So I guess a lot of people struggle when it comes to decision-making, but apparently not when those decisions involve chocolate – that was easily the winner in the chocolate vs. gummy bear debate, and while I’m definitely a big fan, I have to admit that I love chocolate and gummy candies pretty equally… what I reach for just depends on my mood. I will say that chocolate has definitely been seeing a lot more action lately, but I mostly blame that on Lucie and the amazing package full of Swiss chocolates that she sent me. I dug into a bar of truffle-filled dark chocolate the other night and basically lost the ability to form coherent sentences for a while…
Holy. My. God. Oh.
Translation: it was delicious.
And speaking of delicious, it’s that time of the week again where we devote the day to bragging about all the delicious things we’ve been eating. Yes, It’s WIAW! Except this isn’t so much what I ate on Wednesday as it is what.I’ve.been.eating.lately. Pft. Details.
As per usual, the day starts with breakfast, and yesterday’s was definitely a gooder…
Eggy bananafied steel cut oats topped with coconut butter.
I’ve still been eating oats on occasion (thankfully without any crazy reactions), but lately I’ve found myself craving simple bowls as opposed to the crazy combos that I used to come up with. They remind me of the breakfasts that my mom would make me when I was little – plain oats with milk and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Simple yet oh so satisfying. I actually have no idea when I started making my eats so elaborate and complicated, but I’m thinking that the blog world definitely had something to do with that phenomenon.
Have you ever noticed how rare it is to see a blogger eat a simple bowl of cereal with milk? It’s always: three different cereals, two different nut butters, three kinds of fruit, powders, chia seeds, superfoods – an entire production. And when it’s not, it’s always accompanied by an apology for being “boring.” Clearly I’m guilty of doing that myself to a certain degree, but I can’t help but wonder what happened to the days where I’d pour myself a bowl of Cheerios and call it breakfast without trying to get all fancy pants on it.
I think part of it has to do with an underlying expectation to be creative and interesting. People aren’t inspired by a boring bowl of cereal – they want to see things they’ve never thought of before! The pressure is on! That’s why I show you guys lunches like this…
Brown rice with an egg and parmesan cheese cooked in, then topped with marinara sauce and avocado.
… when, more often than not (we’re talking 5 days out of 7 here) I’m scarfing down a plain old turkey and cheese sandwich or wrap that isn’t really worth writing home about. We’ve got your bread, cheese, turkey… pretty basic stuff. It tastes good, but it’s not exactly life-altering or revolutionary as far as food goes. And in addition to that pressure to be creative, I also think that part of the complicated meal phenomenon comes down to simply wanting to avoid criticism.
I can’t even tell you guys how many times I’ve eaten a snack that was just an apple or just a small bowl of fruit and not wanted to show it because I knew someone would inevitably scream out “Disordered!!! Restricting!!!” or leave a more ‘subtle’ comment like: “You should try adding some nut butter to that“… or… “I can’t believe that satisfied you. I would be starving!”
Frozen mangoes – Fresh blueberries.
Well, sometimes it doesn’t satisfy me, which is when I snack on something a little more substantial…
Homemade cinnamon bun.
Chocolate Lifebar from Lucie. Very similar to a Larabar.
Plain Greek yogurt with a Weetabix and homemade applesauce.
But other times? Believe it or not, there are times where I really don’t feel all that hungry, and sitting down with a big bowl of applesauce suits me just fine…
No planned portions, no complicated add-ins, just me, a spoon, the entire batch of applesauce, and eating until I’ve had my fill. No, it’s not a perfectly-balanced snack with carbs, proteins, and fats, but it leaves me feeling perfectly satisfied all the same. Go figure. That doesn’t mean that all of my meals are insubstantial, boring, and solely made up of carbs and sugar…
Dinner at home: brown rice with peaches, slow-cooker ribs, and salad with goat cheese.
… but some of them definitely are. That’s life though, isn’t it? Going with the flow and trusting that everything will balance out in the end? And it does. I’ve become so lax with my meals and snacks because I’ve found that even without my constant hyper-vigilance, my body seems to manage just fine; and it’s kind of nice to have all that extra time to think about other, funner things like… well… that’s a secret that I’ll be sharing tomorrow 😉
Happy Wednesday, blog buddies!
