As a believer in keeping things simple and knowing your body, I often eat the same foods throughout a diet to help me reach my targets.  It is important to keep a varied diet, but I still have meals that I repeat on a regular basis for a specific reason. By trying different foods but then repeating them over a set period of time you will get a better understanding of how your body reacts to them. You need to get your body into a routine of eating certain foods for you to gauge what is working and what is not.

Some of the meals that I have are as simple as turkey or chicken, cut into bite size pieces and sauteed in a little olive oil, with a green vegetable. If I want to mix things up I will do a stir fry or chilli using either beef, chicken or turkey.  I also have carbs with the meals depending on the time of the day or a specific goal I am aiming for. Some of the top ones I eat are sweet potato, brown rice and wholemeal pasta, all simple but very effective in helping reach desired goals. There are other carb alternatives but these are the common ones I use.

I often have to kill cravings throughout the day and especially at night.  For me, and I think most people, the evening is the toughest time to resist snacking on crap food.  During the day I get cravings between meals so then I often snack on a mixture of nuts, fruits and lean proteins  In the evening I use greek 0% fat yogurt with a scoop of chocolate protein, mixed together, sometimes adding other ingredients such as blueberries, bananas and almonds to kill the late night sweet craving. This is high in protein, low on carbs and fats.

Also a little tip for the evenings is to have a herbal tea to suppress sweet cravings -  by the time you have drunk it the craving sometimes passes - recommend camomile, peppermint.

It is important to keep a varied diet to get a wide selection of nutrients from different types of foods, but always remember to keep things in moderation.