7 Day Healthy Eating Plan

7 Day Healthy Eating Plan

Whether you’re heading to the gym, about to spend the day tackling spreadsheets or catching up on household chores, eating well is essential to keeping your energy levels up, as well as for an overall balanced diet and lifestyle. Here are seven tasty, low-fat meal suggestions for breakfast, lunch and dinner to help make healthy eating easy this summer. 

Monday 

Breakfast: Fresh fruit smoothie. Keep berries - whether that's blueberries, raspberries or strawberries - in the freezer to sling a handful into your blender or food processor in the morning. Add whatever fruit you have handy, such as a chopped banana, for added flavour and top up with natural yoghurt for a creamy texture.

Lunch: Hummus and crudités. Raw veg such as carrot or celery sticks are great dipped in hummus at lunch - you can look for low-fat varieties or make your own. For a more filling dinner, serve hummus on a baked potato with sweetcorn and salad. Much healthier than cheesy beans, but just as comforting!

Tuesday

Breakfast:Homemade granola. Swap the sugary cereals for something more natural. Making your own granola is easy - simply mix dried fruit, like sultanas, dried apricots or more exotic flavours like dried pineapple or mango, with dried (unsalted) nuts and a handful of oats, served with either skimmed milk or natural yoghurt. 

Lunch: Melon salad. Delicious and creamy, sprinkle balled melon with fresh mint, crumbled feta and crushed kalamata olives for the ultimate Mediterranean-inspired summer lunch

Wednesday

Breakfast: Poached egg on toast. Skip high-fat fried eggs in favour of poaching. There’s a bit of a knack to perfecting poached eggs, but the health benefits are significant, with no oil involved in cooking. 

Lunch: Homemade sandwiches. Skip fatty supermarket sandwiches at lunch (typically packed with calories) and make your own instead. Raw tofu covered in tomato chutney with salad is delicious and low-fat. When making your own sandwiches, try to avoid processed white bread and full-fat mayonnaise.  

Thursday

Breakfast: Grilled fruit. A delicious alternative to calorific breakfast pastries, a grilled grapefruit half tastes sweet and indulgent, without the calories. Sprinkle with a very light layer of brown sugar and grill until bubbling.

Dinner: Flatbread pizza. This healthy alternative to pizza is easy to make: you can prepare the dough yourself using whole grain spelt flour or cheat by using shop-bought flatbread. Using either pesto or tomato sauce as a base, just top your bread with baby spinach, roasted peppers and aubergine for a delicious low-fat dinner. 

Friday

Breakfast: Fresh fruit salad. Get your 5-a-day off to a good start with a mixed fruit salad - surprisingly filling, you can use any type of fruit you like to whip up this breakfast, whether you prefer kiwi, mango, grapes or apples. Avoid syrupy tinned fruit and stick to fresh to keep it healthy. 

Dinner: Super-veg pasta. Create a pasta sauce that's packed with vegetable goodness by first frying fennel, onion and carrot until soft, before adding grilled red peppers, tomato puree and tinned tomatoes. Serve with pasta and basil to garnish for a dinner that contains only 323 calories and 2 of your 5 a day.

Saturday

Breakfast: Egg and salmon sandwich. Poach an egg and serve with smoked salmon (rich in beneficial omega-3 fats) on a brown wholemeal bap or bread. This is a great power breakfast to get you through a busy day.

Lunch: Greek salad. This classic dish is a healthy favourite, and very quick and easy to prepare. Just mix lettuce leaves, black olives, feta, tomato, red onion and cucumber and drizzle lightly with olive oil for a tasty, guilt-free lunch. 

Sunday

Breakfast: Fat-free fry up. Perfect for lazy Sundays, simply grill some sliced mushrooms and a halved tomato, and serve with a fistful of wilted spinach, brown toast, a poached egg and cracked black pepper.

Dinner: Healthy roast. Put a healthy twist on the traditional Sunday roast by serving rosemary chicken with ratatouille. Simply toss chopped aubergine, courgettes and peppers into a roasting tin with garlic, then add two lean rosemary-topped chicken breasts into the tin after 20 minutes, stirring in tinned tomatoes with the veg. Roast until the chicken is cooked through and serve with boiled new potatoes.