. – . – . – .
Bloggers: do you ever feel pressured to eat a certain way or be creative with your meals?
Does it bother you when people make comments about your meals?
Do you make sure your meals are always balanced?
Strange – I always perceived the elaborate meals on blogs very differently. I thought that they stemmed from a fear of hunger and consequent overeating. I perceived that no-one has a simple bowl of cereal because it would not fill them up, leading to ‘bingeing’ (I will not go into the rage I feel about the misuse of this term, particularly amongst underweight bloggers) later in the day. There HAS to be a source of protein there (cereal=simple carbs=no-no) plus nowadays we all have to be shoving in ‘healthy’ fats – people are trying to cover bases rather than be creative, I feel.
Prior to blogging I will say that I made no weird and wonderful concoctions and, ironically, I was a HELL of a lot thinner than I am now with all of my elaborate creations. I think also there’s a satisfaction of making something as huge as possible for as few calories as possible – at least there is for me. That’s where all of this ‘Strange But Good’ crap really comes from. Anyone noticed that these meals never have any calorie-dense foods in them?
I don’t care what people think of what I eat aside from worrying they think I’m a pig who eats too much and deserves to be fat. I was bothered when I was criticised for the presentation of what I eat, but that’s because it hit a sore point that most of my food is just thrown together because I can’t wait to eat it, rather than looking nice. Gluttony, it seems, trumps aesthetics in every area of my life.
I do actually miss the days when I could eat something as simple as porridge with banana and be satisfied by it. I curse the moment when I read a blog that informed me one could put nut butter on porridge…
xxx
You know what, I eat oats with almond milk every single morning for breakfast. Just oats and milk, cooked in the microwave. No toppings, no funny business. I just love it that way. I have felt under pressure to eat other more exciting things but I love my plain old oats far too much to change. Occasionally I’ll have pancakes at the weekend, but that’s once in a while.
I do feel like I’m boring but clearly not enough to change!
I actually find plain oats to be delicious… I think they have the best flavor out of any other grain, and their texture and gooeyness is wonderful. Gah! Now I’m craving a plain bowl of oats 😆
I feel pressured by myself to make my meals elaborate and fun; this happened before I even began blogging! But, I love trying new things and I love sharing new recipes, so I don’t mind the challenge 😉 It bothers me more when people make comments about my lifestyle as a vegetarian (mainly hating on it when they’ve never even tried it), but it does occasionally bother me when people make comments about my meals. It’s like dude, it tastes good to me, why does it matter to you? i try to make sure my meals are always balanced, but i find I’m lacking protein more than anything. Lately, that’s been getting better though 😀
You always have such delicious looking food on these WIAW posts. This one gave me some good ideas too!
My meals are definitely not always balanced. I try to get the nutrients I need. But sometimes I just want a bowl of cereal, sans protein, fruit, or anything else. Last night I had a bowl of peanut butter puffins when I got home and it totally hit the spot! But I snapped no pictures, because I am sure people would be less than interested in seeing my boring bowl, haha! 🙂
RICE with PEACES!! Ohhh some BBQ sauce on that…SO genius. I need to make that soon. I don’t feel compelled to eat a certain way because I blog, but I do choose to eat a certain way because I know it makes me happy. As for cereal, I NEVER eat cereal..it’s just not my jam. This weekend however, as you found out from my last post..I had some mofok’n cinnamon toast crunch!! It was DIVINE! I haven’t had that sugary shit in so long and it was so good. You won’t catch my buying a box, but when it’s offered fo free…yes..I’ll have some!! I eat a lot of cupcakes too..I blog about that wwayyy too much ahah. Lucky for me no one has commented on my eating habits negatively, and if they did I wouldn’t let it affect me simply because I eat well 90% of the time, but usually post about sweets haha.
