You are browsing the Blog for Food - Lindsay's List.

← Previous Entries
by lindsaymwright

my holiday eating plan

November 28, 2013 in Blog, Diet, ED, Family, Food, Goals, Inspiration, Kids by lindsaymwright

I posted this journal entry LAST Thanksgiving.  The message remains relevant, except I’ve taken it one step further this year as my children are even more interested in the actions/mindset of Travis and I as parents.  I’m constantly thinking, “How will MY behavior effect my children and their own body image?”  I may never know the answer, but I want to do everything I can to set an example of BALANCE.

Anyway, I KNOW that someone out there needs to hear the message, so enjoy! 

And Happy Thanksgiving!!!

———–

“Fill up your plate with half vegetables, a quarter lean protein and a quarter of the good stuff.”

“Make sure you snack on healthy foods during the day so you don’t overeat during the main event.”

“Stand more than an arm’s length away from munchies, like a bowl of nuts or chips, while you chat so you’re not tempted to raise your hand to your mouth every few seconds.”

“Wear the tightest clothes you have. You’ll notice you’re overeating and be able to stop yourself.”

“Burn off all the calories you’ll eat during dinner by exercising like crazy early in the week/day.”

“Know your calories!!! Choose pumpkin pie over pecan. Even better, skip dessert altogether. Dressing is THE DEVIL! Mashed potatoes- a demonic indulgence. Choose low glycemic foods over high glycemic foods.”

“Choose a BLUE-colored plate or better yet, bring your own blue plate to dinner. The plate that helps you to eat the least amount is one that is blue, that color has the least appealing blend with food.”

“Bring your own healthy salad so that you’ll have something to eat. These people don’t understand you and this healthy living path you’ve chosen.”

053

You’ve heard these before. I know you have because they’re everywhere we look – magazines, Dr. Oz, Oprah, even healthy living blogs. Tips on staying healthy during holiday meals.

We thrive off these “RULES”. We NEED them or we’ll go rampant like rabid raccoons all over that Thanksgiving/Christmas meal, standing over the table, elbows akimbo, scarfing down carbs and spoonfuls of gravy. In fact, who needs a spoon!?!? We raccoons will just drink it straight from the gravy boat.

Oh the sheer horror of losing control!! It’s more than most can bear! And that’s why we form PLANS. A strategy to reign us in. Because heaven forbid we actually indulge once and then carry on with our healthy living journey.

To hell with that.

I’ve lived 30 years with a plan and honestly, I’m so tired. Maybe it’s just that I now have my APPETITE back, but it seems illogical to me to set special rules for eating. I’m hungry. And the food at holiday meals is some of the best of the year. Why wouldn’t you want to partake in it?!?

Because most of us don’t trust ourselves.  Or our bodies.

043

From 1998-2004 or so, I would “fake eat” at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’d follow all of those rules I listed above and make up some of my own. Pushing food around on my plate to make it seem like I ate. Spitting food out into napkins, hoping no one would notice. And if I’m being perfectly honest, a couple of those dark years, I’m sure I went upstairs and purged that meal. The meal my mama worked so hard to cook.

?!!!?!?!?

Dude. What the heck!

It’s unacceptable behavior. And it directly opposes the very sentiment behind Thanksgiving. We’re supposed to be THANKFUL for this food that we’ve been blessed with. Thankful for the hands that prepared the meal. Thankful that we can break bread together.

When food rules and game plans are introduced, a little bit of that thankfulness is pushed to the back and a feeling of control and what I would describe as obsession takes first place.

037

My Holiday Eating Strategy:

I don’t have one.

Well I guess I kinda do. I’m going to fill up my plate with a little bit of every thing that looks good to me. I’m going to eat my food and talk to my family and enjoy this time that I’m blessed with. And if I want seconds, I’ll go back for them. Not partaking in my sissy’s homemade pumpkin pie would be a tragedy. After the meal is over, I’ll continue on with my healthy life.

No starvation. No binge eating. Just normal eating of some pretty amazing food.

Yep. I like this plan. It’s one I want my children to mimic in the future.

011004

Will you join me??

