That that don't kill me, can only make me stronger. I need you to hurry up now, cause I can't wait much longer. Kanye West, Stronger

Thursday, February 28, 2008

What I eat on weekdays

*Bikram NYC post will be up this weekend. I want to try another class before I review.*

So just to give you an idea of what I eat on a weekday, here it is.

Please note, I am 5 feet tall and right in the middle of a healthy weight range for my height, so most people (all you blessed folks, who didn't stop growing at age 11!) will need more food!

Today is an example of a pretty normal day. I tend to have days where I am starving and days where I never get hungry, but yesterday I seemed to be hungry at regular intervals. I try to eat every 3-4 hours.

Breakfast-(post 4.5 mile run)
10am
6 oz lowfat yogurt
1 peach
1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean

Lunch
2pm
Large salad with broccoli, string beans, cucumber, tomato, carrot and beets. 1/2 cup black beans and wee sprinkle Parmesan cheese. 1/4 cup 7 grain salad. Sprinkled with balsamic.

(I get a huge salad everyday for lunch, my most common is spinach, kidney beans, carrot, cuc, cherry tomato and sprouts.

But my all time favorite is: spinach, cuc, sprouts, carrot, cherry tomato, SUN-DRIED TOMATO, AVOCADO, and 2 grape leaves. Served with a slice of whole grain bread. I love to spread the avo, and layer it with sun dried tomato and sprouts and sprinkle with salt. Heavenly. I get it once a week as a treat! Another side note, I tried AVOCADO like 15 times before I liked it. Now I love it. It makes my skin and nails so much clearer when I eat it regularly! So embrace the avo!)

At checkout I spotted a Glenny's 100-calorie chocolate peanut butter brownie. I waited to finish my salad to see if I really wanted it. I did, so I went back up to buy it. I usually have whole grain bread or fruit or both with my salad but my sweet tooth was acting up. I try to save sugary food until later (like a 5pm post workout energy bar) in the day because once I start....
PS it wasn't that good, and I won't buy it again.

5pm
Large red delicious apple and baby bell light cheese ( I decided to forgo the snack bar to get in some real food)

3 mile run (very rare to go to the gym twice, but I wanted to get some distance in and I had to stay on campus for 3.5 hours until my 8:30 midterm review--plus it is 15 degrees here, so I didn't move all day)

7:30pm-dinner. Ate two meals on campus because I had been getting home and eating dinner at 10 everynight for the last two weeks.
8 piece Sushi roll with (pickled squash, avo, cuc and carrot, brown rice), 15 raw almonds and a small nonfat latte. I also hated everything about sushi, ginger, wasabi, nori, now I love it all. Just keep trying. I figured I couldn't live in nyc and not like sushi. Although I still have no courage to try the neon raw fish.

10:15pm
1 cup fa-yeh (fage) with thawed frozen berries and a few slices banana topped with cinnamon and a crumbled raweo (raw oreo from Blessing's available online and in health food stores)

Some people were wondering about what to eat before and after workouts. Here is a good article called Eat to Lose Before and After Workouts from Beauty Eats. I'm not endorsing or interested in weight-loss per say, but I think this is one of Beauty Eats better articles. Some are so-so, but I am really picky about my nutrition info!

I won't be listing my meals again. But general posts about my tips and thoughts, as well as the occasional recipe may appear. Other than that, I'll leave it to the experts!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

What type of salad dressing do you recommend? Or is that just balsamic vinegar that you put on your salad...I find it rather bitter.

Also, how do you know get sick of salads? Thanks :)

Melissa said...

Hi Leslie,

I am not a huge dressing person. But I like Newman's Light Honey Dijon, and pretty much all honey dijons. Sometimes I use just 3 good french although it has some weird ingredients.

Balasamic vinegars vary widely, some are very sweet.

I still to the one fat per salad rule, otherwise I get slughish and have digestion issues. So if I have avocado the creaminess is all I need. Same deal with goat cheeses. I might have a splash of balsamic.

I HIGHLY recommend having some fat in your salad. First because you need the fat to absorb the fat soluble vitamins in vegetables, otherwise, why eat the salad? Second, without somefat, it won't fill you up long. Third, fat free dressings are filled with chemicals and sugar, so they really impede the digestion and cleansing process.

I love salad, and I mix it up so I never get bored. But I can only have one big salad a day. I just can't face a second entree salad.

