What I'm Eating

Since I know nutrition will play a huge part of my IM training and race day, I went back to my nutritionist a few months ago. I want to make sure I'm not only fueling properly but that I'm also refueling so I'm ready for my next workout. First thing we did was start to up my calories. My workouts are not that intense right now but we wanted to get me to where I should be in terms of calories and we'll continue to increase as necessary when training really picks up in May.

I also want to add that I do not count calories or grams of carbs, proteins, etc. My nutritionist knows where I'm at with calories but I do not want to know that number. I'm trying to stay focused on eating right and focusing on the number of calories is not a healthy way for *me* to track food.

While I don't count calories, I do make sure I'm eating the appropriate servings of each food group every day. I have a goal of each food group and don't double count. Meaning, a piece of fruit counts as a fruit serving, not a carb serving. This is my daily range: 8 carbs/starches, 8-10 proteins, 4 fruits, 4 veggies, 3 dairy and 6 fats. In order to know serving sizes, I know what constitutes a serving (1 carb is 15g, 1 protein is 7g, etc). Below is an example of a typical day and yes, it's a lot of food. But people in training need to eat and I've lost a few pounds since upping my calories!

Breakfast*:

Oatmeal with protein powder, flax, chopped walnuts, banana, and milk (not shown, coffee, just black)

 

 Mid morning snack:

Fat free plain yogurt with berries (that I add, not store bought fruit yogurt) and unsweetened shredded coconut, vitamin C drop some time before lunch

 

Lunch:

Whole wheat wrap with my take on hummus (small white beans, lemon juice, onion, garlic, pepper, and cayenne pepper), egg whites, and cauliflower

 

Afternoon snack 1:

Carrots, apple, peanut butter square (all natural peanut butter mixed with some oats to keep it together and make it easier for transporting to work...I can't be around a jar of PB), not shown, a cup of plain hot tea 

Afternoon snack 2:

Popcorn, orange, almonds

 (I feel terrible about the baggie. I'm so anti baggie but we prepped so much food on Sunday we had no containers left. It's the first time I've used a baggie for lunch in YEARS and I'll make it a point to reuse this one for something)

Dinner:

Ground turkey with tomato, onion and peas served on top of red quinoa, asparagus

(There's a reason this dinner is weird. We realized we were losing food to the back of the pantry/freezer and then wasting a lot of stuff. So we started a little thing where on Sunday the majority of our dinner is made using things we already have on hand.)

Dessert: another glass of milk

*Some mornings, after longer workouts, I have a serving of Hammer Recoverite before breakfast.