what i ate wednesday: issue 41

Happy July 4th, blog loves. Care to see some food? 

 Figure 1. Breakfast: a bowl (x2) of Kashi Simply Maize (a new find: I am obsessed) mixed with Kellogg's All-Bran, 1/2 sliced banana, and almond milk.

Figure 2. Lunch: a romaine lettuce salad with an tomato, carrots, an Amy's Sonoma veggie burger, smoked almonds, red wine vinegar, and ketchup.

Figure 3. Afternoon snack: a Gala apple and cocoa-roast almonds.

Figure 4. Dinner: pan-seared chicken with tomato-olive relish, roasted asparagus with Italian herbs, and Near East wild mushroom couscous. Pretty damn gourmet for a Tuesday, no?

Figure 5. Dessert: kettle corn topped with jerry-rigged chocolate PB2 (2 T regular PB2 + 1 T cocoa powder + almond milk).

And that concludes another What I Ate Wednesday (featuring what I ate Tuesday, July 3).

But, wait! Since it fun, food, AND fitness WIAW month I should tell you about my workouts. This morning I hit the pavement for a 30-minute run at working pace (i.e., a few notches above comfortable) followed by a short walk with my pup. I also took a short walk on my lunch break to stretch the legs. My day ended with a 60-minute PiYo class (fusion of Pilates and yoga - look for a review soon!) and another short walk with my pup when I returned home.

my less serious day: (...)

(If you don't have anything clever to say, don't say anything at all.)

Wearing.

Dress: LOFT; cardigan: old, unknown; necklace: gifted via Grandma!; heels: Miz Mooz.

Doing.

This morning I went on a 30-minute run at working pace followed by a 15-minute cool down walk with L. On Monday I typically attend a 60-minute Body Pump class (my favorite!). I finished the day with a 10-minute walk when I returned home.

Eating.

Pre-run I had 1/2 banana, 1/2 mug of black coffee, and 1 pint of water. For breakfast I had this bowl (times 2) of Cheerios mixed with Kellogg's All-Bran and the last of the Post Shredded Wheat (look for a review next week), 1/2 sliced banana, and almond milk.

Lunch was a carrot sticks dipped in peanut butter, an Amy's Sonoma veggie burger drizzled in the good stuff (i.e., ketchup), and a bowl of cottage cheese with grape tomatoes and cracked pepper.

My afternoon snack was Quaker Honey Nut Oatmeal Squares (yum!) and cocoa-dusted almonds.

Dinner was leftover summer veggie pizza with a homemade whole wheat crust and an arugula salad with dried cranberries, goat cheese, almonds, and dressed with balsamic vinegar and agave nectar.

Dessert was plain Greek yogurt, dark chocolate pudding mousse, and more Quaker Honey Nut Oatmeal Squares.

Note: this post represents what happened in my world on Monday, July 2. 

weekend review: i will eat pizza until it's perfect

Figure 1. In preparation: homemade whole wheat pizza dough. I'll spare you the details (for now), but I recently discovered that I have a soy sensitivity. This means if I want pizza, which I totally do, I have to learn to make my own dough. 

Figure 2. Saturday night's dinner: homemade summer veggie pizza (onions, red bell peppers, corn, asparagus, mozzarella cheese, and basil on a homemade whole wheat crust brushed with garlic olive oil) and a lemony arugula salad.

Figure 3. A pizza close up. Making my own crust needs a bit of work, I rolled this out too thin and ended up burning the edges a touch. Practice makes perfect (and more pizza to eat). I'll keep trying (and eating).

Figure 4. Sunday night's dinner: spinach and cheese quinoa casserole and eggplant calamari. Even though this picture makes it look like I was eating prison slop (sorry), this dinner was delicious. This quinoa casserole is very similar to the quinoa mac & cheese I recently made, except twice as delicious. And, eggplant calamari sounds strange - but it was to.die.for.

my less serious day: calcium edition

Osteoporosis runs in my family and my small frame puts me at high risk of the disease. Today, I tracked my calcium intake. Percentages of the recommended dietary allowance (1,000 mg/day for men & women 19-50 years of age) of calcium for each food is indicated in parentheses below. Today, I consumed 128% of my daily calcium recommended dietary allowance. No worries though, anything between 100% - 250% can be safely consumed.

Bones of steal, baby.

Wearing.

Jeans: GAP; blouse: Banana outlet; necklace: LOFT; flatforms <3: Blowfish.

Doing.

This morning was my day off of running and I hit the stationary bike for a 35-minute ramp interval ride followed by a 15-minute walk with the pup. I also took L on a 10-minute walk on my lunch break. The day concluded with a 60-minute Body Pump class followed by one more 15-minute walk.

Eating.

