Hello, hello there!
Apologies in advance if this post ends up making little-to-no sense… After getting all of maybe three collective hours of sleep last night, my brain is finding it somewhat difficult to form coherent sentences and make sense of simple streams of thought. It was just one of those nights…
Oh, and if I end up accidentally falling asleep and this post ends with something like ffffffffGHHHAABbahijegjafgkjagbkjk, then… well… I apologize for that too, and I guess in that case we’ll talk more tomorrow. Until that happens, though, I promised you a WIAW diet update so let’s get crackin’!
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One of the biggest dietary changes that I’ve had to make over the past little while comes in right at breakfast. You guys remember how much I used to love my oats, right?…
… well I still love my oats, and looking at pictures like that is incredibly painful because I can no longer eat them. Yes. Sad but true. These days, breakfast looks a little bit more like this…
Greek yogurt – fruit (banana/blueberries/peach) – Puffins – Kashi Cinnamon Harvest – almond butter.
The reason? Well, I started to notice that every day, shortly after eating breakfast, my heart would start to race, my thoughts would get foggy, and I’d start feeling increasingly nervous/irritable/lightheaded. At first I thought that I might just be having too much sugar and not enough protein first thing in the morning, so I nixed the pudding, added things like cottage cheese, yogurt, or eggs, and hoped for the best.
Nothing changed. Wellllll, drat. Okay then.
It wasn’t until I went camping for a week and wasn’t able to make oatmeal for breakfast that I realized that my symptoms disappeared as well. Iiiiiiinteresting. It must not have sunk in right away, though, because I went back to my favorite breakfast upon coming home and… you guessed it… my symptoms came right back as well.
This was a little more than 4 months ago, and I’ve tried eating oats again on a handful of occasions since then, always with the same results. I asked my doctor about it, and he suggested that I may have developed an intolerance to oatmeal somewhere along the way, perhaps from simply eating too much of it. He told me to stop eating oats for a while to give my system a break, and then re-introduce them in small quantities and see what happens.
Well, sad.freaking.face.
While I can’t say that I’m necessarily pleased by the way things turned out, I can say that it’s nice not to feel like I’m having a panic attack after breakfast anymore – I honestly thought I was losing my mind or going to have a heart attack. Oh, and spending 5 minutes on breakfast as opposed to 30 is pretty darn nice as well.
But still…
… ohhh how I lust…
Moving on! Now that we’ve spent far too much time talking about breakfast, let’s move on to lunch/dinner.
Toast with cream cheese – baby carrots – salad – grilled chicken.
The biggest difference here? Meat.
If you remember (which you probably don’t because it’s been over a year), I mentioned that I was considering giving up my vegetarian diet and going back to eating meat… and not long after, I did just that…
The bird that popped my vegetarian cherry… Thanksgiving turkey.
I’ll admit that the first time I tried meat again, I thought I was going to gag. It was 100% in my head though, and after getting over the mental barriers that I put up myself, I began to recognize that my body was seriously craving meat. These days, meat makes an appearance in my diet on a daily basis, and I can’t deny that I feel a lot better as a result – all those feelings of unsatisfied-snackiness have decreased significantly, and I find myself with a lot more energy than I had before. That, and saying goodbye to my heavy reliance on beans, lentils, tofu, and protein powders has done wonders for my stomach and digestion.
Just sayin’.
Turkey Quesadilla
I think the biggest change in my approach to food, however, would have to be that I just don’t care about it as much anymore. I spent SO much time and energy analyzing every minuscule detail of my diet so that I could figure out the “perfect” one for me, and it got me absolutely nowhere – each time I thought I had it down, something would change and I was back at square one. I’m not a professional athlete, fitness competitor, or training for some big race – I’m just a regular girl who likes food and wants to be healthy, sure, but not if that means sacrificing my happiness, freedom, and sanity for it. And while we’re on the topic of sanity, this is extremely beneficial in maintaining it…
Ice cream, meet spoon. Spoon, meet mouth.
I remember that it used to drive me absolutely crazy when I would be obsessing over macros, trying to “optimally” balance a meal, and someone would say to me: “Amanda, just eat.” My immediate reaction was always: “What!?! How can you say that?! It’s not that simple! If I don’t get X in, then Y might happen!” But honestly, it really is that simple. Just eat. Just listen to what your body wants, and eat. Granted, it’s not always that easy at the beginning, especially if you’ve been snuffing out your body’s cravings for a good amount of time, but practice makes perfect.
Hungry for a meal at an unplanned time? Eat it.
