Having a Healthy Balanced Diet

We have all heard the following phrase:

" Eat breakfast like a King,

Lunch like a Prince,

& Dinner like a Pauper!"

But how many of us follow this? Despite of the fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, many people skip this meal and are likely to suffer from lack of energy during the course of the day. This often leads to irritability and headaches, not to mention some serious growling in your stomach by mid-day!

It's important to understand that to have a balanced diet, we need to focus on not only what we are eating during the day but also on when we eat and how much! For example, a healthy breakfast kick starts your metabolism, while the night is the worst time of the day to eat a big meal as your body metabolism would have slowed down.

Here's a sample easy-to-follow balanced diet plan:

Early morning (6 to 7am): 

1 glass of warm water, with lemon (optional)

Breakfast (9 to 10am): 

Veg options: Wheat flakes with milk/ Vegetable Poha/ Brown bread vegetable sandwich/ Idly samabar

Non Veg options: 1 boiled egg/ Scrambled egg/ 2 egg white omlette and 2 slices of whole wheat bread

Mid-morning snack: (11 - 11.30am)

Fruit/ Vegetable/ Sprout salad and coconut water

Lunch (1.30pm):

2 to 3 chappatis without ghee

1 cup dal, 

1 to 2 pieces of grilled chicken or fish 

1 bowl of vegetable,

1 glass of buttermilk

Tea time (4.30 to 5.30pm): 

Tea and snack like Bhelpuri/ Dhokla/ Marie biscuits/ Roasted channa

Dinner (7.30 to 8.30pm): 

2 chapathi without ghee,

1 bowl of vegetable 

Vegetable raita

Bed time (optional): 1 cup milk or buttermilk

Fruits