Weekend Eats + Eating When You're Hungry But Don't Know What To Eat
Hey friends! Sharing some meals from the weekend as inspiration for you in your own intuitive eating journey as well as sharing my experience of being hungry but not knowing what to eat. Have you been there? Not a fun place to be. Also to make matters even more complicated, in addition to not knowing what to eat and not being hungry, also not being in the mood to cook. It happens, ya'll. But a girl's gotta eat and we gotta still feed our bodies. That's just how it goes.
The weekend started off really well! We woke up early on Saturday just 'cause and had a "mini" breakfast of 2 pieces of peanut butter toast, one with some chia berry jam I made last week and the other with banana. I say "mini" breakfast because I would have probably had some yogurt or an egg or something else with the toast typically, but we had plans to meet up with another couple for dim sum in the city. And, if you don't know what dim sum is, it's pretty much the most amazing thing ever! Basically it's Chinese tapas + brunch.
We took the subway down to Manhattan all the way to Chinatown and when we finally got to the restaurant I was sure glad for my "mini" breakfast earlier because I was hungry! We sat down and basically how it goes is there's a lot of people pushing carts with different steamer baskets filled with different things to try such as pork buns (basically Chinese barbecue sandwiches), dumplings filled with shrimp, other rice noodle and shrimp items, mini custard pies, and sesame balls. It was all such amazing, comforting food and we left eating our fill for only about $10 per person which was a win in my book! Especially for eating out in the city!
After dim sum we walked around Manhattan and I was pretty full and satisfied for a lot of the day. We got home around 5, had some watermelon to help cool us off and hydrate, then sat down on the couch and watched New Girl (our latest show we're into) while sipping on a homemade gin and tonic (sorry not pictured), my favorite drink lately. Something about the tartness and sourness and refreshing taste in the summer!
I mentioned in a post on Instagram how this weekend was a little rough which, up until now you probably wouldn't guess. Basically something I'm learning about myself is that I demand perfection from myself and I feel like I've achieved perfection when I feel in control. Actually, this is something I've been learning about myself and working through for quite some time now and I feel it's something that I may always deal with and have to work through with my personality tendencies. So, being aware of this, I do a couple of things that help me accept my imperfection and accept that I can't control everything...first and foremost, I feel most calm and most at peace when I start every morning with a time of quiet reading and prayer. I don't do well if I stop spending intentional time each day doing this. Second, I journal my thoughts and prayers because writing things down always helps me process. And third, I confide in a close friend and share life with people around me. Basically when people ask that typical question, "how's life?" I try to not lie and just say, "oh yeah...great!" if it's not going well. I've found that only when I'm real and honest with people can I grow, myself.
So, back to Saturday. I was feeling a little "off" and just not hungry. I was stressed out and anxious and just in a mood and naturally my hunger fled. Nothing sounded good to eat even though it was nearing 7 o'clock and I hadn't eaten much since 11. My body was hungry but my mind wasn't interested.
This is a great example of when you feed your body out of self care rather than just from listening to hunger. Intuitive eating sometimes means eating when you're not particularly hungry or when food doesn't necessarily sound good. You eat because it's what your body needs, physically. So, I threw together a salad kit from Trader Joe's and topped it with some shrimp we had in our freezer. I added on a couple stuffed grape leaves also from Trader Joe's because they were in the fridge and were one thing that actually DID sound good! A glass of red wine and some dark chocolate also helped complete the meal and make a dinner that wasn't 100% satisfying actually enjoyable. Thank you chocolate and wine! You never let me down! The evening ended with visiting some friends who just moved in next door! Paul and I are super excited to have more people our age on our street!
Sunday morning I woke up craving pancakes! Someone had talked about pancakes the day before and I also saw some good looking pancakes on some people's Instagram feeds so pancakes were on my mind. But, I didn't want to go through the hassle of getting a bunch of ingredients out and dishes and such, so french toast was the next best thing, turned best idea ever! Also, in case you don't know, sourdough bread makes AMAZING french toast! Topped with strawberries, blueberries, greek yogurt, and a honey-maple syrup combo, these french toasts really hit the spot!At lunch, again, I wasn't super into the idea of cooking anything crazy so threw together another Trader Joe's salad kit and topped it with some grilled chicken. While the chicken was cooking I snacked on some chips and salsa, knowing I was super hungry and being mindful not to fill up on them...it's happened before. Finished the meal with some kombucha and watermelon. I decided to take it easy for the rest of the weekend and Paul and I brought some chairs from our living room out to our deck and sat outside soaking in a little sun and reading while sipping some cold brew coffee that we'd made earlier in the week.
Dinner was typical Sunday evening dinner for us...pizza. Though I will say we've been slacking on keeping up our tradition lately. Oh, and felt like ice cream would be the perfect end to the weekend so enjoyed a couple {large} spoonfuls of that. Hope you all had a great weekend! I'd love to hear a highlight or even something that wasn't a highlight from your weekend. Comment below!