Categories
The Three Palm Diet
There is almost never a definitive answer when it comes to nutrition.
>>What’s the best diet for losing weight?
>>Is fruit good for me?
>>What about rice, can I eat that?
>>How much protein should I be getting?
It depends.
It’s impossible to make any nutritional recommendations without knowing the full picture. Where are you at now? What are your specific goals? It’s also important to think about previous nutritional practices. Do you have a long history of dieting for example? What has worked for you in the past?
I know that we want answers rather than more questions, but we need to be asking the right questions in order to get relevant answers. Otherwise it’s just a finger in the air job.
We need a baseline from which to work from.
So where do we start?
We like to get nerdy about nutrition, but that’s not where most people are at with it. Most just want something easy that does the job. More detail generally means more distraction. Hence why we often start people off with the ‘Three-Palm’ approach.
Three Palm Approach
Eat a palm-sized serving of protein (or equivalent) and two palm-sized servings of vegetables at each meal. Do this three to five times each day.
That’s it.
Beyond that you can eat what you like, but first, you must eat your three palms worth.
We’d also suggest that people include a piece of fruit or two each day and that they enjoy some quality fats. We particularly like coconut oil and butter for cooking and cold pressed olive oil for salads. Nuts and avocados are also great nutritionally rich sources of fat. Just be sure to exercise some restraint on the nut front, it’s easy to overdo it.
Even when people aren’t perfect with this simple approach, which they won’t be, it’s amazing how far this will take them if they’re consistent with their three palms.
Breakfast is often the major sticking point at first
Ideas at this stage might include
Eggs
Scrambled, poached or pan-fried (in butter) perhaps. I typically scramble with coconut oil and eat a raw carrot, a red pepper and apple.
Fish
Most people can’t do a heavy breakfast; their evening meal was too big and eaten to late. But smoked salmon often seems palatable. Perhaps not perfect, but rice cakes are a good vehicle. Drizzle on some lemon juice and season with black pepper.
Romaine wraps
Roll some thinly sliced roast beef or chicken in a romaine lettuce leaf or two (last nights leftovers?). Perhaps add some thinly sliced peppers and flavour with horseradish
Greek yoghurt
Natural Greek yoghurt with nuts and berries works well. I like the Fage Total brand. Add a drizzle of raw honey to flavor if you want to. Maybe even stir in some protein powder.
Super-smoothie
Put water or coconut water, protein powder, a teaspoon of nut butter (for me, it’s cashew butter), a closed handful of berries, a stick of celery, half a banana and some spinach into a blender an press start. Drink.
Once we have this basic framework in place we can tweak as we go according to individual circumstances. Then, we can get into the really sexy bits such as specific macro-nutrient requirements and nutrient timing for example.
We help our members with a nutritional programme that works for them, if you’re struggling, give us a shout at our gym or try out our personal training in London and we’ll help you work out a plan that suits you.
Related Articles
- Searching for The Perfect Diet
- Not Another Diet Article
- Is This The Only Diet You’ll Need?
- Benefits Of Good Nutrition Habits Versus a Diet
- The Paleo Diet: Might our Future Lie In our Past?
