Author: be well™ with Big Y^® Registered Dietitian Team

One style of eating doesn't meet every body's needs, preferences, backgrounds and goals. Here are our tips for you to personalize your plate:

1. Learn How to Eat

Write down what you eat over the course of a week or enter it into your nutrition app. Stay truthful without changing your eating pattern simply because you’re documenting what you eat. Include notes on when you ate, how you felt (e.g.: hungry? sad?), why you ate (e.g.: bored? happy?) and who you were with. All of these details will provide insight into behaviors you may not be aware of.

2. Identify What Works

With a glimpse into what a traditional week of eating looks like for you, go back and identify patterns that may be supporting or sabotaging your wellness goals. For example, you may see that on days you eat breakfast with a bit more protein, you tend to eat less at subsequent meals throughout the day. You may also see that on mornings where you skip breakfast and grab a restaurant lunch, you tend to eat indulgent foods late into the evening.

3. Follow Your Food Group Goals

Keeping your attention on food, versus counting calories or grams of fat, may help nurture a healthier relationship with food. A great way to do this is by learning what your Food Group goals are. Calculate your MyPlan Plan and enter your age, height, weight, activity level and gender to learn the number of servings recommended for you from each Food Group to maintain, gain or lose weight.

4. Add Color

One insider recommendation that often gets dismissed by naysayers: Eat more colors with fruits and vegetables.

Fruits and vegetables are a bargain calorically with their high water content, vitamins, minerals, antioxidant-acting plant compounds, fiber, starches and naturally occurring sugars. This means they will make you feel full and thereby eliminate the need to eat larger portions of higher-calorie foods.

For more health & wellness tips, contact our be well^™ with Big Y^® Registered Dietitian Team.

Reviewed 2/12/2026