Really craving a donut? Eat it.
Because you know what? There are no concrete reasons that you can’t, other than the unfounded restrictions that you create in your own mind. I used to think that if I deviated from my plan, or gave in to my “naughty” cravings, all hell would break loose and I would abandon all of my healthy habits and go on a wild, junk-food-eating rampage.
Never happened.
There are time where I eat less healthy, and times where I eat healthier. There are times where I eat less in general, and times where I eat more. It all balances out in the end. I’m tired of following plans, applying labels, and trying to meet quotas. Eating really is simple – even my 14 month old niece can do it like a champ.
And now, if you’ll excuse me…. ffffffffGHHHAABbahijegjafgkjagbkjk (aka: nap time)
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Do you follow a plan when it comes to eating? Or just wing it?
Do you allow yourself to eat what you truly crave? Or try to deny it and eat what you think you should instead?
I love your approach to healthy eating and food 🙂 Really inspiring. I’ve never heard of that happening before (the intolerance!) but, I will surely try to diversify my diet. I am definitely an oats, cinnamon, almond milk and a banana type of gal.
The same thing happened to me with oats! Such a bummer.
Thanks for your excellent post!http://www.onlyfreerun.com/nike-free-run-3-c-1.html
Well that freaking sucks about the oatmeal! I always remember lusting over your bowls with their delicicous combos of textures and flavors (remember hummus and jam?). I actually bought some pudding mix a while ago to try with my oats…then I forgot about it…it’s probably expired, laying in the back of the cupboard somewhere! It’s so weird what changes our bodies can go through. For years and years I never had a problem with any food allergies…then the moment I REDISCOVER my love of kiwi, I find out I’m allergic…like bad allergic…throat scratchy feeling tight kind of allergic! Not good! I miss it so much…mostly because I KNOW I can’t have it, but still! *pout*
I LOVE that Thanksgiving was the day you welcomed meat into your diet again! What a day to start! I could NEVER give up the ONLY time of year that I ever have turkey! And I always try to make the most out of it in the days afterward…love me a good turkey soup…or sandwich…or quesadilla…um, I think you know where I’m going with this! 😉
Since I started counting calories a few months ago, I do follow some sort of “plan” I guess you could say…but I don’t ever really feel like it’s something strict or forced…I naturally lean toward fruits, veggies, and whole grains, but I think the BIGGEST thing for me is portion control. Once I started tracking, I realized that my “Heather serving” was almost always double what I thought it was…and let’s face it…there is no standard “serving size” for nut butter…not for a foodie! I do “indulge” when I feel like it…to a certain degree. Sometimes I think it’s just a random fluke of a craving…like when I see Pumpkin Pie flavored Pop-Tarts at the store…and sometimes it’s something that I actually think is WORTH the splurge…like cake and ice cream for my dad’s birthday this weekend (omg, the icing was THE BEST EVER!) Like you said, it’s all about balance. And besides, if you deny yourself and deny yourself, you WILL eventually end up bingeing on junk…been there done that…not pretty!
Okay, the “no more oatmeal” thing sucks — but if you have a Whole Foods or other specialty grocery store around you, be on the look out for Kamut Flakes:
http://www.edenfoods.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=113065
they ROCK. I think I might actually like them better than oatmeal. They’re “nuttier” and hearty!
On another note, have I mentioned how thrilled I am to have you back? I’m still in “uptight anal retentive” mode when it comes to monitoring food intake — which is why I’m so grateful to have YOU as a positive influence and reinforcement of what life is all about. Love you so much for that!
Promise not to leave me again <3
I absolutely love this. I can’t tell you how much I relate to EVERYTHING that you addressed in this post. I’ve gone through similar changes over the past few months and I can honestly say I’ve never felt better. I used to analyze and over-analyze every single morsel of food that went into my body…Was it healthy? Too many carbs? Too much fat? High sodium? Etc. And people would get so irritated. My life literally revolved around food and exercise- I thought I was doing everything ‘right’.
But, I’ve finally learned that we should eat to live, not live to eat. Food should be enjoyable and we shouldn’t ever let it become a stressful thing. It’s all about balance- some days I crave fruits and veggies like mad and some days I just want a bagel and a bowl of cereal. Our bodies are smart and, if we listen, they’ll tell us exactly what they need.
SO proud of you. <3
what great food-related revelations. meat is a beautiful thing. i was wondering if you had re-introduced it into your diet….
and an oatmeal intolerance must have been really hard to deal with. my personality is like yours – i eat similar things over and over and over again. changing it up can be hard to do – but feeling better is so.worth.it.