Pre-workout I had 1/2 banana (0.25%), 1/2 mug of black coffee, and 1 pint of water. For breakfast I had this bowl (x2) of Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice cereal (0%) mixed with Post Great Grains Raisins, Dates, & Pecans (0%) and Post shredded wheat (0.5%), 1/2 sliced banana (0.25%), and almond milk (90%; this is 2 cups worth of Silk Original Almond milk, conservatively - i like it milky). Breakfast calcium total: 91%.

Note: If not for drinking this almond milk and this quantity, I would have not made 100%. This brand of almond milk has 50% more calcium than dairy milk. Consuming my cereal with 2 cups of dairy milk would have put my daily total at about 83%. And because I can't consume soy products, almond milk is the choice for me!

Lunch was a romaine lettuce (0%) salad topped with tomatoes (1%), carrot (1%), 1/2 cup 2% cottage cheese (8%), 2 hard-boiled eggs (5%), red wine vinegar, and Sriracha. Lunch calcium total: 15%.
 

My afternoon snack was a Pink Lady apple (1%) and almonds (5%). Snack calcium total: 6%.

Dinner was a baked sweet potato (4%) sprinkled with cinnamon, roasted eggplant (1%), baked chicken topped with Italian herbs (1%), and feta cheese (9%). Dinner calcium total: 15%.

Dessert was dark chocolate pudding mousse (Jell-o brand) (0%), peanut butter (0.5%) and Post shredded wheat (0.5%). The shredded wheat was dipped in pudding/peanut butter goodness, clearly. Dessert calcium total: 1%.

Note: this post represents what happened in my world on Wednesday, June 27. 

Previous special edition my less serious day posts:

• Protein edition
• Fiber edition

what i ate wednesday: issue 40

 Figure 1. Breakfast: a bowl (x2) of Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice cereal mixed with Kellogg's All-Bran, 1/2 sliced banana, and almond milk.

Figure 2. Lunch: a spinach salad with tomato, 1/2 avocado, cashews, balsamic vinegar, and a drizzle of agave nectar.

Figure 3. Afternoon snack: a Pink Lady apple, Post shredded wheat, and cocoa-roast almonds.

 Figure 4. Snack so I don't die while cooking dinner: Bugs Bunny style carrot.

Figure 5. Dinner: Annie's mac and cheese, two hard-boiled eggs, and roasted asparagus with garlic and fresh lemon juice. And I repeat, hard-boiled eggs and mac and cheese is a fantastic combination.

Figure 6. Dessert: a Pink Lady apple with chocolate Greek yogurt dip (1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt + 2 T cocoa powder + 1 t vanilla extract + chopped dark chocolate).

And that concludes another What I Ate Wednesday (featuring what I ate Tuesday, June 26).

the 20-minutes method: results

I know you guys were starting to doubt my ability to eat slowly at all. Don't feel bad - I don't blame you, as most test methods in this experiment have been unsuccessful. Just when I was starting to lose all hope, my final method in the eating slowly experiment, the 20-minutes method came along and slowed me down.

Results. 

Well, what can I say? I'm a scientist and I like numbers. I immediately was drawn to the exactness of this method. Time 20 minutes, eat slowly enough. I think I knew from the beginning that I could do this method and do it well. 

Despite the fact that timing your meals in front of others can be a slightly awkward thing to do, this method made me completely aware of my eating pace and was...successful. For the first couple of weeks I literally started my stop watch and the beginning of every meal and continuously checked my pace as I ate. The goal was usually to be about halfway through my meal at the 10-minute mark. Many meals lasted slightly less than 20 minutes and some meals lasted longer, but overall this method completely re-vamped my eating pace. Realizing that I can't carry around a stop watch forever, I switched to checking the wall clock at the beginning of each meal and gauged my eating that way.

If I finished my meal too early, which was inevitable for some smaller meals or certain meal types, I still made myself sit with my empty plate until my timer went off before heading back to the kitchen for considering seconds. Sometimes this pause revealed to me that I was still hungry and I was able to gauge and satisfy this need without acting like a ravaging kitchen-invading beast. And sometimes this revealed that I was completely satisfied. Both realizations are life changing.

This method, I think, could be my eating slowly saving grace.

 
Have you tried timing your meals? Comment on this post and/or e-mail me (mylessseriouslife@gmail.com) with your thoughts on the subject. This wraps up the last method in this experiment! Look for one final experiment 'discussion and conclusions' post in the coming weeks!

weekend review: he can cook

You may remember that my boyfriend recently left for a summer-long internship 6 hours away. This weekend I went to visit him and was told to sit down and peruse Pinterest and Twitter while he prepared a delicious and healthy home-cooked meal for the two of us. I did not argue with this arrangement.

And...he did the dishes.

Figure 1. In preparation: local farmers market pork chops topped with garlic and fresh rosemary.

Figure 2 (sorry for the dark photo, it was 9:30 by the time we ate). Saturday night's dinner courtesy of the boy: pork chops with a garlic and rosemary rub and a balsamic reduction, cream-cheese polenta, and roasted zucchini, summer squash, and eggplant.