What I Ate Wednesday

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had gained a few unwanted pounds. Though they aren't terribly visible, I can feel them when I have to start dancing my jeans on or when I have to slow down on a tempo run. As my training for the Boston Marathon enters its final few weeks, I want to make every effort to holistically focus on my health. This goal includes sleeping, stretching, strength training, and eating intuitively. I'm not going to diet; I simply want to be more aware of the food I am putting in my body.

What better day to start than today- Wednesday? Happy What I Ate Wednesday everyone!

Breakfast: I have started to force myself to drink a full glass of water before I fumble with my keurig for my morning shot of caffeine. Rehydrating my body first thing in the morning has been a great way to jump start my day.
After having my glass of water, I made my coffee with a splash of soy milk creamer and the rest of my breakfast. My breakfasts are rather uninspiring. Today, I had a bowl of Ezekiel 4:9 cereal, sprinkled with cinnamon, and topped with a banana and almond butter. I have been loving vanilla almond milk (unsweetened of course), so I added some of that and dug in! Sorry, no picture - I forgot it was Wednesday!

Before my run, I had an espresso love gu and a few raisins with a cracker.

Then, when I came back from my easy paced 10 miler, I had some Vegetable Biryani I made last night from a recipe in the Forks Over Knives cookbook for lunch. I have been working my way through the cookbook and most of the recipes have been quite delicious. This was the second time I made the Vegetable Biryani recipe.  It's a favorite!  I also ate an orange on the side.

*I hope to improve my food photos with this blog.

I should have stopped at one serving; I didn't need more. But, I guess after my run I was pretty tired and I ended up losing a bit of self control. I indulged not only in more vegetable biryani, but also in a few too many scoops of almond butter, dried fruit, and crackers. I know as a runner I need fuel, but I am still disappointed that I did not listen to the needs of my body and basically binged.

I spent the rest of the afternoon downloading some new music and chatting with my roommates.  I also made a spaghetti squash that I bought at Whole Foods a few days ago.  I plan on using it in some recipes later on this week or just eating when I feel hungry.  I snacked on half an apple and some carrots while I waited for it to bake.

Later in the afternoon, I hopped on the shuttle bus to campus and walked from my stop to Starbucks where I was meeting a friend for some (decaf) coffee.

Beautiful day!

Since it is finals time, our campus residence is sponsoring free drinks!  I ordered the usual - decaf Americano topped with steamed soy milk.  I know some people don't like Starbucks because it is so "mainstream," but their espresso remains my favorite.

Then, my friend and I went off-campus to Sprout Cafe for dinner.

Sprout allows you to create your own salad or choose one of their pre-made salad options.  I designed my own salad with a butter lettuce base and topped with red peppers, roasted beets, roasted brussels sprouts, sweet corn, black beans, and carrots.  I had balsamic vinaigrette dressing on the side.  All salads at Sprout come with a slice of fluffy wheat bread, which I enjoyed dipping into my dressing.  I 'm new to this whole "take photos of food" thing, so I failed at taking pictures, but, I can assure you, my salad was delicious!

When I came home, I wanted something sweet, so I ate a Kind bar.  I wasn't hungry.  In fact, I'm not sure why I decided I needed to eat a Kind bar.  This indulgence wasn't very intuitive of me.

I'm now drinking some tea and watching a movie with my roommate.  Overall it was a good day.  I need to quit my addiction to almond butter, though to help me resist the exhaustion/emotional eating problem I've developed this past semester.