I’ve never actually had a negative comment about what I eat, but I understand what you’re talking about. I definitely feel pressure on the days I know I’m doing WIAW to eat more interesting looking food. Then sometimes I just don’t care – like this week’s post throughout Saturday I started thinking, “geez all these snacks is going to look weird, oh well.” I have to remind myself it’s best just to be honest.
I definitely think that most people appreciate honesty over anything else. Actually, I think the pressure to make food interesting is mostly in our own heads… ’cause, for example, I didn’t see anything wrong with your WIAW today at all, which makes me think that we’re more critical of our own eats than anyone else is.
I enjoyed your thoughts… there definitely seems to be some pressure about creative eats for wiaw posts. I love reading about new ideas, too. But I also want a blogger to be “real” – your day looks very similar to typical eats for me! I am not anti carb, that’s for sure. 🙂
I can definitely see how many bloggers would fall into that ‘I have to be creative’ mindset, as i had my moments in the past too. A few times recently I felt tempted to give in to that way of thinking, but just thought, “whatever I’ll just eat this because the baby must like it!” 😀 But I think some of us actually love being creative!! I guess ESPECIALLY after becoming immersed into the blog world, I’ve become more comfortable with eating all sorts of funky and elaborate looking things all at the same time, and it’s because I just HAVE TO HAVE different textures and flavors in almost everything I eat. I don’t know if that comes with the fact that I’m Korean and if you’ve ever seen a Korean table spread you’d realize how many different colors, textures, and different side dishes you have all at the same time. Sometimes it’s way too much you fill up on the veggie side dishes!. I need contrast and most people find my meals to be funny like that. 😛 I’m used to my father in law and other people making faces when they see what I eat so I really don’t care, haha. One day they’ll understand, one day….Have a great day and oh man what is that secret?! lol
I happen to love a big (and I mean BIG) bowl of cereal with almond milk for breakfast. I eat it probably around 3 times per week. Though, I must admit that I am definitely a cereal mixer. I always include Kashi GoLean Original cereal and then add in at least 2 others for variety. Lately it has been Rice Chex and Multigrain Cheerios. Yum!
Ah you beat me to it!!!! I had a bowl of cereal and milk this morning with a hot chocolate on the side and I was going to post about “simple foods”
Great minds think alike 😉 or maybe great bellies??
All of your eats look amazing! Especially that chocolate and the cinnamon roll…yum!
Desserts are my favorite part of the day as well 😉
I definitely do feel the pressure sometimes too!! I’ll eat a piece of fruit and then I’m like, “I HAVE to eat a protein or a fat with this!” Seeing the way other people eat definitely plays a part and I try not to let it get to me anymore. If I just want a bowl of cereal, I’ll eat it.
I’ve gotten comments like that before. “Half a cup of oats? That’s it? I’d be starving if that’s all I ate.” People just don’t realize that everyone is different. Some days I literally eat ALL day. So yeah, that half a cup of oats was enough…until I ate again an hour later.
I don’t always balance my meals. Sometimes they are really high in carbs, other times in fat. I just know by the end of the day, week, whatever…it’ll work itself out!
Thais was an awesome post…thank you.
I just made homemade applesauce for the first time the other day….all I did though was cut up apples, cover with cinnamon and cook them in the crockpot. SO GOOD.
Your posts are always among my favorites. I never have participated in WIAW because of so many of the pressures you mentioned. When I eat, I’m not always thinking about how balanced the meal or snack is. I just eat what I want and what’s available. Often, that’s a piece of fruit or some jerky or some cheese crackers. 🙂
So true, I always skip taking pictures when I am just having a yogurt, or a crisp bread with jam or coffee and a piece of chocolate – it just does not seam worth writing about. But that is so wrong: the most simple things are often the best. There is a reason why we go back to eating an apple or having just that simple old sandwich: they are delicious, connected with tons of memories and perfectly satisfying.
