Cooking To Stay In Shape

Many times dinner is the family meal that all gather and discuss what it is that has been going on throughout the day. So maybe that is not so much the case anymore, but many people still try to make it the main meal of the day. Dinner should at least be the most balanced of the three meals even if it is not necessarily the family meal that everyone had envisioned it to be.

Trying to find a meal that is well balanced and able to provide enough substance to allow you to sleep through the night and to not feel overly hungry when you are awake. Here is where you will find a meal that allows you to sample a wide variety of foods from various food groups. Here you will want to have a sampling of almost everything in order to be able to have acomplete meal. The meal does not have to be overly large just have variety.

Remember as with anything moderation is key. Here just because it is the largest meal does not mean that you should gorge yourself at dinner. Smaller portions of a variety of foods is the most important thing that you should remember. Look at portion sizes and be sure to make all of your necessary groups are included in the meal to provide for a good night’s sleep.

The three main groups that need to be included in the dinner meal are starch, protein and vegetable. In all these three items should take up the same amount of space on your plate. That means you should not eat a pound of steak and two baby carrots. It needs to be balanced and can even include a fruit or a small somewhat healthy dessert. However again the portions should not be large in size and should not dominate the meal. In essence a meal should contain approximately four ounces of each of the three main groups and then a small portion of either of the other items.

One last thing to be careful of with dinner is timing. Here one needs to consider how late they will be eating. If you are eating later than 8 pm, you may want to reconsider. It is usually after this time that the body tends to slow down and does not allow for the proper digestion and metabolism of these foods. So make sure to eat as properly balanced and timed meal.