to plan out these meals and ensure they include foods you deeply connect with, like traditional or cultural dishes.
- Add your flex meals to your calendar when you plan your meals for the week. Doing this will help you keep track of them so you can indulge guilt-free. Also, stay flexible. It’s okay if things change and you have an unplanned flex meal. Just update your plan, and you’re good to go. The one thing you can always count on in life is that things change, and you will need to adjust.
- Panda Express
- I have recently become obsessed with Panda Express, and when I go there for a flex meal, I like to get the bigger plate. That comes with three entrees and a side. I get two sides of teriyaki chicken (no sauce), one side of orange chicken, and fried rice.
- I make sure to eat all the chicken but only half of the rice because this is a huge meal with a lot of fat, I don’t need the additional calories from the last half of the rice.
- I also like toopen the fourtion cookie but I don’t eat it. These small changes in eating are what makes the big changes on the scale.