Oyy yes! Being creative suits me just fine right now since i’ve always liked to be able to have a little bit of everything but i always second guess my portions. Will this look like enough? Too much? Will someone think i’m restricing if i use a bagel thin? I don’t think i realized how much i overthink my meals and snacks sometimes till i read this and started thinking about it…might be time to start thinking about some things again
Right?! Like heaven forbid you actually crave a rice cake… can’t eat it because it means you’re trying to lose weight! Pft. Then again, maybe it’s all in our heads 😉
You may have a point on that one 😛
Love the meals! I do have to admit I often feel the pressure as a blogger to have healthy and exciting meals. One of my weaknesses is cinnamon chex and almond milk. Just plain. I guess that makes me boring lol 😉 I have to say I find your whole outlook on eating so refreshing and I love how you don’t let anyone influence what you eat or do but yourself. That is just awesome!
I sometimes struggle with my WIAW posts because I feel like what I eat normally is so boring. Oats or yogurt for breakfast, salad for lunch, not so exciting dinner. I cook a lot of the same things because they are good and delicious and make my body feel good. I definitely feel a little pressure to get creative with breakfast, but I also like making my breakfast a little more creative/exciting. It’s the first meal of the day, so it should be good.
I completely agree that sometimes simply meals can be just as delicious, if not more so than, as fancy, elaborate concoctions. Sometimes I love eating plain oatmeal or plain baked potatoes, just to savor their pure and simple flavors. I think it’s ridiculous that people would APOLOGIZE for eating something plain–what on earth is wrong with that?? Life is about more than just food, and I don’t think you should EVER have to “defend” yourself against what you eat. Yes, I know that many bloggers truly ARE restricting, and perhaps it shows in their food-based posts. But I think it’s foolish to jump to the conclusion that just because someone chooses to eat an apple as snack, that they are automatically classified as “restricting” or “dieting.” Yes, it definitely does bother me when people comment on my food–maybe that is just a strange pet peeve of mine, but I honestly can’t stand it! Well, I suppose it also depends on what they say; a simple “that looks delicious!” doesn’t bother me as much as something like “is that ALL you are eating?” or “that doesn’t look like enough food to me.” Anyway, thanks for the great post!
This is exactly why I do not participate in WIAW at the moment because I know my eats are weird, but they work for me and sometimes those snarky little comments can signal something I do not want to deal with right now. 🙂 But I definitely agree with you. It is fine to spice up “boring” meals but sometimes I like to keep it simple. I’m also guilty of sitting with a tub of greek yogurt, a jar of applesauce, and a spoon while I go to town.
One day, when I feel like I’m eating something good or things that may interest others… I’ll participate in WIAW; however, right now my diet consists of two meals and snacks ALL.the.TIME. I’ll do it one day!
I’m a serial snacker too, and there are days where, aside from breakfast, I don’t really bother with legitimate meals either. No shame
Aren’t those life bars amazing? I personally think there better than Larabars… that’s just me though 🙂
…. and your salad looks beautiful, and sounds so tasty. I so wish I weren’t allergic to peaches!!
I totally agree, I feel boring for having a plain old bowl of cereal, but honestly I <3 cereal and sometimes that's all I want, with some milk. No fruit or nuts or anything else getting between me and my beloved cereal. And I have a plain old banana and a plain old apple as a snack almost every day. Everything we eat doesn't need to be a production! And who wants to do all those dishes anyway?
Have you had chocolate-covered gummy bears? That would satisfy both of your taste cravings 😀
!! I haven’t. Actually, I’ve never even heard of them… but I’m going to see if I can find any, stat.
Check them out, for sure! 🙂 There’s a recipe for them too: http://www.thecheesethief.com/2011/09/chocolate-covered-gummy-bears-recipe.html
When I did WIAW posts a year ago, I did feel the need to be more creative about what I ate and how I presented it. I stopped participating not because I don’t think it’s a fun idea but because my eats just aren’t that inspiring, and I don’t want to be judged for what I eat and how much I eat on any given day. I write a “happy” living blog and want to keep it that way! With that being said, your WIAW post look delicious, fun, and well-balanced to me. Love all the different colors!
Gooooood topic to address! Sure, I know I’m not meant to compare myself with others and everything … I can’t help but feel my meals are lackluster when seeing every other bloggers beautifully arranged concoctions, though. My lunch today? Super delicious but looking awfully messy. Taking pictures of it was just disappointing.