“intolerance to oatmeal” I didn’t knew that something like this even exists! poor you. Now I might develop a phobia that something similar might happen to me… have to make a doctors appointment soon to check food allergies, since the last half year I had some struggles with bloating, digestion and inflammation levels in my blood – so far that I went to the hospital with strong suspicion of appendicitis and they nearly took it out – but still nobody has a clue what the actual problem is. I thought gluten intolerance might be the worst case (especially since I eat a mostly vegan diet) but oatmeal intolerance? … gulp…
On another note, I think it is great how you managed to work out your food and exercise anxieties! I mean, eating meat is probably not for everyone – since a lot of people abstain from it not just for health reasons – but to not think about every bite and loosen up a bit would help a lot of us around here in the healthy blog sphere. Happy what this year of blogging break did for you and you make a great inspiration!
Hi Amanda!
First off, so happy that you’re back! But I’m very sad that you’ve had to give up your beloved oats. Have you thought of trying some other hot cereal – maybe something made with quinoa or rice?
I have a really bad habit of over-analyzing everything, my food choices included, but I’m working on it. You’re right – eating should be simple, and the world won’t end if I break a “rule”. The rules are meant to be broken, right? 😉
Rules are made to be broken, for sure. And the process tastes pretty darn good too 😉 So far I’ve only tried a quinoa type hot cereal, but I didn’t enjoy it very much… nothing can really take the place of oats 🙁
ahh so sad to hear about the oats! I actually got sick of oatmeal after this winter 😛
but if you wanted a warm porridge-like breakfast, you could always try quinoa!
Gah, sorry to hear about the oat sensitivity. It does make sense though– a couple years ago I became SO addicted to egg white omelettes with anywhere from 7-8 egg whites on a DAILY basis, that I developed an intolerance to them! I was forced into taking a year-long egg white break, but now whole eggs are happily back in my life (and in my belly 😀 )
And yey for the meat! I recently started introducing red meat back into my life after TWELVE years of not doing so! I’m with ya– I feel so satisfied now! What were we thinking!?!
i’m glad to hear that taking some time off made your intolerances go away! That means there’s hope for me and my beloved oats too 😀
i’m absolutely lovin’ the way you’re thinking about food! refreshing!!
i’m trying to cure my over-active sweet tooth, so i’m having to deny a lot of foods right now:( it’s not really fun, but i know it’s necessary. however, i definitely don’t deny myself EVERYTHING. i have splurges every now and then:)
Twins, I had 3 hours sleep last night too! I have not been sleeping well at all lately, I’m thinking lack of calories? Hopefully its just that, since I’ve decided to increase them:)
Oh sadness about the oats! I’ve heard of people developing an allergic reaction to them after eating them a lot. I do know that the oat allergy usually clears itself up after a while though! So hopefully you can reintroduce those lovely things soon. Does oat bran make you feel like that too?
I’m glad that reintroducing meat was a good experience for you! I felt the same way when I added meat back into my diet as well. Some people just do better with meat and some don’t.
I enjoyed reading what you said at the end, because I’ve been trying to take a different approach in my eating style now. Instead of so much focus on freaking eating clean 110% of the time with no freedom, its time I change that rigidness I have in my eats. What fun is that to turn down every single treat?
Do you know how happy I was when I saw a comment from you today? Like major extreme happiness! He he. I missed you and I am so glad you are back to blogging! YAY!
I totally confess to the notion is trying to create completely balanced meals. I do it a lot and know that I could probably tone it down a bit. There are more important things to spend my time on! I couldn’t agree more with you. 🙂
I usually have some sort of a M-F plan, but I don’t necessarily stick to it. Weekends are always fair game. 🙂
That totally stinks about the oats. I mean, I’m glad you listened to yourself and feel better… but still… stinks.
LOVE this. LOVE you!!
I adore you for being able to make all these decisions, especially the breakfast one!! Giving up oats for me would be heartbreaking, but you’ve really done well with it it seems. And eating what you crave? You KNOW I’m all about that 🙂 Life is too short to only focus on labels and nutrients. Sometimes I really think we need to just eat because we want to, not because we know it’ll be good for us.
Hell. Yes. I could not agree with you more on this. I’m just kind of getting to this point, although I don’t look at the past couple of years of dietary control as a negative thing as I actually believe its been a very important learning experience for me – and will help me when I’m working with clients in my health coaching practice in the future. But just letting myself eat without labels or guilt or worry is what I’m now aiming for. I think I might end up trying meat again because I feel that I have to try it free from the mental stuff I’ve associated with it. Going to be an interesting journey!
