Hello darlings! Long time no speak, huh?
I’ve been quite busy lately, both enjoying life while on my trip to Boston (recap coming soon!) and also working a lot for my internship. It’s a bit of a crazy time, and I’m just trying to consciously slow down and accept that I can’t do it all.
Which, if you’re a perfectionist, is pretty damn hard.
So before we jump into this What I Ate Wednesday, let me just give a little back story. I had a pretty tough workout in the middle of the day, which kind of left me feeling like a noodle.
Whenever that happens, I know I either need to take a rest day the next day, really dial back on intensity the next day, or just sleep longer.
I also was very intentional with how much food I was eating because undereating would’ve only exacerbated my fatigue and would’ve decreased the effectiveness of my workout.
I’m doing quite a bit of experimenting with my body right now, with food and exercise, and currently I’m trying to really listen and make sure I’m feeding my body enough. I often think I eat plenty but I forget that I’m also pretty active throughout the day and may need more than I think.
It’s a work in progress.
Anyway, let’s jump into the eats and keep chatting as we go.
Breakfast was a Greek yogurt bowl with half a banana, 2 tablespoons granola, some chia seeds, hemp seeds, cacao nibs, and cacao powder all mixed up into a perfect little mush.
I did a lot of running around/commuting for work in the first part of the day, which made me HANGRY.
I inhaled this Quest bar (my favorite flavor) to keep the hunger monster at bay.
A couple hours later, I cranked out a workout that was a bit harder than I’d intended. Eh, it’s all about balance. Tomorrow I’ll focus on recovery.
I had packed a lunch with me which was tuna mixed with half an avocado on a bed of greens with some tomatoes and balsamic vinegar.
This filled me up for about 5 minutes, and then I got myself my fave almond butter sweet potato protein smoothie.
The smoothie is really filling, and my body didn’t need all of it, so I stopped drinking it 3/4 of the way through.
Mindful eating is all about tuning in to your body and remembering that food will always be there. There is no reason to “save” calories or “surplus” on calories.
Just listen to your body and stop when you’ve had enough.
P.S. Mindful eating involves sometimes overeating and feeling overly stuffed. However that overeating needs to be a conscious choice where you know you’re eating to fulfill your soul, and not just stuffing yourself because you need to finish everything on your plate.
I, then, had to attend an event for work that was a kind of self care/yin yoga soirée. I didn’t really know what to expect and I really only had to be there for the beginning to get some stuff for social media, but I ended up staying way longer than I’d expected.
The workshop was just so resonant with me. It spoke about learning to be selfish, to give yourself love, before you give it to others.
It sounds bad, in a way. Putting yourself over others? Um, RUDE. But if you think about it, it’s so essential.
When you are kind to yourself and pay attention to YOUR needs first, you end up much more likely to want to help others and to do so from a place of love and kindness and not obligation.
If you’re tired and cranky and all you want to do is watch Friends on the couch but your mom asked you to wash all the dishes, and you do that in lieu of watching Friends, you’re going to end up feeling more tired and cranky and also resentful toward your mom. And that leads to fights and rolled eyes and plenty of unnecessary things.
But what if instead, you told your mom, do you mind if I just take 10 minutes to myself? I’m really tired and I promise I’ll do it all in 10 minutes.
As long as you are coming from a place of honesty and kindness, not entitlement, the person asking you for help is likely to respond in kind and be totally okay with it. Boom, fight avoided. Everybody is happy!
I feel like that’s such a good message to keep in mind, honestly.
What I like to do is to tune in to what I’m feeling every day and just make sure I’m okay.
Like, how are you today Nicole? Are you feeling anything you don’t want to be feeling? If so, what can you do today to decrease or eliminate that?
Most of the time, it’s an easy fix, but I wouldn’t even realize I need it if I didn’t bother to tune in and ask.
For dinner, like I said, I was incredibly exhausted and just wanted to go to bed but I whipped up some zoodles with shrimp, onions, tomatoes, and marinara + carrots with hummus.
Ate it while putting together this post and then skipped doing a whole lot of stuff in favor of jumping in bed. Self-care at its finest.
What are you favorite methods of self-care? What do you think about the selfishness concept?
Linking up with the super awesome Spring 2 The Table for this What I Ate Wednesday.
[…] currently obsessed with zoodles. I’ve only prepared them one way, but recently I had them in one of my favorite restaurants The Grey Dog covered in pesto and vegan […]