On one hand, though, this kind of pressure to be creative is helpful for me. I’m easily getting stuck in food ruts and feeling like I had to show of interesting meals makes me change up my meals every now and then. In that way I’m thankful.
Actually, whether it can make me upset when people comment on my meals at times but at others I even find it helpful. Maybe I didn’t realize how unsubstantial a meal was and somebody hinting to it can aid in changing things. But then again they obviously can’t know what else I’ve eaten that particular day so it’s difficult to say.
Which brand and flavour of chocolate is shown in the first picture? Maybe I can find it around here and give it a try myself :)?!
I used to think that the motivation to get myself out of ruts was a positive thing as well, but after a while I realized that I really don’t like devoting that much time and thought to what I eat… To me, ruts are actually grooves because I find what I like and I stick with it until I tire and move on to something else. 😀 And the chocolate is Ragusa… dark chocolate truffle bar with hazelnuts. It’s amazing!
About 1% of the blog world (especially the typical clone-like HLBs) makes any sense to me.
I have a sundry assortment of writers who I read because I think they are freaking awesome and amazing (funny interesting…etc) people (Like you!). People. Not Bloggers. Not oatmeal creators. That’s what I come for. CERTAINLY not to judge.
Bonus if their pictures are eye candy (like yours!)
Seriously – you could eat a slice of stale bread and it would look amazing and be fun and interesting to read about.
PS- Did you ever solve the mouth sore riddle with the applesauce? That had me so very curious.
I might have to take you up on the challenge of making a piece of stale bread sound delicious and interesting. And I still haven’t figured out the rash thing 🙁 It didn’t go away when I gave up the apples for a good long while, so I’m kind of stumped… Something in my makeup, maybe? Watermelon? Yogurt? I really heave no idea…
Yeah and maybe just stress,, a random hiccup and phew!
Last thing you need is another allergy especially with stuff so delicious. (0:
omg, now I’m starving! shouldn’t have looked at this right before lunch 😛 honestly, I try to be vaguely balanced… but it doesn’t always work. oh well!
i feel exactly the same way about the pressure to “perform” in terms of eats or cooking. i was stressing myself out trying to make interesting meals every night because i knew it would be really boring to show the fact that i ate spaghetti squash for 7 nights in a row. fact of the matter? i like eating the same stuff. it uses up leftovers and i typically crave foods in rut-like tendencies. so it is what it is. i don’t think a bowl of cereal and milk is boring at all – i have one every night. the only time i ever really mix them is when i’m finishing one box up but don’t have enough to make my typical three serving bowl. more power to your “boring” eats 🙂
Oh thank you for the shout out girl and I am SO glad you were to try the Ragusa! It is my all time favorite chocolate around here which means a lot, since we live in chocolate paradise.
I don’t feel so pressured. I actually like the fact, that since I am blogging, I give effort to make my meals look more pretty, I am more aware on what I eat and I make mealtime a precious time. And I get inspired by all the ideas from the other bloggers – if this is a simple bowl of cereals with milk, a cup of black coffee or like your wraps (really, I bought myself wrapbread when I saw your ‘boring’ plain wrap on your blog 🙂 totally love it!! ). If anyone would like to criticize in my meals or judging, that’s fine – it is up to me how I handle it in the end. If I decide to be so open about food and emotions, I have to accept that people take the chance to speak their mind.
You’re wonderful, Lucie, and your approach to blogging is perfect 🙂 The Ragusa bar was actually one of the first things that I dug into because of your sticky that it was your favorite one 😉
Yup – there is definitely blogger pressure for me to be interesting! When it comes to WIAW, lately I’ve been picking the day from the week where my eats have been the most interesting, so I can avoid the “here’s a bowl of oatmeal…here’s a salad…eggs…chicken…” Blogger problems, I suppose.
I haven’t actually had any comments about my eating patterns (at least, that I remember – knock on wood). I do consider myself fortunate for that. I am waiting for the day when it happens though.