That was actually one of the reasons I initially ate it as well! I wanted to know if I avoided meat because I legitimately didn’t crave it, or if it was some lingering disordered thought.
I have to admit that when I read that you can’t eat oats anymore, my first thought was that you’d be another one with invented gluten intolerance or paleo … don’t get me wrong, I’d never think of you as a liar, but I have noticed that a lot of HLBs who obviously struggle with disordered eating (perhaps unknowingly) invent some kind of intolerance that prevents them from eating foods from a certain food group. Your replacement looks pretty delicious, though! However, I hope you’ll be able to reintroduce oatmeal to your diet soon. 🙂
I’m glad to hear that you’ve made such a progress with being at peace with food. Wouldn’t you say that this has something to do as well with being out of the ”healthy living” blogging world for almost a year? Because reading about food (often HLBs that are disorders in disguise), taking pics of food daily and writing about food is bound to make you obsessive about food. So Amanda, as glad as I am to see you blogging again (you were and to this day still are one of my favourite bloggers), please be careful not to fall back into this trap!
Thank you for your comment, Jessy – you raise a lot of good points! I’ve noticed Paleo becoming more popular over the past little while as well, and it’s definitely not something I’m interested in dabbling with. I love my grains and dairy far too much, and although I do eat and enjoy meat, I can’t imagine eating it in the kind of quantities that it would take to make up for cutting out carbs… that sort of thing is not for me.
As for progressing as a result of leaving the blogging world, the truth is that I never really left completely. I still kept up with a lot of the blogs in my Reader, but I noticed that I stopped caring about things like what other bloggers were eating, or what kind of workouts they were doing, and just read to stay updated on what was going on in their lives in general. I was a little bit concerned as well that coming back to blogging might bring back some of my old demons, which is why it took me so long to come back… too much thinking lol. I’ll be changing the content of Spoons slightly, though, and I plan to focus a lot less on food and fitness, and more on just life in general.
Thanks again for your caring comment 🙂
I’m glad to hear that, Amanda, I look forward to getting a glimpse into your life 🙂
PS: Love that you have comment notifications!
Oh my gosh, I feel the SAME way sometimes…like oh yeah, SURE you have a gluten-intolerance (not you, Amanda)! In fact, just the other day, I was talking with a friend about this and I got a little perturbed. She had been worried about her husband developing problems with gluten so they worked at eliminating it from his diet for a while before bringing it back. He’s now eating gluten-containing foods again without any issues, but she mentioned that she’s STILL considering eliminating it for good! It’s like the whole Atkin’s diet craze…when did people get it in their heads that carbs/grains are so bad for you!? They contain vital nutrients people! No, the “cavemen” didn’t eat it but look at how long the average life expectancy was! And I mean that taking T-Rex and other man-eating animals OUT of the picture! lol
ahh hopefully you can work back up to eating oatmeal in the future, but for now, the greek yogurt bowl looks preeetty delish 🙂
i like your new approach to food. it took me a while…but i finally realized that eating what i crave is the best plan. if i don’t feel like eating veggies or meat i don’t eat them. i know i’ll make up for it within the next few meals when i finally do end up craving veggies and/or protein. my plan is to just eat 😛
Wow,I am so glad you are finally able to eat what you want,when you want,how (? 😛 ) you want,Amanda! That’s amazing and I’m sure it feels so much better than relying on a plan or anything like that…
I am working on my attitude towards food a lot lately; after years of depriving myself from anything carb-y or sugar-y,I am slowly incorporating all my “fear foods” back into my diet. At first,it was pretty scary and when I sometimes felt unable to stop myself after only one piece of chocolate or god-knows-what,I honestly wished I had never ever started the attempt to do grant myself sweets again and stuff,but I must say it has become much better by now.
Even though I clearly don’t eat as “freely” as I would like to,I feel so much happier this way. Life is simply more fun if you eat instead of only look at what seems appealing to you.
P.S. Sorry about your oat-intolerance. But seriously,cereal is better anyways. At least in my book.
Noooo girl, don’t say you wish you never started to let yourself have sweets! The only reason you feel like you’re unable to stop is because your body has been deprived of that kind of food for so long, and wants it so badly, that it sees an opportunity and basically screams “MINE MINE MINE! WANT WANT WANT!” I went through exactly the same thing, and I can promise you that over time that feeling will go away and it’ll feel completely normal again. Just keep eating those kinds of foods on a regular basis until your body and mind don’t have to worry that they’ll lose them again.
