Daily Eats + Intuitive Eating: Packing Lunch for Work

Good-morning!

Writing you from sunny San Luis Obispo. It’s been just over two weeks that we’ve lived here. It’s been great! Peaceful, full, and honestly… just blessed. Things seem to be falling into place across the board.

It’s been a change/shift since I’m no longer working from home. I drive into downtown SLO to go to my office each day for work. We’re also living right outside of SLO on a vineyard (it’s magical). We do different things: more dining out (sooo many great places we want to try and friends we want to grab dinner with), more taking Abby to the beach, more running outdoors… it’s all good!

Shifts. When life changes, schedules, routines, and habits shift. I’ve had to be extra kind and gentle with myself in navigating these new shifts. For example, running outdoors everyday within the hours of daylight has been different (but good). Before, I could go to our neighborhood gym after work when it was dark and use the treadmill. Now if I want to run I have to plan it for earlier in the day before work. These are the times where I’m the most grateful for the calm, sustainable, compassionate habit building skills I’ve learned over the years. Where I’m grateful for GRACE and EASE.

If you’re going through a shift/transition right now, be gentle with yourself. Have patience as you learn to rework your normal habits or create new ones. It’s okay if it takes time. It’s okay if it feels a bit “wonky.”

Now, let’s get into some daily eats! I’ve included some intuitive eating notes (“IE notes”), since right now I’m working through all of the steps of intuitive eating with my clients in The Growth Vault (join us here, we’re still on the first principle if you want to be an intuitive eater!).

Side note: As a human, you are *already* an intuitive eater – this part of you just gets covered up over the years for many of us with layers and layers of food rules, doubts, and fears about food… we’re doing the work of UNCOVERING your intuitive eater so that you can experience FREEDOM with food and figure out what feels good for YOU.

Before we dive in… I want to preface this post by saying that this post is NOT for comparison – to compare your eats to mine. Rather, these posts have always been and will always be about inspiration.

Inspiration surrounding: new ideas around food; freedom with food; and trusting that YOU can listen to YOUR body and what feels good for you, as I listen to mine and do what feels right for me.

If these posts are triggering for you in any way, please dive into these posts instead.

Thursday

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, avocado, and olive tapenade on top. Oh, and a bit of Cholula hot sauce!

IE notes: I find that when I have eggs on their own (not with toast) I do better with 3 eggs versus my typical 2. So this is 3 eggs. This breakfast seems to work really well with my body – energy, ease (digestively), and focus!

What I packed in my lunch: A bowl for lunch (miracle noodles, ground beef and sweet potato), roasted and salted almonds, a small container of cheddar goat cheese (not pictured), a banana, an apple, and guacamole to go with the Siete chips I keep in my office.

IE notes: I can’t remember how much of this I ate… I think I only ate my lunch bowl this day because I was so in the zone with client sessions. However, what I didn’t eat then I knew I could just pack again for the rest of the week. So it’s all good!

Dinner: un-pictured… We went to a friends house and she’d set the table so beautifully, I should have taken a photo! But, I had my phone away to just be present, and that was well worth the missed photo.

Anyway, we had white bean chili with cilantro, jalapeño, lime, and cheese on top. Sooo good! Also, we crunched up some Fritos to sprinkle on top. So good! I also had a Girl Scout cookie to top it off (Carmel Delight).

Friday

Breakfast was coffee and 3 eggs over-medium. This simple breakfast is easy to whip up and gives me great morning energy.

Lunch: another bowl that I’ve been loving! I *love* these bowls right now and could eat them 3x a day, everyday. Ha! Okay, exaggerating… but really… they’re so good!

What’s in them? Miracle noodles (I’m crazy about these because they satisfy me so well and are easy for me to digest – more on that in a second) with sweet potato and ground beef. I cook the ground beef with garlic and onion. So good!

IE notes: In December I learned a bit of new information about my body. I was talking with a friend about my digestion and how I was concerned about it and she said to me “that’s not normal.” (She’s a nurse.)

I began to do some experimenting, intuitively, and paying attention more… and I learned that there are some foods that I do really well with and others that realllllly upset my stomach. Some were *really* random, for example… tomatoes!

As I experimented, my digestion issues ultimately disappeared. I still eat the foods that don’t agree with me from time to time and I don’t “forbid” anything. Instead, I just have an understanding of how I might feel the next day after I eat certain foods and I decide from there if I’m up for that. It’s been extremely enlightening and empowering to learn these things – and I’m so grateful and blessed by intuitive eating in this season, as I’ve been able to ease into these findings and not feel extreme about anything. If this is something you’re interested in, I can talk more about it. Just ask in the comments 🙂

Dinner: Marco and I went to a new place in SLO that just opened called Finney’s. They have a Finney’s in Ventura and we LOVE it! We were so excited that it came to SLO!

For dinner I started with cauliflower bites and had an ahi salad for my entree. The cauliflower bites were smothered with blue cheese and buffalo sauce and were divine!

The ahi salad is just out of this world good. I’ve had a few amazing salads this week! One isn’t pictured here, but if you’re in the area, the caesar salad from The Oyster Loft in Pismo is the best caesar I have ever had. Period. Now craving it!

After dinner we walked down to Novo for a glass of wine. This evening was our time to celebrate Marco’s birthday (which is today!) and Valentine’s day since he’ll be working.

Saturday

Breakfast: 3 eggs before Marco dropped me off at the office. I had a group coaching call with my clients in The Growth Vault. We talked through the first portion of the Intuitive Eating book – it was great! I love this group and getting to see everyones faces!

Lunch: When I got home I made a bowl with cauliflower rice, sweet potato, ground turkey and an egg on top. There were quite a bit of leftovers so I portioned them out into two more to-go containers to enjoy later. Perfect!

