Well, the weather didn’t agree with me this weekend and I had a two-day long rest from cardio. I did my bodyweight circuit today so that’s something. Whenever bad weather strikes, I’ve decided to show off a picture review of what I ate that day. Why? Because diet is 80% of fitness. I wish I learned early on that you “can’t out run your fork.”
I was one of those people who would fool myself into thinking that devouring a pizza was justified because “I worked out today.” (Read: I walked on a treadmill at a moderate pace for maybe 20 minutes and faffed around in the weight lifting area like a newb).
It took me years of self-education to re-learn the basics of thermodynamics, nutrition, and how to eat better (especially in our culture of fad diets).
So…a disclaimer. I”m not a nutritionist or dietitian. I am not saying you must eat like me or that you should eat like me. I’m not promising that these posts will show the “healthiest” days. I’m only human after all. I’m also not following any specific diet (e.g. Paleo, Keto, Whole-30, Vegetarian, Vegan, ect). I’m just straight up CICO. In terms of diet and nutrition, I try to eat more fruits and vegetables with my meals. Also, I eat things that I like rather than things I “should” eat, and I try to stick to lean meats while reducing my intake in refined sugars and carbs. If you want to know the juicy details about the nutritional breakdown for these foods, feel free to contact me and I’ll link you to my Loseit online food journal.
What you might care to know is that I stopped drinking cow’s milk around six or seven years ago. I never really liked yogurt (greek or otherwise) so I just don’t eat it. I don’t drink fruit juices, and I try to limit my cheese intake (which is a pretty serious crime for a Wisconsinite). And for the first two weeks of May, I abstained from drinking any alcoholic beverages. (Seriously…am I truly a Wisconsinite anymore?). Even now, I limit my alcohol intake to no more than two drinks in a week (1 – 12oz beer or 1-6oz glass of wine = “1 drink”).
Anyway…enough about that.
Breakfast
I LOVE breakfast. If I could, I would eat breakfast foods for every meal. It took me a while to find the perfect combination of foods that I could eat in a hurry while also filling me up until lunch. Breakfasts for me need to have a nice balance of protein, healthy fat, and complex carbohydrates. Therefore I give you Open-Face Avacado and Egg muffins:
Although a bit messy to eat if the eggs are cooked over-easy instead of over-medium or over-hard, this breakfast is easy to make and it’s a way to sneak vegetables into my meal. I also get my serving of fruit along with the delicious combination of nutrients. I rotate the fruit and I try to stick to what is in season. My favorite fruits are pineapple, strawberries, or cantaloupe but I sometimes throw in some sliced apples or sliced bananas instead. As I had none of those options in my fridge, I settled on fresh blueberries and raspberries instead.
After breakfast, I bulk prepped some egg and turkey sausage breakfast burritos. I usually eat them as a snack or a light lunch because I eat this egg, avocado, and english muffin breakfast almost every day.
Lunch
What I have for lunch really depends on what I had for dinner the night before since I’ll usually make extra and save the leftovers. Today’s lunch is different. I made it exclusively to be a lunch. I was craving some pasta but I’m often disappointed by the serving size of pasta. So I went browsing through my cookbooks and found a recipe for pasta salad. Duh. Pasta salad is so versatile and it’s a great way to sneak some more veggies into my meal. (If you haven’t caught on yet, I have to “sneak” most veggies past myself like I’m a dog because I’m nearly 30 years old and I still have an issue with eating my vegetables).
So this pasta salad is made with organic rotini, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, and fresh basil. The pasta salad wasn’t enough on its own so I threw in some peel and eat shrimp that I boiled and cooled. Add a nice can of La Croix or Bubbly and you’re golden!
Dinner
Sundays and Wednesdays are my meal prep days, so in addition to meal prepping my pasta salad lunches for Monday & Tuesday, I also bulk prepped dinners for the first part of the week which will serve as more lunches and/or dinners.
Tonight I bulk prepped shredded chicken in the crockpot. (Just chicken and about 3 cups of reduced sodium chicken broth). I set it to “Low” for 6 or 7 hours, shredded it, put it in some Tupperware, and that will be the base for chicken tacos (Monday’s dinner) barbecue chicken quesadillas (Lunch or dinner for Tuesday/Wednesday).
For Sunday’s dinner, I found an easy recipe for turkey meatloaf from skinnytaste.com (https://www.skinnytaste.com/turkey-meatloaf-45/). I haven’t had meatloaf (homemade or otherwise) in probably 10 years. It’s been a long time. So I thought why not make it?
I have vivid memories of my Dad’s meatloaf. Partially because it was really good and partially because it was one of the few dinners he could make when I was a kid. (My Mom did the bulk of the cooking in the family from what I can recall). Nevertheless, I remember helping him prepare it. It was probably one of the first meals he taught me how to make (meatloaf and potato pie — those were his specialties).
This lightened up version uses 95% lean ground turkey. You can substitute ground chicken as well. I also purchased a large pack of meal prep containers from Amazon for cheap. They’re durable and they are easy to hand-wash. So I had meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans for dinner, then I put away two more portions for lunches/dinners.
I was going to make a batch of banana bread muffins for breakfasts/snacks but I got tired of cooking and doing the dishes constantly (we don’t have an automatic dishwasher). I’ll make them tomorrow using this recipe: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/skinny-banana-bread-muffins/
Snacks
Because today was a rest day I didn’t have any snacks. I’m a grazer and boredom eater so I really try to pre-plan my snacks so I can make healthy and informed choices rather than caving to my animal brain. I drank about 56 ounces of water today and 3 orange Bubbly sparkling waters. (Gosh I need to get a Soda Stream. I go through sparkling water like its …. well … water).
But since I do snack on the days that I bike, run, or otherwise workout, here’s a brief overview of my favorite go-to snacks.
- An apple with peanut butter made with PB2
- Imitation crab meat and some type of crackers
- Oatmeal made with almond milk, cinnamon, and banana (while being mindful of portion size)
- One scoop of a plant-based protein powder (Orgain brand) and almond milk
- Tuna-on-the-Go cups (if I got gas at a Kwik Trip recently)
- A cliff bar (if I’m in a long bike ride and need portable fuel)
I’ve been watching some Youtubers like Frugal Fit Mom and other “what I eat in a day” videos to get ideas for future meals and easy meal prep. I enjoy cooking and I enjoy food.
I use to think that being healthy was restricting yourself to just chicken, vegetables, and water. (And if that’s your diet, more power to you!). I almost went into culinary school instead of education, which considering the current situation with the restaurant industry and COVID it was a wise choice to go with education, but I love to try new foods and try out new recipes. So if you have your favorite recipes or go-to websites/youtubers, feel free to share them with me!
Tomorrow’s plan: 1.5 hour bike ride on a rail trail in Amery, Wi
Couch to 29K: A Health and Fitness Journey 