I love this. <3 Your approach to eating is a beautiful breath of fresh air, and it's so apparent that you truly mean what you say–that you practice what you preach, and that you live a life of happy moderation! 🙂 You're a huge inspiration to me, especially as I begin to back away from the bodybuilding meal plan I began last spring. It has no doubt helped me gain muscle mass, and I plan to continue to use the basic principals I learned following it, however I realized that it was far too restrictive. The physical results were wonderful; the emotional results not so much. I'm giving myself permission again to eat ice cream before bed if I really want it; to skip my post-workout whey shake if I'm feeling like chicken tacos; to enjoying peanut butter for breakfast. You sum up the philosophy I'm re-embracing perfectly in this line: "I’m just a regular girl who likes food and wants to be healthy, sure, but not if that means sacrificing my happiness, freedom, and sanity for it.." <—Amen. 🙂 <3
I'm so sorry about the oats! I'm hoping that your body will eventually go off strike, and allow you to enjoy them again. But if not, there are so many other tasty options out there! Have you tried "noatmeal?" I've seen it on a number of blogs lately, but haven't given it a go myself. It's basically a combination of egg whites, flax, nuts and banana. Definitely not steel-cut, but *maybe* just as delicious, in a very different way? 😉
xoxo <3
You rebel, you 😉 (loved your most recent post, btw)… It just gets tiring, doesn’t it? Continually having to tell ourselves no? I remember when I was little and wanted a cookie, I’d be soooo upset if my mom told me I couldn’t have one, and then it was like I was doing the same thing to myself when I got older? Uhm. No thank you? Maybe for some people the trade off is worth it, but for me it definitely wasn’t anymore. Emotional health is just as important as physical health, and there’s no sense in sacrificing happiness for a slightly lower percentage of body fat.
Oh, and chicken tacos totally trump whey shakes 😉
Oh em gee, the nut butter love on this post is amazing <3
I love your approach to food! I am definitely striving for more balance after way too much deprivation. I am a vegan, and while it seems like it could be restrictive, I’ve really been working on trying new vegan foods that used to be scary to me, like coconut, and seeing great results. Like you said, our bodies are craving things for a reason and I know mine is craving healthy fats since I neglected them so long!
So glad you are back 🙂 But I had no idea you were struggling so much with food before, it seemed like you ate similar things, well oatmeal and meat have changed, but I didn’t know you had such anxiety about food and meals. It is great that you let go of that fear and negativity and are more free now!
Most of the struggles and anxiety I talk about plagued me the most during the worst days of my ED, which are [thankfully] a good deal behind me. It’s been a while since I’ve legitimately feared any kind of food, but there was always that pressure to eat a certain way, or follow a structured plan, you know? It just always felt like there was some sort of checklist that I had to fulfill everyday… This many fruits. This many veggies. This much protein. This many carbs. It was obsession more than anything else, I suppose. But freedom definitely feels a lot better 🙂
Love the way you eat! Such variety and such a healthy approach! Glad you’re back to blogging!
Congratulations on achieving freedom! Eating what you crave regardless of X and Y is great. I’ve been doing it for a while now and I feel much better than before. Of course, there are still foods I say no to just because of the calorie count on the label but donuts don’t have labels so… 😛 Our bodies should know better what they need and they usually tell us if we let them.
As always, I love your philosophy on just about everything – food, living, moderation ..
Just a question – having been a long time reader of yours, I know that you love your almond butter! Out of curiosity, is almond butter a different texture than peanut butter? I never had it before, and I’m consider buying some but it seems from your pictures that it’s a lot more runny than peanut butter .. am I right? Sometimes the thickness of peanut butter makes it hard to spread on toast and I would be a lot more motivated to try almond if it’s easier to spread!
Hi Angela! I remember you from back in the day 🙂 I’m probably not the best person to ask because I’m allergic to peanuts so I’ve never had peanut butter. In all honesty, though, I think it just depends on the brand or maybe even how well you mix it. When I open a new jar, it’s usually a lot more runny at the beginning (near the top) and then it thickens up as I get closer to the bottom… I guess I just kind of suck at stirring lol. I think in general AB tends to be a little less thick than PB, but again, that’s just a guess.
Awww, no more oatmeal 🙁
At least you’re going to town with the nut butter :)!
