Day of Eats + Intuitive Living
Hey friend! Just wanted to share some inspiration and another of my "daily eats" as well as talk about something that I've been learning more about lately and trying to put into practice in my own life...intuitive living.
Sooooo.... how was your memorial day?
We spent the weekend celebrating a friend getting married and it was in Georgia so we spent a bit of time traveling and being "en route" over the weekend. But all was fun and it was so great to see friends and family. But also it was tough since it was so short. Overall a good weekend, but we came home wanting a weekend after our weekend. Anyone else?
This morning I woke up with an idea to try and go on a run, thinking I may be craving some cardio. But as soon as I woke up I realized, nope, not today! I've been trying to add the concepts of intuitive eating more into my everyday life and activities which has been super cool because, as I'm learning to be more in tune with my body, I'm realizing that our bodies are so freakin smart! And by paying attention to even the slightest nuances about what my body's trying to tell me, I'm way happier and therefore everyone else around me is happier too!
For example, if I were to have woken up and decided I had to run no matter how I felt, I'd probably be a grouch about it and may even have an attitude for the rest of the day because that's not what my body was craving. I was getting signals from my body that I needed some low- impact movement, something low stress that would prepare me for a somewhat stressful day...body knows best!
Instead, I chose to spend a little more time reading the bible and journaling and praying while drinking some warm lemon water, and then I did a 30 minute yoga sequence before getting ready for work. It just set me up for such an enjoyable morning! The afternoon at work got a little crazy with some unexpected things thrown at me, but I felt so much more grounded and able to deal with the craziness in a way that didn't make me go crazy!
Breakfast was two pieces of sprouted toast, one with some pb, chia seeds, and honey and the other just with a sunny side up egg on it. Love, love, love the sweet and savory breakfast combo these days! Oh, and of course coffee!That yolk though! :) After breakfast I got ready for work and then ended up riding my bike to work because I waited too long to leave to be able to walk (my preference ever since my bike accident on the way to work last year...not. fun.)
Couldn't quite make it to lunch today, actually that's most days, so I had some popcorn that was hangin around the office. It was this one that was seasoned with herbs and nutritional yeast...gonna have to find out the brand because it was soo good! I'm liking more savory foods and snacks lately which is so different from how I usually am. I think I just wanted a little change. Oh, and you like the Winnie the Pooh scrubs...that's #reallife. Lunch was a variation of leftovers from last night: some brown rice, black beans, blackened cod from tacos the night before along with a mango salsa and some avocado. Had some cherries on the side and it couldn't have been more perfect!
Around 4:00 I had a little snack since I was going to be late getting home tonight. I'd made some honey ricotta muffins last night which really did not turn out well. I eyeballed the honey measurement and I definitely didn't put enough in! So found some honey and put some on top to compensate. Girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!I'm trying to not drink coffee in the afternoon because it makes me jittery, but let's be honest, I'm probably not going to make that a thing. Just love coffee too much! But...I did find this white tea in my backpack which really hit the spot for a mild pick me up in the afternoon. Also, went really well with the muffin fyi!
Got home at a little after 7 and made dinner just for myself. Paul has exams this week, so he stayed at school a little later. I had some tofu I'd been meaning to use so threw together a little stir fry with broccoli, mushrooms, an asian sauce of sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger and served it over some turmeric ginger quinoa. And, to make it all better of course use chopsticks! After dinner I still was a little hungry and wanted something soothing and randomly made a turmeric milk latte which, guys, I have never had success with really liking the ones I've made myself but was determined and, lo and behold, I learned a trick! Blending in a blender makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE! Maybe a recipe will come soon so you can try too! So, intuitive living. Like I said, I've been learning more about what that really looks like in real life. And I was thinking, it's so sad that we have to practice being intuitive, right? It's crazy that what we were born with, our natural instincts, can be so easily clouded by things we feel we "ought to do" or pressures we put on ourselves to be perfect, and we can easily lose that ability to understand the things our bodies are telling us.
So, as I talk about a lot, intuitive eating is a way for us to get back to our roots with how we were made to eat. And intuitive living is getting back to paying attention to nuances and signals your body sends you with how to live and what decisions to make and so on. It's not as crazy as it sounds, believe me. And when you do pay attention, life just feels so much sweeter!Like what I talked about at the beginning of this post. If we're always just holding ourselves to this standard of doing the same high intensity exercise every single day without paying attention to our body's signals, we will probably miss out on a really enjoyable use of our energy like in the instance of maybe needing a yoga day compared to a long run day.
And then, if we're just going, going, going without taking time to be still and focus on our own self care, all the other aspects of our health will suffer.I've especially been trying to practice this in the area of my businesses lately and really listening to when I need to take a break and just be present in the moment and when I can actually work well and efficiently and with the least amount of stress possible. For example, didn't stress about getting this post up today. Yes, I wanted to get it to you guys because I believe showing up is so important. But I also know that my mental health is more important than getting a blog post up at the same time every week. Because sometimes things happen. And sometimes we have more important things to tend to like ourselves.Intuitive living takes the practices of intuitive eating and really just extends it to the rest of your life. It's SOO FREEING to be able to just listen to your body and not feel like you always have to justify feeling tired, or push yourself despite having a really crazy week the week before, and so forth.
So, if I could summarize what intuitive living is, it's being able to make plans for what you want to do, while giving yourself grace to not follow through it that's what is best for you in the moment.
Anyways, hope to start more discussion about intuitive living in the future because I believe this is so important to all areas of your health and life.