The Plate, Not the App

If you want to eat better, do not start by downloading something. Two weeks in you are weighing porridge, guessing at a restaurant meal, and deciding the whole thing is not for you.

Tracking works for some people. It rarely works as a starting point.

Use the plate instead. Not how much, but what is on it.

Half the plate is vegetables or salad. A quarter is protein — meat, fish, eggs, dairy, pulses. A quarter is carbohydrate — rice, starchy vegetables, potatoes, pasta, bread. Add a thumb of fat: oil, butter, nuts, avocado.

That is the whole system. No weighing, no numbers, no app.

The half that gets skipped most is the vegetables. It is the least interesting part of the plate and it does the most work — volume, fibre, and the feeling of having eaten a meal, for very few calories. Frozen and tinned work just as well as fresh. We're not seeking perfection, we look for consistency.

The plate method is fixing the two main problems people face. Most plates are short on protein and short on vegetables, and long on starchy carbohydrate. Reordering the plate corrects the proportion without you counting anything.

It also works in a pub, at a wedding, in a work canteen and at somebody else's house. You don't need portable scales!

Two things to know.

If you are training regularly, do not cut the carbohydrate quarter. It is what you train on, and the people who cut it hardest are the ones whose sessions go flat six weeks later.

And get the protein quarter right. Across a day, 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilo of bodyweight is the range that supports building and holding muscle. A proper quarter at each meal gets you close without a shaker in sight.

For me, today is about prepping. I'll make a couple of big easy meals, enough for 2-3 days. Eat one and store the rest. This helps on those days where time is short and decisions are hard.

If you want something to judge by, use hunger. Build the plate, eat it, and wait twenty minutes before deciding whether you want more.

None of this means tracking is wrong. It is a useful tool for someone whose plate is already right.

Food is the part people get least support with. Our Nutrition and Lifestyle Programme, run by Dr Amy George — a CrossFit coach and an HSN nutrition and lifestyle coach — starts with what is on your plate now. Ask Jeremy or Beth, or book a free, no-obligation fifteen minutes at crossfitchiltern.com.