And balanced meals? Meh – to some extent yes, but I’m not going to be like “oh shit – where’s the healthy fats? NO VEGGIES! UNACCEPTABLE!” I’ve been trying to eat how my body is dictating, which does not mean balance 100% of the time. But I will still make some effort to fit in veggies, fruit, fats, etc. throughout the day.
And I can’t actually remember the last time I had a plain bowl of cereal and milk…
so i don’t even like chocolate that much but holy goodness those bars wow. I just drooled a bit on my keyboard. also when you wrote this I totally meant to tell you about my friend’s favorite candy… chocolate covered gummy bears. why decide when you can have both? I suggest you find them.
I have never even heard of those, but you can bet your Mizunos that I’m going in search of them…
Ummm girl I totally would be inspired by a simple bowl of cereal. Take me back to my childhood days! I pretty much eat what I want and I don’t care how boring it is. That’s why I don’t talk a whole lot about my everyday eats on my blog. I’m working on finding that balance now between fat protein and carbs. I have no problems getting in my veggies 🙂
I definitely find myself only posting things that look well-balanced or moderately-sized sometimes. once in a while I’ll find myself comparing foods I share to what the bigger bloggers might share, and it feels like too much pressure, or even guilt. but that’s silly. I’ve really gotten away from food blogging on my blog, and I think I’m missing it. I shy away if I’m struggling with any of it in real life (right now with wanting to lose a few pounds and not being very successful).
but I think you gotta share what makes you happy to share! I might go back to posting more meals soon, I think. even if that means snacking on a big bowl of applesauce. 😉 I think I’ll need to look at what comments I make, too. you brought up an interesting point for me – comments I might make innocently might sound like judgment to someone, and I don’t want that. great post. 🙂
I don’t spend nearly as much time talking about food as I used to, but I don’t think it’s something that I could ever get away from 100% because it’s still something I love. And I know a natural reaction to struggles is to shy away, but I really think that that’s the ideal time to be posting about what you’re having trouble with because the community offers some amazing support!
I typically eat the same things every week, but with just different mix ins. Yogurt is something I always add something to, whether it is choc. chips, applesauce, cereal, etc… Yogurt never gets old to me.
I completely get what you mean – I remember when I simply used to pour myself a bowl of cereal or have a “normal lunch/snack” – we have to do a food diary for my uni course at the moment so whoever sees mine is going to be like “what on earth!?” Haha!
I do hate it when people comment on my meals though! I don’t comment on theirs so why should it be ok the other way round.
Sometimes I feel like I should switch things up so my blog readers don’t get bored, but I don’t let it stress me out. And your pics are totally beautiful!! I want to frame a few of these.
Awwr. You made my cinnamon buns blush 😀
Your dinner looks amazing! I’m still a very new blogger but I don’t feel pressure to eat a certin way because of my blog! I would like to be more creative and eat different foods because I love food and trying new things not because I care what people think! I know it can be hard but I wish we all could just be happy with ourselves the way we are without feeling the need to impress others or fit a healthy living blogger stereotype.
I do not document all the food that I eat because sometimes I do actually eat McDonalds 🙂 I just share meal ideas and new restaurants that I have tried out. I do not have the time nor desire to really photograph everything that I eat.
I do however feel a bit of pressure to make sure my photos look good. I’ve heard rumblings on social media about bad blog photos, so I am trying to learn more about my DSLR and using Aperture!
I actually think that you should show your McDonald’s meals! The blog world needs a better taste of reality so that people don’t start feeling like they have to eat 100% clean all the time.
ha – I think I will do that 🙂
I have shown my Egg McMuffin meals from time to time
Looks like we both dug into some coconut butter for Breakfast;) It’s SO dang good. I can’t control myself around that jar. Oh man, kinda jealous over your swiss chocolate. Those are definitely the best of the best!
Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure everytime Wednesday comes around I’m like oh crap, I’ve eaten the same things all week;) So I do try to get creative for the sake of my pictures looking different.
Your meals never ever look boring, always delicious!
It doesn’t bother me anymore when people make comments, it used to when I was super insecure about it.