What Is a Healthy Diet? Everyday Meals

You want to eat healthy. You open the ref and see rice, eggs, a can of tuna, and last night's adobo, and you wonder where to start. Start there. When clients ask me, "What is a healthy diet?", my answer fits on a normal Filipino plate.

What is a healthy diet, day to day?

It's a plate you can repeat. It's the food you eat on a regular Tuesday, week after week, without dreading it. If you can keep it going on payday and in the week before payday, it works.

When I look at a client's meals, I check four things:

Protein at each meal: eggs, fish, chicken, pork, tuna, tokwa, munggo.
A vegetable when you can: talong, kangkong, pechay, sitaw, the carrots in the soup.
Rice, bread or kamote: eat it. It's fuel for your day and your training.
Water through the day: a glass when you wake up and one with each meal.

That's the base. Everything else is detail.

A dinner of white rice and tuna on a grey plate, a side plate of grilled eggplant slices, and a mug of corn soup, on a wood-grain surface. — Dinner: tuna and rice, grilled talong on the side, corn soup. Protein, rice, a vegetable.

Add what's missing first

I start by asking what's missing from the plate. For a lot of people it's protein at breakfast, or a vegetable at dinner. We add that one thing and leave the rest of the plate as it is.

One addition at a time. Two boiled eggs with your pandesal. Grilled talong next to your fish. A glass of water before your coffee. Small things you'll repeat add up over months.

Two boiled eggs on slices of wheat bread in a plastic bag, beside a can of iced black coffee, on an office desk. — Breakfast at the desk: two boiled eggs, wheat bread, black coffee. The eggs are the protein.

Make it fit your week

Your week decides what healthy eating looks like for you. Long commute? Pack baon. Cook a batch of adobo flakes on Sunday, and lunch is decided for days. Eat with your family at night? Put protein and a vegetable on your plate, and eat what everyone eats.

A packed lunch in two plastic containers: adobo flakes in one, garlic rice and two boiled eggs in the other, with a spoon and fork. — Baon: adobo flakes, garlic rice, two boiled eggs. Packed ahead, so lunch is decided.

Eating out works too. At a buffet or a party, fill your first plate with protein and a vegetable, enjoy the rest, and go back to your usual plate at the next meal.

Leave room for merienda

A cinnamon roll and a latte with a friend is part of a healthy diet. So is lechon at a birthday. One meal doesn't undo a week. The next meal is a normal plate, and that's the whole plan.

A cinnamon roll with icing on a white plate and a latte with leaf art, on a tray on a café table. — Merienda: a cinnamon roll and a latte. It fits.

Common questions

Can I eat rice on a healthy diet?: Yes. Rice is fuel for your day and your training. Keep it on the plate, with protein and a vegetable beside it. If you want to know how much fits your goal, log your meals and we'll look at them together.
Do I need to count calories?: No. Start with the plate: protein, a vegetable, rice or bread, water. A photo of each meal is enough for us to see the pattern.
Do I need special food?: No. Eggs, tuna, fish, chicken, tokwa, munggo, rice, bread, and whatever vegetables the palengke has this week. Food you can buy and cook on a normal budget is the food you will keep eating.
What if I have diabetes, high blood pressure, or a kidney problem?: See your doctor about food first, and follow the plan they give you. I build your training and habits around what you're cleared to do.

What to do this week

Take a photo of each meal for three days.
Look at the photos. Which meals have protein? Which have a vegetable?
Pick one thing to add, and add it each day for the rest of the week.

Next week, add one thing to that. If you want to know what to do with those photos, read how to lose weight without counting calories.

Want help building plates you'll keep eating?

That's what I do. I build your program, you log your meals and message me in the app, and I reply on what you eat and how you train. Coaching from Javier, ₱1,200 a month.