Our nutritionists and holistic chefs work with you to figure out your nutrition goals and preferences to build a tailored meal plan. After that, we match you up with a holistic chef to meet your specific dietary needs who will plan, shop and cook for you.
In this article, we will discuss our approach and how we help create healthy, delicious meal plans.
What Is Our Approach?
Our holistic chefs create personalized meal plans for each specific client they work with. There is no across-the-board plan available. Instead, clients receive a plan designed for their exact needs.
For example, if a client tells us they have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and are following a FODMAP diet to avoids foods that can trigger IBS we will build a meal plan around this.
5 Tips on How to Achieve a Healthier Diet
For anyone interested in nutrition, there are a few easy steps you can take to achieve a more balanced diet in your day-to-day life.
Here are 5 tips on nutrition to help you improve your diet. These are principles that we follow when we create our weekly menus.
1. Eat Whole Foods
Our meal plans place an emphasis on eating whole foods that have been minimally processed.
Examples of whole foods include:
- Fresh fruits and vegetables
- Whole grains
- Unprocessed meats (whole chicken breast, ground turkey, etc.)
- Meals or dishes made from scratch with no processed ingredients
When you eat whole foods, you gain the most nutritional value that food has to offer. Unprocessed or minimally processed foods retain more of their naturally occurring nutrients, like fiber and vitamins.
2. Identify Your Trigger Foods
A trigger food is a type of food that agitates your body and gut, leading to poorer overall health.
Thinking back to the IBS example from earlier, someone with a health condition like IBS or something similar will have different reactions to certain foods than other people. As a result, inherently healthy foods can end up causing unwanted dietary problems in people with specific conditions.
Other common conditions that can affect your trigger foods include lactose intolerance or food allergies, such as a gluten allergy.
By identifying your trigger foods that make your body feel ill, you can avoid these foods and any recipes that contain these foods as ingredients.
3. Reduce Sugar Intake
Sugar sometimes gets a bad rep for being the root of all evil when it comes to nutrition.
The truth of the matter is that sugar is found in almost everything we eat and is a naturally occurring nutrient found in higher levels in foods like fruits and other carbohydrates.
When sugar becomes a problem is when we eat large amounts of processed sugar, which can lead to weight gain, decreased energy, cravings, and more.
The problem is, processed foods typically contain larger amounts of sugar, making it easy to over consume.
Diabetes Canada recommends limiting sugar intake to 10% of your total daily calories, or roughly 50 grams of sugar per day. By paying closer attention to how much sugar is in the foods you eat, you can create a holistic diet that meets your dietary needs.
4. Eliminate Processed Foods
One of the benefits of working with Fresh In Your Fridge is we help people to severely reduce the amount of processed foods in their daily lives. When you don’t have to worry about what to eat for dinner, you’re less likely to grab something quick and unhealthy.
Processed foods, like all things, can be okay in moderation — the key is to not let them overtake your daily diet and instead favor whole foods whenever possible.
Eliminating processed foods from your diet oftentimes comes down to finding satisfying replacements. For example, replacing your favorite bag of candy with a carton of berries and a dollop of fresh whipped cream can make a huge difference.
5. Pay Attention to Portions
Your portions matter, not just in terms of being aware of caloric intake but also in ensuring you are eating the proper amounts of vegetables, fruits, and daily nutrients.
Paying attention to your portions is crucial in a holistic diet, as it can help you to learn more about what foods you favor and how your body responds to varying nutritional balances.
This can be especially important for anyone dealing with dietary restrictions who may need to find their daily nutrients from alternative sources. Being mindful of your portion sizes can help you to accurately determine how big a serving of a particular food you are eating and, thus, help you to calculate the total nutritional value you gain from that food.
Benefits of Eating More Whole Foods
Improved Overall Health: Focusing on eating whole foods and addressing your specific health problems and needs, your personal health can greatly improve by following the guidance of a holistic nutritionist.
Improved Quality of Life: For many of us, we may not even know the trigger foods or dietary problems we have that are causing us to feel ill, unenergized, or generally unwell. Learning about them can help you to learn what works best for your body to achieve a better overall quality of life.
Better Immune System: The consumption of whole foods that contain higher levels of nutrients and that are less inflammatory can improve your immune system.
Final Thoughts
If you want to take a more personalized approach to your health and wellness, then using a weekly meal delivery service like Fresh In Your Fridge might be right for you.
By working with our nutritionists and holistic chefs, you can develop meal plans that meets your exact needs.
Here at Fresh in Your Fridge, we take it one step further by not only offering personalized nutrition and dietary plans for each specific client, we then shop for and cook the food for you. With Fresh in Your Fridge meals are made ready to go. Contact us today for a free call with one of our account manager and holistic nutritionist.