Eating for a Steady Day

A six-day study guide from Dr. Raj Dhadwal, MBBS, 25 years in practice.

People come to me for energy and we end up talking about lunch. What you eat and when you eat it decides whether the afternoon is steady or a cliff. Six days, one change each.

Day 1. Read the plate, not the label

A steady day starts with food that still looks like where it came from. Grains you can see, vegetables you can name, fish or meat or beans, fruit with the skin on.

Do this: for one day, at every meal, ask one question: could I have picked, caught or cooked this? If the answer is a factory, make it the smaller part of the plate.

Day 2. The safest carbohydrates

Carbohydrate is not the enemy. Refined carbohydrate eaten alone is. Whole grains, lentils, beans, root vegetables and whole fruit arrive with fibre, which slows everything down.

Do this: keep your carbohydrates, but choose the whole version and never eat them on their own. Rice with lentils. Bread with eggs. Fruit with nuts.

Day 3. Protein first

Protein is the part of the meal that keeps you full and keeps you from grazing at four.

Do this: put the protein on the plate first, then build the rest around it. Aim for a palm-sized portion at each meal.

Day 4. Walk after you eat

The simplest thing I have ever recommended and the one people thank me for most.

Do this: ten to fifteen minutes of easy walking after your largest meal. Around the block, up and down the street, the garden. Not a workout, a stroll.

Why it matters: moving muscles use what you just ate, so the meal lands as energy instead of a slump.

Day 5. Close the kitchen

The body does its repair work at night, and it does it better when it is not also digesting.

Do this: finish eating two to three hours before bed. If you are hungry late, a glass of water and an early night usually solves it.

Day 6. The timing that fits you

Three meals, two meals, an early breakfast or a late one: there is no single right answer, only the one you can keep.

Do this: pick a window for eating (for most people, roughly ten to twelve hours) and keep it for a week. Notice the afternoon.

Where a consultation comes in: your digestion, your schedule and your history change the answer to every day above. In a consultation we set the plate, the timing and the walks to you, in writing. Specialists share education, not medical advice; bring what you learn back to your own doctor.