I hope this helps Leslie. If you really don't enjoy salad, try fresh vegetable juice--not V8. I swear it is like an iv of health into your cells!

I hope this helps!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the quick response! If you don't mind I have one other question. I have always read that it is important to eat before exercising, ecspecially if you exercise in the morning because your body has been fasting. I noticed that you did not. Do you not get hungry or shaky mid workout?

My issue is that I am not an intense or consistent exercises like yourself. I wake up hungry, but, I think you are also supposed to eat after. I don't want to do both because I don't burn nearly enough calories to eat two breakfast. Thanks again!

Melissa said...

Okay, let me just put out my familiar disclaimer. I am not a nutritionist, but I will let you know what works for me. Besides people bash the hell out of poor Cristin (eat like me)and she is a nutritionist.

I eat late at night. Not a great habit, but I get home really late and so I eat dinner really late. Sometimes I even have a (gasp) snack in bed right before I go to sleep. I am trying to watch this, and since I started eating breakfast, I am not so hungry at night.

So when I wake up I just go straight to the gym and I am fine. I have read several times in Runner's World that your body has enough fuel to get through an hour of exercise in the morning.

If I stop eating before 8, I have piece of fruit or half a kashi bar to get going. If I am hungry I will eat a full breakfast. But I like my food to digest, so my body isn't using energy for digestion while I am running.

So do whatever your body tells you.

I like Kath's mini breakfast idea. A mini pita with a smear of nut butter/cottage cheese or a yogurt shouldn't set you over your calorie count.

Did you see the link at the bottom of the post? It had some good info on eating before and after working out.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! Actually, I like that you are not a nutritionist. I don't always want to hear the "by the book" rules as much as what real people do and what works for them.

Anyway, sorry, but I have a follow up. I totally understand that you are not hungry if you eat late and night, but how are you up enough and motivated enough to go in the morning? Breakfast to me is almost like caffeine...gives me time to wake up (side note: I can't stomach caffeine first thing in the morning)

Melissa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Melissa said...

That's a good question. Some mornings I spring out of bed. My bedroom is really bright, so it is hard to sleep late. My body is ready to go after 7 hours of sleep.

But I definitely vary the time I work out. Sometimes my alarm goes off and I realize I just don't feel like working out, so I turn it off and sleep until I have to get ready for work.

If you are hungry definitely have something, at least a packet of oatmeal with some berries. Or have your normal breakfast and have something light afterwords. If you have a light workout (30 minutes or less), you probably don't need anything after because you haven't gotten your body to the point that it needs protein and carbs to rebuild the muscle tissue, this really only happens if after 45 minutes of moderately intense activity. It's kind of like sports drinks, you really don't need them unless you are working out for sustained periods of time.

So if you eat a good breakfast before your workout, maybe just a piece of cheese (babybell or a few laughing cow)and a few high fiber crackers after your workout will be enough to hold you over until lunch.

This is all based on my assumption that you eat a diet with enough calories to sustain your body throughout the day, not a severely restricting diet which would make you hungry no matter what.

I have heard that if you don't go hard enough during your workout, you might stimulate your appetite more than if you work out hard which suppresses it. So maybe throwing a few hard intervals moments will help tame your appetite. I am not sure if this is valid theory, but you never know.

Good luck and good night!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Great post - it's always fun and interesting to see what others are consuming and fueling their bodies with :0)

Dhrumil said...

Hey it's Dhrumil from We Like it Raw. Thanks for pimping our site link on the comments section of eat.live.run.

Appreciate that

Melissa said...

Dhru! You're going to get me into trouble haha!

It wasn't exactly my intention, but anything I can inadvertaently do to spread a little raw karma is fine with me.

Thanks for all you do! The squad, jenna, kath, and so many others are all angels.

I plan to attend a nyc wlir event soon, but I have to say all you hot model guys are so intimidating! :)

Anonymous said...

Besides fage, do you have a brand of yogurt that you recommend?

Did you always like plain yogurt? I know it is healthier, but I can't get use to the taste!
Thanks!

Melissa said...

Hi Lauren,

If I don't eat fage, I eat Stoneyfield plain or vanilla or 2 a day. Or dannon plain non fat or low-fat.

I like Stoenyfield's options as they are quite natural and less expensive than fage. Also adding a big of all fruit jam and cinnamon to fage can enhance the taste.