What I’ve Been Eating Lately
Good-morning all and happy Tuesday!
Today I wanted to take the time to do a daily eats post, in a different way. More of a “What I’ve Been Eating Lately” post. There are a few reasons for this:
- I haven’t been able to consistently take photos of everything I eat, so my days are spotty – ha!
- I’ve been having similar things most days
- I want to share something with you that comes up for a lot of my intuitive eating clients, and that is… wanting to feel safe eating “healthy” foods and not feeling like you’re slipping back into old diet patterns when you do
So let’s dive in! But before we do, let me share that these posts are NOT for comparison. If seeing what I eat is triggering to you in any way, skip over the daily eats posts.
These posts are designed to give YOU freedom in your body to listen to what foods sound/feel good for YOU so that you can feel empowered to make your own decisions around food and not have to eat based on what anyone else tells you.
What I’ve Been Eating Lately
A whole lot of coffee with MCT oil, collagen, and vanilla protein drink (Premier Protein drinks from Costco) used as creamer. If I’m feeling extra fancy I’ll add raw cacao, cinnamon, and sometimes even a teaspoon of Kerrygold unsalted butter.
This drink should be called “brain on fire” or “brain on FOCUS.” Having this coffee, loaded with these specific proteins and fats makes me focus like you would not believe. That’s why I love it. Not to mention that it’s creamy GOODNESS once it’s all blended up. Yum!
On my coaching days, two of these bad boys in the morning makes me feel like a power coach. Ha! I’ve been loving my work extra lately and I believe the reason is because I’ve felt so physically/mentally good while doing it.
I’m in a season with my own intuitive eating journey right now where I’m heavily discovering all sorts of things that make me feel great: face masks, supplements (like this Adrenal Health one), filling coffee as I just shared, and food that makes me feel fantastic.
I’ve been paying attention, objectively, to how foods react in my body. I talk a lot about this with my clients. Paying attention *objectively* to how foods make us feel. Meaning, no food is good or bad. And before we eat something, we don’t need to ASSUME how it’s going to make us feel. When we do that, sometimes we can make ourselves feel sick just by what we’re thinking. There are studies on this.
Instead, objectively asking how something makes us feel looks like this:
Me: Orders meat quiche + a cappuccino at Hub coffee while working. Loves it! Brags to a friend about how incredible it tastes. Vows to order one every time she’s here (exaggeration).
Me: Leaves Hub coffee, gets in the car and thinks “Wow, I could use a nap.”
Me: Interesting? Did that quiche make me sleepy?
Me: Next time I’m at Hub I order the crustless meat quiche + coffee while working. It’s delicious! It tastes just as good as the first. Works with brain on fire. Leaves Hub coffee and notices on the way home I’m still full of energy.
Revelation: The crust on that quiche, like when I eat a really dense sandwich with loads of bread, makes me feel really sleepy.
Takeaway: I can have whatever I want, when I want it. Next time I’m at Hub I can oder the meat quiche with crust or without. Do I want to feel energized and focused? Am I willing to feel sleepy?
Me: Makes choice, objectively, knowing that whatever I choose is morally OKAY.
Does that make sense you guys? How we can really listen to how foods make us feel objectively? And then make super neutral choices, based on how we’re *willing* to feel?
On the days I feel hungry for breakfast I’ve been having two eggs on a piece of seeded sourdough (so good, from Trader Joe’s!) or a Larabar. Any of you remember how LB’s used to hurt my stomach? All good now!
For lunches I’ve been loving things that I can grab and eat straight from the fridge. Either pre-made meals from Trader Joe’s like this kale chicken caesar salad or lemon pasta salad. Yum!
Or I’ve been having food that I’ve made and set aside into containers myself. Since coaching has been packed full, I’ve needed easy things to grab, throw in a bowl, and enjoy with about 20 minutes between client sessions.
This last photo is: baked chicken thighs (I realize, for myself, that I much prefer chicken thighs to chicken breasts – so much more flavorful), sweet potato, carrots, and broccoli. Toppings: sriracha, mustard aioli, hummus.
To make this dish: It’s SOOO easy and so delicious. I get out three baking sheets/dishes. I heat the oven to 425. Coat each sheet with coconut oil spray. Put the chicken in one, a bag of colored carrots and a bag of broccoli in one, and then two medium/large diced sweet potatoes tossed in coconut oil in the other.
I heat them each for different amounts of times, depending on when each looks cooked through. This is SO easy. I’ve been doing this while watching the Bachelor on Monday nights or another show with Marco on the weekend.
All of these meals make me feel great, they taste delicious, and they work so well with my schedule, in this season of my life.
To me, this is food freedom: to love what you’re eating, have no rules, and to feel empowered to make your own choices based on how you want to feel.
For dinners we’ve been doing a lot of take out or going to restaurants: Chipotle bowls, make it yourself pizza places, tacos, or going to Sushi with friends. It’s been a festive season of spending lots of time with friends. I’ll take it!
When we cook at home I’ve been making curries and bolognese sauce poured over brown rice noodles and/or baked whole sweet potatoes (so yum!). This has also been so simple, filling, hearty and feel good!
Abby girl has been feeling good too 😉 She’s been sticking to chicken based products so her tummy doesn’t get too sensitive. This week she tragically ran through barbed wire while chasing wild horses (yep!).
Thankfully, all horses and Abby are okay but it made for one frightened dad and dog and vet visit to make sure she was okay. A few scratches and some good rest and she’s never been happier. Ha! Life is an adventure with this puppy! I love her SO deeply.
I actually scheduled her first visit to doggy day care in a couple of weeks! The place I’m taking her has boarding for when we go on trips and seriously looks like pet HEAVEN.
She gets to play ALL day. There’s someone there 24/7. She gets bathed, groomed, and even trained if we want to pay for training. I can’t wait. I feel like a true mom getting excited about doggy-day-care 😉
Finally, snacks have re-entered the Schmidt house. For YEARS I was not feeling snacks. I had GoMacro bars when I was in a pinch, and that was about it.
Lately, I’ve been loving my Larabars, nuts/chocolate, and cheese/salami snacks. I’m not sure why I didn’t crave snacks for a long time and now I’m loving them again, but hey, we’re goin’ with it!
I hope you enjoyed this post. I hope that it encourages you to listen to your body and I hope that if you’re being intentional about listening to your body and moving away from diets that this post shows you that it is BEYOND POSSIBLE for you to eat intuitively AND feel great in your body.
Oh, and a final note because I believe many of you will relate: body image and bikini shopping.
Yesterday I went to Target and tried on bathing suits and let me just share… bathing suit shopping is still to this day my least favorite kind of shopping.
I feel a size XXL is equivalent to an XS in the bathing suit world which means suits are only easily flattering to like 1% of the population (ha!). Anyone agree?
While I was in the dressing room though, there was a revelation. It was the SUITS I didn’t like. NOT my BODY that I didn’t like. Am I the smallest I’ve ever been? No! (That is absolutely not my goal.) Even so, I feel the healthiest mentally and in my choices, around food.
I was really peaceful about this whole dressing room experience, even though I liked 0% of the suits I tried on. Why? Because I know that I’m doing all I am willing to do to care for my body and I feel really, really good about where I am mentally. To me, this IS health without obsession.
So wherever my body wants to be physically, is whatever place follows feeling healthy/stable mentally and I’m totally good with that. This is what I want for my clients; this is what I want for YOU. I want to help you get to this place, too. It’s possible. I promise. Book a call with me here and I’ll help you get there.