Dinner: For dinner, we were planning to eat at home but then a friend invited us to a bonfire. We left early, before anyone was arriving, so we stopped at Splash Cafe to get clam chowder. YUM! This was so good.

To our (happy) surprise, our friends had also made clam chowder and brought it to the fire! So we got to have double the chowda – not complaining! I also had a bread roll at the fire.

Sunday

Breakfast: Sunday morning I woke up, ate egg bites (from Costco) and sipped on coffee. I walked around the vineyard with Abby and then got ready for Church. It was Marco’s first day back to work, so I went solo. It was such a great service!

Brunch: After Church I drove down to Pismo beach to meet friends for brunch at the Cliff’s. Oh my gosh, such a beautiful view, such good food, and such good company!

There, I got an omelette with spinach, mushroom, bacon, onion, and cheese… as well as sides of sausage, bacon, fruit, and lots of salad. I also enjoyed a few ahi nacho’s. Sooooo good! I left feeling so peaceful and happy.

Here’s a photo of the amazing gals I got to brunch with – all so talented and full of life. I love ’em!

Dinner: Brunch held me over the rest of the day. For dinner, I made Marco and I chicken tacos on Siete tortillas with chicken (cooked with olive oil, onion, and garlic), cabbage, cilantro dressing, avocado, sour cream, and for me… olive tapenade (because I could put that stuff on everything!). Oh, and Cholula.

After dinner I had two dark chocolate peanut butter cups from the fridge. Our fridge always looks like this, stocked with chocolate 🙂

Monday

Breakfast: Monday morning started off with two egg bites from Costco. Now, if you’re budgeting and normally cook eggs at home, these are pricey. But if you’re budgeting and normally buy egg bites at Starbucks each day, well… these are cheaper! Haha. We like to get them on busier weeks, to me, it’s a worthy investment. They’re $9.99 for 4 packages (so, 2 days for Marco and I – 4 days if you’re the only one eating them).

Lunch: While at the office on Monday I got a craving for the tacos that I packed for Marco to have for lunch (he was going to come and meet me). That said, lucky me, he went out to lunch with his friend and I got to eat his tacos. Ha!

IE note: I don’t know what it was about these tacos but ME-OH-MY did I not have a happy tummy the next morning. Now, again… I won’t forbid myself to eat them. They’re not off limits, but I’ve learned how I’ll feel after I eat them. Bummer, because I love them (they’re so tasty!) but good to know so I can be mindful of how I want to feel.

When we got home, I had a snack of chips and guac before I went on a run.

And, for a little bit more substance I had some apples and goat cheddar cheese.

Lunch #2: When I got home from my run I had what I’d actually packed for lunch – a bowl with ground turkey, sweet potato, and cauliflower rice (I cooked the cauliflower rice with olive oil, lime, and cilantro – yum!).

Dinner: Chicken tacos. These were great and easy to throw together since they were leftover 🙂 I mixed up some fresh cabbage with cilantro dressing, heated the chicken and tortillas and we were good to go!

Tuesday

Breakfast: Tuesday morning started off with egg bites as I packed my lunch for the day. I didn’t start with clients until 12 so I took the morning to do something for myself. Marco went to the gym, and I enjoyed a long run outside in SLO in a neighborhood I love (and would love to live in one day!). I felt so peaceful, not rushed, and happy!

Lunch: When I got home I showered, got dressed for work and re-heated the last of my leftover cauliflower/ground-turkey bowls. I made an egg to throw on top and added guac and sour cream. Yum, yum, good! Then I headed out to the office.

I got to the office, met with one client, and then had a break to work on all backend content (like this blog post!).

I went to Kruezberg coffee to meet my friend Asia for what we call “biz time.” We meet up and work together since we both own our own businesses. It’s like a little splash of friendship and co-working in the middle of the day! We used to do this daily when I lived here before. I love it! There, I had an almond milk cappuccino. Yum!

Snacks: After an hour of co-working I came back to my office to work some more (both on behind the scenes work and client sessions). When I got hungry, I grabbed one of my favorite snacks as of lately: cubed goat cheddar cheese from Trader Joe’s and roasted/salted almonds. Mmm! And more coffee because coffee just brings me a whole lotta joy as I work! 😉

And before my final session I snacked on the apple and banana I brought to work.

Once I was off, I headed out to Whole Foods to grab some groceries. I knew they were having a Siete sale for Amazon Prime members because one of my clients text me to share! While there I got Siete chips, tortillas, snacks, and a few more things to make dinners for the next few nights.

Snack: When I got home, I was nice and hungry, ready for dinner. I snacked on a guacamole packet with Siete chips and a few slices of this uncured salami with goat cheddar and olive tapenade. Yum!

Dinner: For dinner, we had mahi mahi cooked with olive oil, sea-salt, pepper, dill, and a little butter on top (so good!). We paired this with rice, avocado, asparagus and a kale casear salad. Mmm-mmm good! So satisfying and comfortably filling.

To top it off, I had a dark chocolate PB cup before bed.

I hope you enjoyed this post and got some good ideas! I’ll continue to share daily eats as I experiment with packing lunches!

Ultimate takeaway for me: I want the lunches that I pack to both leave me feeling good AND to be super tasty and satisfying. If you pack food just to feel good, without considering if it’s what you actually like, you’ll probably end up going out to eat and forgoing what brought, OR you might find that it’s really hard to listen to your body at dinner because the part of you that wants something satisfying is on overdrive by the time you get home.

While it’s important to consider how you want to feel (yay!) it’s equally as important to consider what foods will leave you feeling happy and satisfied. Remember, satisfaction is a key focal point in intuitive eating. We want to build loving and sustainable habits.

Love you all so much! If I can be of support to any of you, just leave a comment.