I think my body has gone into overdrive on wanting to get back to my regular eating habits after last week. I have encountered numerous cravings the past couple of days. Luckily, all of my cravings have come in the form of healthier choices in lieu of the incessant pizza and ice cream cravings of last week. How nice to have a place to share them with you for another What I Ate Wednesday post!

Yesterday morning I grabbed a pack of Love Grown granola to snack on before hitting the gym for a cardio session.

When I got to the gym, I hopped on the elliptical without any particular plan in mind. Then, after just a couple of minutes I decided to bang out an interval routine that came to mind right then. I don’t really know where it came from, but it worked me good.

Basically, I alternated between a higher speed and intensity interval and a recovery period. My recovery period remained one minute after every speed interval, but the speed interval increased by one minute each round until hitting 5 minutes. I went through the interval session twice, before cooling down for the final 5 minutes of this 50 minute routine. Loved it! I know you will too if you give it a shot!

After that, I came home with a strong craving. For oatmeal with strawberries, raisins, and peanut butter.

I crave this breakfast practically every day. I’m cool with it. I know it satisfies me and I would hate to vary it up “just because” and end up wishing I had my tried and true oatmeal with iced coffee instead. Sometimes I crave different things for breakfast – like PBJ French Toast – but it never fails that I return to this favorite.

My cravings went down a slightly different road than normal lately once lunch time rolled around. I knew I wanted two things – an egg sandwich and a smoothie.

Interesting combo, but it’s literally all I could think about for lunch. My egg sandwich featured one egg, a garlic herb laughing cow wedge, spinach, and tomato.

My smoothie included a frozen banana, a scoop of peanut butter, vanilla almond milk, some vanilla protein powder, and xanthan gum to get that milkshake quality I so adore.

Once snack time rolled around I, yet again, knew only one thing would make me happy. I must have had breakfast on the mind because I found myself craving the exact bowl of cereal Courtney had shared earlier in the week.

Funnily enough, her post was about how that bowl didn’t satisfy her cravings. I guess it felt shunted by her and hopped through the screen and planted itself as a craving in my belly. Thanks Court for sparking a cereal bowl craving that I could easily satisfy – Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal, Fiber One 80 Honey Squares, and a banana. 😉

My snack held me over for a bit of studying NASM materials before my sister showed up for dinner. We had taco night on the menu, but when dinner rolled around I wanted something a little different. I couldn’t completely overhaul the menu since others wanted their tacos, so instead, I took some inspiration from my blogger lunch and created a Mexican breakfast quesadilla.

I scrambled one egg and one egg white with a mix of black beans and corn. Then I mixed it all with salsa and lettuce to layer on a whole wheat tortilla. Topped with cheese and another tortilla to cook in the funky little quesadilla press I got as a gift forever ago.

It even has fun little designs on it. 🙂

It turned out great! Me gusto muchisimo! <—The former Spanish teacher in me is pained at the lack of accent marks in that sentence.

I wrapped up the night with some Phase 10 game playing action with the sis and her boyfriend. And an ice cream cookie sandwich.

‘Twas National Ice Cream Sandwich Day after all. And who am I to not celebrate such a momentous occasion??  😉

• What random food holiday would you create? I think every day is Strawberry Raisin PB Oatmeal Day here.
• What is the last random craving you had? I didn’t mention it above, but I had the strangest craving for gum yesterday. I don’t usually chew gum, either!

Another week. Another Wednesday. Another chance to share meal ideas, food inspiration, and delicious creations through a What I Ate Wednesday post. That was the plan at least.

INSTEAD…no notable food worth blogging crossed my lips yesterday.

Yesterday morning I told my “I Feel Fat” thoughts to be damned and move out of the way so I could get on with life. INSTEAD…I battled the migraine of the century and still felt “off” all day long. I didn’t practice negative self-talk like the day before, but I certainly didn’t have the positive, healthy day I hoped for either.

I had no appetite, but finally decided I needed to eat so had my standard bowl of oats at a late 10 am in hopes of feeling better.

Instead…those oats made a reappearance less than an hour later. In the shower. Ick.

I knew then I needed to take it easy and even set out to nap for a couple of hours when the kids laid down for their naps.

Instead…neither child thought naps sounded like a good idea yesterday. Of course!

In the afternoon, I had a Skype chat with Love Grown Foods planned.

Instead…I spent my afternoon curled up in a ball on the couch waiting for the migraine to subside, which it finally did around dinner time.

Last Friday night I had the genius idea to go ahead and meal plan out an entire month of dinners. I took our staple meals that we have at least every few weeks – such as enchiladas or stir-fry - and scattered them across four weeks. I penciled in an easy night each week with things like breakfast for dinner or sandwiches. I accounted for one “entertainment night” a week for date nights, dinners out for social gatherings, or grabbing a pizza. I then dubbed one night each week as a night to try a new recipe. I adored this plan because it meant the inevitable Friday night anguish of meal planning and grocery list making wouldn’t have to drive me so crazy anymore.

For this week’s plan, Tuesday night equaled Mama Pea’s noodle bowl because we have already dubbed it a “staple meal”. 

Instead…the last thing I wanted to do was cook. The last thing I wanted Peter to do was cook and leave me with bedtime duty. 

Yet once I had my appetite back, I wanted FOOD. I wanted food like 10 minutes ago after only eating a bowl of oatmeal that didn’t stick and a couple handfuls of Kashi cereal the entire day. I wanted comfort. Instead of my planned bowl of vegetables, healthy fats, and whole grains, I ended up with…

chicken salad sandwich and chips from Atlanta Bread Company

So much for the meal plan this week. So much for getting back to “feeling like myself” yesterday. So much for a What I Ate Wednesday post that shares meal ideas, food inspiration, and delicious creations. But life doesn’t always turn out so nicely. Instead…it may hand you lemons disinfectant for your shower.

• Ever suffered a migraine?
• Give me an “instead” moment you’ve had recently. 🙂