I’ve covered a lot of ground in the 7 months since this blog started, but one thing I kinda failed to talk about is the food I eat. There’s a few reasons behind this and yeah i’m gonna share them with you. Sit tight, this is a long one and enjoy a day in the life of my belly!

1) I am a creature of habit and eat very similar things each day. To me this seems boring and not blog worthy. But I’m coming to realize it’s one of the reasons I can keep my weight in check and might be helpful to some of you.

2) I’m not the biggest fan of reading a blog that only shows recipes and amazing looking food. It’s probably just a me thing, but when i see delicious food it makes me hungry and jealous all at once.

3) I don’t cook often enough. I used to joke that I would learn when I have kids because it takes up a lot of time and energy that I don’t have because of running.

9:00AM- Breakfast: If you haven’t heard, it’s the most important meal of the day. If you’re skipping breakfast you’re slowing your metabolism down, storing fat and are crazy because breakfast is delicious! (and it’s the only meal I can cook to perfection btw).

I start my mornings with 2 eggs (yolks included, they contain the majority of nutrients in the egg), spinach/kale/mushrooms or whatever vegetables can be thrown into eggs, a piece of whole grain toast, sometimes bacon or turkey bacon & coffee. I also chug a tall glass of water and take my vitamins.

Lunch: I run about an hour after breakfast (to digest) and once I get back to the apartment and shower it’s close to lunch time. I try and eat close to the time I leave for work because I generally have 4-7 hours without a long break for food. I try to keep lunch simple and grab leftovers, throw it on a salad, or have a quick bowl of cereal with a banana or a protein shake. (Also, I’m trying to find a better protein powder source because EAS is whey based and i’m beginning to realize i’m slightly lactose intolerant..any suggestions for an organic, dairy free, good tasting powder would be excellent!)

Afternoon Snack: Clif Bar, Luna Bar, PowerBar<—some sort of protein bar with at least 10g protein, a piece of fruit, or a type of nut and lots of water. If I find my energy waning it’s almost always due to dehydration. I’ve been really good about having water on me at all times.

I create my own trail mix with whatever nut and seeds are on sale that week. And i’ll throw in dried cranberries or dark chocolate chips for the salty sweet combo. It is much less expensive to create your own mixes. You get exactly what you want and you don’t have all the added sugar trail mixes are generally covered in!

Dinner:  I work until about 8PM and we eat late at night, because of that I try to create make healthy meals that include protein and a lot of vegetables… .

After Dinner Sweet Treat: If you guys follow the blog, you know I have a massive sweet tooth. I love chocolate and I keep dark chocolate in the house at all times. Sometimes it’s a couple cookies, sometimes it’s candy like Sour Patch Kids or craisins, and on occasion it’s ice cream or sorbet. Chocolate’s my thing and I need a little each day.

Alcohol: I save my ‘drinking days’ for Friday or Saturday and I’ll have 2-3 glasses of wine or beer. Any more and I’m sick the next day. I talk about beer a lot on the blog and I LOVE my draaanks, but in all honesty If i drank alcohol every weekend all weekend I couldn’t do what I do for a living or love what I do with running. I treat booze like I treat my long runs, once a week at an easy moderate pace 😉

Here are the rules I follow daily to keep my waistline a waistline, to not starve myself or feel deprived.

The 80/20 Rule. I eat 80% as healthy as possible & 20% of the day is a little less healthy. My 20% consists of sugar (real sugar) in my coffee, a few Starbucks a week and my nighttime snack.

Hydrate. I was NOT drinking enough water until recently and now I make a large effort to drink half my body weight in ounces each day, more if I’m running/lifting/sweating.

Volumetrics. For those of you who eat but are constantly battling hunger pangs. I read this article–> Eat More, Weight Less on Runner’s World a few years ago that changed my way of thinking/cooking/eating. Adding bulk to meals using vegetables and fruit without adding a ton of extra calories and fat can be the difference in losing additional weight, staying full and getting in your daily recommended servings of produce.

Eat Whole Foods. If you eat real foods: produce, meat, eggs, etc you won’t have much to worry about when it comes to calories/fat or weight gain. It’s the junk in between the aisles at the grocery store that are stuffed full of sugar, salt, preservatives, chemicals, unpronounceable words and nutrition-less foods.

I’m not going to preach about clean eating here because I obviously eat packaged stuff, but the majority of my day is not spent eating from a box. If you eat real, whole foods that are nutrient dense, it will help you will stay full longer and lose weight or maintain weight the healthy way. Here’s a glance in my shopping cart so you can see what’s in the fridge during the week.

One treat a day. Whatever you do, whatever meal plan, diet, low-carb, cave man, gluten-free, no sugar or dairy cows yada yada you follow, DO NOT DEPRIVE YOURSELF. Deprivation will set you up to binge on whatever just went “off limits.” Try to keep your treat small, in the 100-200 calorie range, and enjoy it! If you ate well all day, (80/20 rule!) a small treat will not ruin your hard work. Just don’t let the “small treat” turn into a pint of ice cream. Sometimes big calories come in small packages.

We’re having yet again, another snow day. What’s your go-to workout when you can’t get outside or to the gym? (And you SoCal’ers just stay out of this, i don’t want to hear about the rain or mud. haha.)