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Not every day will be a perfect eating day, (and that's totally ok!) but this is what a balanced day would look like. There are six major components, that when balanced correctly, will have you feeling your best. They are listed in importance, moving clockwise. Hydration is the most important variable, followed by a balanced and varied diet. From there, energy intake, then nutrient timing and meal frequency go together, as you try to decide when to eat and how many meals you will consume in the day. Supplements are optional and listed as least important because you should only be supplementing what you are not receiving in your diet. Don't take supplements, "just to take them."
Let's define the bubbles:
Hydration: Extremely important!!! Drink water. Lots of it! At least 80 ounces a day.
Balanced and Varied Diet: This means your diet consists of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and water. Yes, your body needs all of that. Notice, water is listed again... HINT: It's still really important. If you have chosen to cut out one of these six variables (example: don't eat carbs) then you better know why you are doing that, because if done incorrectly, you could be causing serious damage to your body!
Energy Intake: Oh, the topic that everyone loves to stress over. Your energy intake is how many calories you consume in a day. If you are not eating enough, it doesn't matter what you are doing for your workouts, you won't see good results. Most people stress over eating too much, but you need to know, that eating too little doesn't fix the problem, it can make things worse.
Nutrient Timing: This is about eating particular nutrients at specific times of the day. For example, more carbohydrates before your workout, more protein after. Or maybe, a higher fat content in the morning and lower in the evening. This takes practice, worry about the first three bubbles before you get too in-depth here.
Meal Frequency: This is how often you are eating throughout the day. "Meal" doesn't just mean breakfast, lunch and dinner. You should absolutely be eating those main meals of the day, but this bubble also includes the snacks you need in a day and when it's best to eat all of these meals.
Supplements: This is an optional bubble. Make sure you are choosing any supplements you take because you actually need them to "supplement" your diet. THERE IS NO MAGIC SUPPLEMENT THAT WILL DO WHAT IT CLAIMS!! Stop taking supplements because of marketing. Ask your doctor to get the real answers you need and stop wasting your money.
Now you can see all the variables it takes to have a healthy, nutritious lifestyle. We will work into more details later. For now, just understand that to change nutrition takes practice and patience. Drastically making changes never works well for anybody. If you want to start to understand what you need, write down your food intake for 2-3 days, then go from there.