Good heavens that bird is calling my name! Man, this post reminds me just how much I missed your WIAW posts– all the pictures make me have massive foodgasms hahaha 😉 Can I come be a kitchen troll and just eat all your leftovers??
I think it is SO great you’re doing what’s best for YOU diet wise. That’s ultimately what matters and the key to happiness in my opinion 🙂 Rock on chica!
Great post! Eating meat has done (great) wonders on my digestion as well. I know many people thrive on vegetarian diets but I’ve tried it and my body wasn’t a fan. It’s all about what works best for you, and it looks like you figured it all out as well 🙂
Never did I ever expect a blog written by you, the girly who bought me eggy bananafied steel cutters, to be oatless. Anyhoo, I’m sorry to hear that you were having stomach woes from oats, but glad you found the culprit & things are getting sorted. But if you tell me you don’t eat almond butter or bananas anymore, I’m going to HAVE to ask- what have you done with the real Amanda:p?
Carefree ‘tude to food FTW! No eating plan followed followed around here thankyouverymuch:).
Xxx
Hehe! Well, the entire blog isn’t oatless – the steelies are still in the archives! But from here on out it looks like it’s going to be 🙁 And just for your own peace of mind, I’ll say that yes, I still eat almond butter and bananas every.single.day thankyouverymuch 😉 That’s something that definitely hasn’t changed.
I absolutely love your attitude towards food! Over the past year my diet has done a complete 360 degree change – I’m no longer a vegetarian and have a much better relationship with food in general. This past year was the first time I had eaten chicken or turkey in over 12 years! Life is way too short to deprive yourself of what you truly want! And you are completely right – eating is simple! Oh and congrats on your niece! You must be loving being an aunt to her!
It’s sort of funny (in a sad way), but I had those symptoms as well when I ate oatmeal every single morning. I felt breathless, like my heart was skipping a beat or beating too fast. It was uncomfortable and kind of scary. After nixing oatmeal every day (I got a little tired of it – I think the easy portion control was my main reason for eating it all the time AND because it was too dang hot to stand over a steaming pot of oats while getting ready for school) and eating things like cereal and English muffins, I stopped getting the weird heart action!
Glad you’re back!
Amanda, I just wanted to say that I’m really happy you’re back. I was worried about you! I don’t read many blogs these days because I found they were exacerbating my eating disorder, but I will still faithfully read yours. It sucks that you can’t eat oatmeal anymore but at least you were able to replace it with something that looks equally delicious. 🙂
Thank you, Emma. That means a lot 🙂
I’m sorry you had to give up some of your favourite foods but on the other hand very happy you found the right diet for yourself. Not the “perfect” for everyone seeing as that doesn’t exist but one that leaves YOU feeling satisfied and energized. Seeing as – while I do have “too much” sugar and other “unhealthy” stuff every day – I have yet to make peace with food and simply enjoy life, I’ll take you as an idol here. I want to get better, not feel the need to follow a certain plan or deny myself any foods. Life’s too short to do so, huh?!
While I enjoy reading blogs I notice they make me feel more self-conscious about myself, my way of eating, working out and living life in general. Therefore, I try to look at the “normal” people around me and their approach at life in general. It’s definitely helpful at times. Aaah, sorry for my unneccessarily long rant …
Don’t apologize for a well-written comment! Making peace with food is slow and difficult process, but the freedom it brings is absolutely intoxicating. I wouldn’t say I’m 100% there yet, so don’t look to me as a perfect example, but I’m working on it and making pretty decent progress, so you’re welcome to join me along the way 🙂 The blog world can be a really wonderful place, but there are a lot of unhealthy thoughts/habits being promoted as well, which is why it helps to take a step back and observe others being relaxed around food.
I have to agree with Sunne, it’s an interesting process, learning what exercise, food, etc. is right for each person. Reading all these blogs gives me excellent ideas of what to eat, but then I always feel that I fall right below everyone’s will power, etc. It really does become a self-conscious thing and what we have or haven’t accomplished. That’s why I like the humorous ones like yours, with the little side stories in between
It was great to read about what you have been eating recently! That is too bad that oats make you feel off, but good that you noticed so that you don’t have to feel so panicky after breakfast. I too have also started eating meat again (even red meat) and am loving the variety it adds to my diet although it was difficult at first.
It is great to hear that you are more relaxed about what you eat and such. I do follow a plan when it comes to eating. Mostly because I hate getting stuck at work starving with no snacks so I find it easier if I know I have enough snack on hand. That said I do need to relax a bit more and listen to my cravings! 🙂