QUESTION: I know I missed some of those “food rules.” What are some of the other ones? What’s your favorite dish at Thanksgiving dinner?

splendid…lindsay

19 Comments »

by lindsaymwright

thinkThin review and #giveaway!!

November 14, 2013 in Blog, Food, Giveaways, Review, Snack by lindsaymwright

I’m not sure I’ve been upfront enough about my LOVE for nutrition bars.

I could seriously eat them once (or twice) a day.

In college, I remember trying the Zone diet (among a zillion other diets.  The cabbage soup one was probably the most ridiculous.  And, OH SO stinky.).  Anyway, you’re instructed to eat a diet with a macronutrient breakdown of 40/30/30 (protein, carbs, fat).  I actually really love that breakdown and it works well for me now, but in college, I was ALL ABOUT THE ZONE BARS.  I remember eating like a box a day and calling it good.  Meaning that I ate NO real food, no cooking – just gobs and gobs of bars.

I know better now.  Thank God.

These days I practice a whole foods diet with an 80/20 breakdown.  80 percent real, whole foods (one ingredient foods) and 20 percent of anything else I want to eat.  Nutrition bars fall into that 20 percent for me and I use them for post-workout refueling or while traveling.  The convenience factor is huge for me – we’re generally out of the house for 3-4 hours every morning and I like to have something that’s easily accessible.

045

Recently, thinkThin sent me some of their high protein/low sugar bars to try out.  I’ve seen them in local grocery stores and at Trader Joe’s but never tried one.  First, I loved the taste and texture of these bars.  I’ll be completely honest here – taste comes FIRST for me when purchasing and is even slightly more important than the nutrition stats.  If a bar claims to be the healthiest/vegan/all-natural/most-amazing-thing-on-Earth but still tastes like dirt, I probably won’t be buying it multiple times.  Taste wins.  Always.  (it’s a good thing I think vegetables taste amazing!)

048050

In addition to the taste factor, the thinkThin bars also met some of my other requirements:

  • High protein (I usually look for something over 15 grams)
  • Low sugar
  • Short ingredient list with ingredients I’m familiar with

052

All in all, a great nutrition bar that I’ll definitely be purchasing for myself!  Thanks thinkThin!

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

thinkThin has offered to give TWO Lindsay’s List readers a box of their own bars!  Use the rafflecopter widget to enter below – winners will be announced NEXT TUESDAY!  Best of luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

splendid…lindsay

86 Comments »

by lindsaymwright

wiaw – current pregnancy cravings

October 16, 2013 in Baby, Blog, Diet, ED, Food, WIAW by lindsaymwright

Hello Wednesday!

As I told you guys yesterday, food is starting to become appealing again!  I still have some aversions (anything greasy or too sweet) but for the most part, I’m turning a corner of wanting all.the.foods.  I love this part of pregnancy – the EATING.  I know two things about myself and food though:

  • 1)  Due to my eating disordered past, I won’t be a woman who “lets herself go” during pregnancy.  I just know too much about nutrition and can easily take this knowledge too far and become obsessive.
  • 2) Luckily, I’ve grown up a bit.  I have no food rules or food guilt in pregnancy.  If something sounds good, I’ll eat it (HUGE difference from the Lindsay of 10 years ago).  ….But always in moderation.

I feel like my approach to food (and fitness) has only gotten better over the years.  Some might look at what I eat and think it’s unhealthy or “bad.”  But I know better.  With a more relaxed approach, I’m WAY healthier than I was in years past.  Sometimes “unhealthy” is actually very healthy.

To that end, here’s what I ate yesterday (which was everything I wanted to put into my mouth – no rules – just being thankful for food):

Breakfast

038

041

Protein pancake (Plant Fusion Chocolate P.P + Egg Whites, topped with maple syrup and PB2)

Post Workout

Banana – unpictured and scarfed down in the gym parking lot.

Pre-Lunch Snack

051

Bagel Thin with cream cheese (side note: I HAD to have a bagel and made Travis leave work, drive to the grocery store and get me one.  Keeper.)

