After giving birth to Makenzie, I discovered one of the best things ever. Food is not the enemy! In fact, my body told me EAT if you want to get in the shape you hope to achieve. And as I grew deeper in my faith and recognized my body as something of value, I began to see the importance of respecting it and fueling it adequately. I finally chose to listen to my body after years of following crazy food rules and ended up in the best shape of my life. I took that same approach post-Braedon and, wouldn’t you know, I made the same sort of progress and feel pretty dang good if I do say so myself. Eat well. Have energy. Live well. Get a healthy, strong, FIT body. Don’t mind if I do!

It always saddens me when I hear about diet plans with recommended calorie intakes of 1200 calories. I truly believe its possible for a healthy individual with no metabolic issues to lose weight eating more than that. I hope to display that you can certainly eat enough food to fuel your body well, feel satiated, and still make progress.

I certainly don’t post all of my eats on a daily basis, so for today’s What I Ate Wednesday post I wanted to give a rundown of ALL my typical daily meals and how they add up. I even broke out the Eat Smart Precision food scale I received at the Fitbloggin conference to get accurate counts for you all. I ate as I normally do, but simply measured the portions I typically use. The scale made measuring for the day easy and accurate since I could choose to measure in grams. Note: If you measure things, always use grams. You get more food. Reason enough for me!

Oh, flashbacks to competition prep days! It’s been a long time since I’ve measured things besides the occasional check on portion sizes or for recipe purposes. And it’s certainly been forever since I have measured things like raisins! Nevertheless, I wanted to get an accurate depiction, so here we are. Besides - calories beware. You don’t scare me!

Pre-Workout:

Banana = ~ 110 calories

Breakfast:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats cooked in water
• 4 large strawberries diced
• handful of raisins (ended up at 26 grams)
• big blob of peanut butter (ended up at 29 grams)
• splash of unsweetened vanilla almond breeze to reach the right consistency + almond milk in my iced coffee (~ 1/2 cup)
• sprinkle of brown sugar for sweetener (~ 1 tsp?)

Grand Total = 467 calories

Lunch:

• flat out wrap
• sliced deli ham – 4 oz
• 1 garlic herb laughing cow wedge
• mustard
• handful of spinach
• thick slice of tomato
• 2/3 of a mango
• 2 large carrots chopped into sticks
• 2 tablespoons Sabra Roasted Pine Nut hummus

Grand Total = 432 calories

Afternoon Snack:

• whole wheat English muffin
• spread of peanut butter on each slice (equaled 14 grams)
• spread of “just fruit” strawberry jam on each slice (equaled 12 grams)
• 6 oz container vanilla Chobani yogurt
• handful Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal (equaled 22 grams)

Grand Total = 448 calories

Dinner:

• 3/4 cup cooked whole wheat penne pasta
• chopped cherry tomatoes
• diced zucchini
• diced mushrooms
• chopped artichoke hearts
• chopped black olives
• 1 oz feta cheese
• 1.5 tbsp Ken’s Northern Italian dressing

Grand Total (estimate on this one because I got so sick of measuring): 450 calories

Dessert:

• Private Collection cookie ice-cream sandwich while finishing up The Bachelorette

Total = 240 calories

In total, I ate 2147 calories on a typical day of meals. I haven’t changed my eating habits from when I made progress on my Body After Baby journey. I usually eat a good deal more than this on weekends as I consumer more “treats” and have a hunger monster at work every Saturday after my long runs. Sure, every body is different. However, I know in light of certain diets, it can appear that we need to eat less less less. From my personal experience, I find the opposite. My body will only reach the places it has when I give it what it needs. And I want to show the value in eating enough. Enough is different for each body…but why not push the limits to get the most quality fuel you can to it? Eating is fun. Enough with the starvation!

• Do you ever track your food at all?
• Because I’m curious – your thoughts on The Bachelorette if you watched!

Somehow this post I pre-wrote and scheduled for this am popped up on my site last night for a little while. Sorry for the confusion if you’re in the handful who happened to find it!

Goood morning! How are you all? I’m doing well enough. I had a great spin class yesterday! It was the first time in what feels like for-ev-er that I managed to get in on a class from one of my two favorite instructors.

I have a very specific training style that I adore: loud, in your face, and pushing you to your max, while still somehow seeming approachable, friendly, and fun. Sophie and Sara at my gym both have it. The others - well, they’re different. Not bad by any means…just not as loud. Or more playful than pushing. Simply not my style.

I love the push I get from my favorite instructors. The certain motivational phrases they choose to use know just how to make me push past the burning sensation in my thighs on that long, steep climb. The energetic vibe pouring from them pulls me through the toughest of sprints. The sweat dripping off their bodies lets me know just how hard I can work. I like my fitness style hard-core and get-er-done.

My food on the other hand?? I like my food like I like my worship style – laidback and carefree. Especially on days when I have the kids from morning until bedtime.

Peter has been working hard after he gets home from work to take care of a few outdoor tasks on our house that need attention. This leaves me by myself with the kids from morning until bedtime a couple days a week…and I’m not exactly in the mood to cook full meals those days. I could make excuses and have ice-cream for dinner (because that sure did sound good last night), but I make a healthy dinner work. Good thing breakfast for dinner is such a winner around here!

I made a breakfast “hash” of sorts. I diced up three red potatoes into small chunks and cooked them in a small bit of oil with some salt, pepper, and onion until they were softened. I then added some spinach to the pan to wilt in with the potatoes. I topped off the hash with two over-medium eggs.

Gotta love the runny yolk! I think I love eggs more for dinner than breakfast. Quick. Easy. Satsifying. And cheap, too! Winner winner chicken egg dinner!

• Do you prefer a certain style of group fitness instructor? What?
• Eggs: yay or nay? When do you eat them most – breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
• Want more info on how I always have quick meal options available? Check out my guest post on Chelsey’s blog including a variety of quick meal tips!