4 Days of Intuitive Eating!
If you enjoy reading my "daily eats" posts, I hope you really enjoy this one of a whole four days! These are intended for fun, inspiration (anyone else love seeing what other people are eating for ideas!?), and a peak into what intuitive eating looks like in real life. Because, I know sometimes there are misconceptions about what intuitive eating is, that it's "letting yourself go" or just eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full. So my hope is that with this post you'll get a better glimpse into what it looks like over the course of a few days!
Eating, in reality, looks different from one day to the next. One day maybe you don't eat as many vegetables and the next you eat more, naturally. Maybe one day you snack a lot and eat smaller meals and the next you eat just 3 larger meals.
When I talk with clients about eating "balanced", it's not saying that every day individually looks balanced of all the food groups and this perfect combination of macronutrients. It's more over the course of a few days to a week that, when you look back, you realize that each day together looks "balanced".This isn't what you see with most of the talk on balance. But our bodies don't just reset at the end of the day like we think they do and have some crazy horrible thing happen because we didn't get enough vegetables or we ate too many carbohydrates.
Our bodies are smart...if there's one thing I hope you'll see here it's that our bodies are smart, aren't out to get us, and want to be healthy.
MONDAY:
Breakfast- Breakfast on Monday was a bowl of oatmeal made with almond milk, maple syrup, chia seeds, some vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. I topped it with microwaved frozen mixed berries for a little berry compote and a big spoon of peanut butter!
Lunch- Today was a little busy in the morning. I talked to my mom for a bit and then had an appointment at the chiropractor (seeing someone to help get everything aligned in preparation for baby). By the time I got home I was hungry so I went through the fridge and ate some leftover pizza from the other night and pasta which I mixed some arugula in for some freshness and green. Mondays I go to the grocery store usually (hadn't made it yet by this point) so there wasn't a whole lot of option for what I wanted for lunch, but this did the job...sometimes that's just what real life is, right!?After lunch, something sweet sounded good so I had a few pieces of chocolate leftover from Christmas :)Snack- Around 3 or so I got hungry again, so had a little bowl of granola with some organic 2% milk.
Dinner- It was kinda a dreary day and my energy was really suffering, so I decided to try InstaCart for some grocery delivery this week. I planned out 3 dinners that sounded good for the week, planning on making enough of each to hopefully get more than just one dinner out of them, and then a lunch I could prep beforehand and have for the week. And then I just ordered everything! My groceries were at my front door 2 hours later...soo nice!For dinner that night I thought this Plantain and Pinto Stew sounded really good. And it was! It also made enough for us to have another 2 dinners...win-win!
TUESDAY:
Breakfast- Tuesday breakfast was one of our go-to's... fried eggs with toast, butter, and jam. Oh and coffee of course!
Lunch- For lunches this week I found this amazing salad recipe that looked soo good (and it was ;) ). It had spring mix, tomatoes, chickpeas, red onion, pepperocini, genoa salami, mozarella, provolone, and a homemade vinnegarette. I had a fun cranberry-ginger sparkling drink from Trader Joes too!
Snack- Around 3 I had an apple while doing some work and then later a few handfuls of some granola.
Dinner- Dinner was leftovers of the Plantain and Pinto Stew I made yesterday...it was soo nice to not have to think about cooking!
Oh, and earlier in the afternoon I made some chocolate chip shortbread cookies (from a new cookbook I got for Christmas)...I found the recipe for them online if you want to make some (which I highly recommend). And I had two with a cup of milk for dessert.
WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast- This morning we did some peanut butter and banana toast, another one of our go-to's.
AM Snack- Today I had an appointment with my midwife for baby girl...I'm 30 weeks now! My father-in-law came up to watch Graham while I went and then was planning on staying a little bit longer so I was able to have some time to get out by myself and do some work. I went to one of my favorite coffee shops here and ordered an herbal tea. But then I realized it was 11:00 and I was starting to get hungry but not really wanting lunch yet. So I ordered an almond croissant. It was good...maybe a little too sweet and, to be honest, I may have preferred to have something like a granola bar that had some more protein because I was really hungry, but this did the job and was delicious. But I made a note to get some protein bars next time I go to the grocery store to have on hand.
Lunch- For lunch I had the same salad I had yesterday. Something I started doing last week with salads for lunch was making a couple in mason jars so that I have everything all ready and can literally just pull it out of the fridge and pour into a bowl. I know this isn't anything new, but I am obsessed! If these are new to you too, all you do is pour the dressing at the bottom, layer on the non-lettuce ingredients, and then top with lettuce. This keeps the lettuce from getting soggy from the dressing. Mind blown how good this was!
Dinner- For dinner I made a delicious Sheet Pan Jambylaya. 10/10 recommend this recipe! It was so flavorful and surprisingly made with cauliflower rice. Paul and I finished the whole pan (Graham had a little that I made without the cajun seasoning and sausage).
THURSDAY:
Breakfast: Thursday breakfast was toast (with butter and jam) + fried eggs again. And coffee :)
AM Snack: I had plans to meet our realtor to look at a couple of houses (we're casually-ish looking for a home to buy) at 10:30 and was already starting to get a little bit hungry. So I made my favorite smoothie lately... It's called the Green Monster Smoothie from my "Oh She Glows" cookbook. It's literally my go-to...it has almond milk, spinach/kale, flax seeds, peanut butter, banana, cinnamon, vanilla, and ice.
Lunch: Lunch was, again, the LA Chop salad that I meal prepped a few days before...this was the last one :(. But still not sick of them!
PM Snack: I was really hungry today! Around 2 oclock I had a handful of almonds and an apple and sat down to write *this* post!
PM Snack #2: When Graham woke up from his afternoon nap around 3 we went for a walk around the neighborhood which ended up being about an hour walk. I've been listening to the book "Lean In" on audiobook by Sheryl Sandberg...highly recommend! When we got back I started making dinner but was, again, really hungry! I had a big-ish handful of pretzels and some sharp white cheddar cheese while I cooked.
Dinner: For dinner I made Vegetarian Shephard's Pie. Also, so good and just really yummy comfort food! I had one serving, was still a little bit hungry but wanted one of the cookies I'd made the other day so waited and once Graham went down for bed I grabbed a couple cookies and some milk and sat on the couch to watch "Fixer Upper", my current favorite way to wind down.
That's it! I'd say one of the best parts about intuitive eating is that it's just...eating. There's no overthinking. Just working with your body, together, in a really fluid relationship. It's uncomplicated...people make eating so complicated these days and I'm not about that. I still felt like I ate pretty darn healthy while enjoying some treats guilt-free! That's what it's all about.
That's it! I'd say one of the best parts about intuitive eating is that it's just...eating. There's no overthinking. Just working with your body, together, in a really fluid relationship. It's uncomplicated...people make eating so complicated these days and I'm not about that. I still felt like I ate pretty darn healthy while enjoying some treats guilt-free! That's what it's all about.
Hey! If you are looking for support with intutive eating and feeling less stressed around food, check out ways we can work together! I know what it's like to feel like you're all alone in this and would love to walk this journey with you!