Lunch

052

Janetha’s Quick & Clean Chicken Noodle Soup (MAKE THIS!!  I added mushrooms but kept everything else the same.)

Afternoon Snack

020

Golden Delicious apple + sea salt

Dinner

053

Chicken Tender Salad (I only ate a bit of this – by the end of the day, I’m kinda DONE with food.)

—————–

QUESTION:  What was the best thing you ate yesterday??

splendid…lindsay

15 Comments »

by lindsaymwright

wiaw – linking morning sickness and hypotension

October 2, 2013 in Baby, Blog, Diet, Food, WIAW by lindsaymwright

Pregnancy is simply fascinating to me!!  I think what I love the most is hearing and reading about each woman’s different pregnancy story, knowing that in the end, we end up with a baby but the 9-month journey to get there is different for most everyone.  There are even discrepancies between THIS pregnancy and Henry’s pregnancy, Clara’s pregnancy.  The way I feel, my thoughts, the way my belly grows and, as I’ll talk about today, THE FOOD.

I have so many freaking food aversions right now, it’s ridiculous!  What sounds good one day will make me gag the next.  I’ve noticed a trend though.

Like most pregnant women, I CRAVE salty foods.  Salt is like my new best friend.  There’s actually scientific evidence backing me up on this one.  You see, the RDA recommends limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day.  That’s for the average person.  A pregnant woman metabolizes sodium much differently and may need anywhere from 2,000 to 8,000 (!!) mg per day (source).  No wonder we crave salt!

Linking Morning Sickness and Low Blood Pressure

Try to stay with me here.  I just told you that a pregnant woman needs more salt than the average person.  Did you also know that a pregnant woman’s blood pressure is significantly lowered due to the hormone relaxin?  I ALREADY had extremely low blood pressure leading into this pregnancy, so every time I go to the doctor for prenatal appointments, the nurses marvel at my numbers.  It’s called “hyPOtension” – the last time I went in (which was last Monday), my blood pressure was 90/59 mmHg.

Want to know the symptoms of low blood pressure?

Signs and symptoms of hypotension may include dizziness, fainting, cold and sweaty skin, fatigue (tiredness), blurred vision, or nausea (feeling sick to your stomach). (source)

This sounds eerily like MORNING SICKNESS!!  (Travis actually connected the two – he’s way smarter than me.)

Now I know that you don’t have to be hypotensive to experience morning sickness, but I really think that my low b.p. combined with morning sickness has led to me feel pretty darn crappy over the last 6 weeks.  Interesting fact:  My nausea dissipates when I eat salt.  Sugary foods do nothing to take the edge off.  So that’s what I eat: SALT!!!

Here’s what yesterday looked like….

Before getting out of bed (sorry for the dark iPhone picture):  Mini saltine crackers

018

Breakfast:  Oatmeal + Egg Whites + Butter

001

Post Workout:  Chocolate Thinny Mint Shake (Chocolate whey p.p., chocolate soy milk, peppermint extract, ice)

003

Pre-Lunch Snack:  Good Beans (this x3)

007006

Gatorade!  (all day long)

008

Lunch:  2 eggs + american cheese + morningstar veggie links + raspberries

009

Afternoon Snack #1:  Some “Dump Cake” – google the recipe – it’s pretty much pure butter (salt)

013014

Afternoon Snack #2:  Granny smith apple + The Laughing Cow mini babybel mozzerella (sent to me by TLC – SO good..and salty!)

017

Dinner:  1/2 rack ribs + french fries + stewed okra & tomatoes

015

016

mmmmm….ribs!

Themes:

  • Salt
  • Minimal vegetables
  • Minimal fruit
  • Minimal water
  • Notice that no snack was eaten pre-bed (which I normally would have)…this is because I’ve morphed into my mother and bedtime was 8pm.

Not a diet I’d recommend to ANYONE, but for right now, we’re in survival mode over here and it’s getting the job done.  Smile

QUESTION:  Do you SALT your food?  <-normally NEVER!  Do you think you’re over or under the RDA guidelines for sodium intake?  <-right now – YES!

splendid…lindsay

14 Comments »

← Previous Entries