WIAW-Unproccessed Food

Happy Wednesday! Which means, it’s none other than What I Ate Wednesday-a big thanks to Jenn for hosting!

 

My morning started bright and early so I could lead weight training to quidditch. I put together my breakfast the night before so it would be quick and easy in the dark.

This.

THIS. SO GOOD-I felt like I was eating a pb&j sandwich. Fun fact-did you know I ate pb&j everyday for about 3 years? It was sophisticated too-different peanut butters, ALWAYS two types of jam (each half was different). And somehow now my body rebels at nuts-go figure. ANYWAYS. This is plain greek yogurt topped with sunflower seed butter and mixed berry compote. The mixed berry compote? I hinted at it yesterday. So easy. So good.

Take a bag of frozen berries (i added a few frozen cherries to the mix as well).

Simmer on stove at low heat for a couple of hours-until the berries thicken. Or throw in the slow cooker-we have one in our room and that is going to happen at some point.

Result: deliciousness. No sugar needed.

Quidditch training went really well-today was the first week we repeated a workout, and the improvements were insane! I mean, there’s a lot of form improvement as well as strength, so the increase in the weights they used was huge. On back squats, most people moved up 20-30 pounds! One guy who lifts on his own couldn’t get very low on his squats a couple of weeks ago. He’s been working on it, and now his form was WAY better, and he lifted 30 pounds heavier! It’s so excited-I’m so proud!

One guy made me check that his form was good because he was using way heavier weights than last time, but it felt so much easier that he was sure he must be doing something wrong. And on top of just the strength, everyone did more rounds of the timed conditioning. 

The best part? We got through everything smoothly and quickly so I had time for coffee before my first class.

Lunch after class was prepacked-chicken, asparagus, and brown butter sage mashed sweet potatoes. 

Before my 4:15 class, I got an email that I needed to be somewhere at 7, so I had to reschedule Crossfit and rush straight form my last class, so before class I went back to my room to change and eat a quick snack. I had the biggest banana craving EVER. Like, I would have killed for a banana. Ohhh what eating well does to us. I ended up buying a banana on the way back. 

I also had a couple of squares of unsweetened chocolate, on with sunflower seed butter and the other without.

But banana and sunflower seed butter? Hit. The. Spot.

Plus a spoon of berry compote and a cutie.

Unsweetened dark chocolate is intense-it’s hard to eat too much. I now know my limit-not 2 squares. I was a bit wired/heart racing. Noted.

I made it to Crossfit on time-I could do everything in today’s workout with my knee, although I had to be careful to really get high on the box jumps so that I wouldn’t land in a deep squat. My knee is doing way better-I can squat if I’m SUPER careful, so that’s a good sign (although it feels a little stiff now, so I should ice!). I’m planning on going to weight lifting tomorrow, but instead of doing full lifts, I’m going to do power lifts instead. For those that don’t know, the difference between a full and a power lift is that full lifts finish in a squat, and power lifts catch the bar standing up. 

Dinner tonight was sort of late (and therefore from my fridge). I am going to make some attempts at the dining hall soon, but I didn’t get back from various things until late, and the dining hall would have been closing. 

While I heated my soup, I munched on some grilled chicken with homemade ketchup.

It’s totally normal to eat this as a meat-sicle, right? I mean, it saves a knife….

And then the main course-butternut squash soup with modified cranberry relish and creme fraiche.

I also had a small bite of the unsweetened chocolate to give the meal some finality. 

Overall, I’ve felt great these past 2 days. Better today than yesterday-maybe it was more caffeine, or maybe sugar withdrawals are over. I’ve leaned out a little in the last 2 days, simply because I’m not eating junk, and my body is flushing out all the cake/muffins/chips I ate over the weekend. In other words-the starting weight measurement from Monday really wasn’t representative of where I was, but we’ll go with it. In terms of the other data-my sister is sick so she couldn’t do blood pressure, and I decided that I am not sticking my finger with a sewing needle, because that is going to hurt too much, so I can’t take blood sugar until I get the lancets. And that is not a priority when I have schoolwork deadlines breathing down my neck!

It’s really interesting to me the foods that I’m seeking out-like bananas. I’m actually having less trouble eating like this because there are fewer options, and things are pretty much laid out for me. 

What’s also interesting is my macronutrient composition. I was thinking I was not eating enough protein, which was probably true, although it’s still in the healthy range.

But then eliminate sugars, and there’s more space for the good stuff-here’s what the past couple of days have looked like:

I’m on the low end of carbohydrate and the high end of fat (thanks Nutrition class for that knowledge), but I think that will probably shift as the week goes on-I tend to want more carbs later in the week, so I’m trying to make sure I replenish the carbs I’m using. That being said, despite the government’s macronutrient recommendations, people function very well on a wide variety of intakes-some cultures eat mostly fat and are healthy. Others eat mostly carbs and are healthy. (I’m not talking about the typical American diet). What I’m saying is people are really good at functioning well on diets with whole foods, despite the ratios-so the ratios really aren’t that important!

I also felt really good today in Crossfit-strong and fast (in terms of running). But this could also be because I haven’t lifted heavy much lately.

Day 2 done and I’m feeling good!

What’s the weirdest food craving you’ve had?