eating for fuel
**Thank you all for the amazing support about my cutting back on blogging! I’m still going to blog as much as I can, but that will probably only be 2-3x per week. Like I said, I’ll be blogging more when things settle down a bit!**
Since my post last week, and a great chat with Madeline on Twitter, I’ve been counting calories every day for the last week. I know I said I was trying to avoid it, but I’m really just trying to make sure I’m getting enough on a daily basis. With nursing, if I don’t eat enough calories, my supply will start to diminish. And since I’m not getting to nurse her as much as I used to, I really need to make sure that I can keep up (which I’ll be posting about later this week). This is not something I plan on doing forever, but something I need to do until I can figure out what my body needs to maintain my milk supply while still losing my pregnancy weight.
So, here’s how Monday went with counting calories for this week’s WIAW:
Snack
Triple chocolate Balance bar for a pre-“exercise” snack.
Calories: 200
Workout
I had a floor hockey game to coach after school (we won!) and since my gym doesn’t open until 5 AM and that’s the time I need to be in the shower by, I decided to do a quick at-home workout before hopping in the shower.
Body Weight Squats 100x (2:17)
Rest 3 minutes
Body Weight Squats 100x (2:01)
Didn’t burn too many calories, but it got me up and moving for the day.
Breakfast
A delicious Green Monster in the car. We’re adding protein powder to them now which makes it taste like cake batter! LOVE!
- 1/4 cup oats
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 2 tablespoons vanilla protein powder
- 1 large banana
- ~2 cups baby spinach
- 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
Calories: 365
Snack
A little bit of trail mix to hold me over until lunch. Once it hits about 9:15 AM, I am starving again!
Calories: 160
Lunch
Leftover broccoli, bean, and cheddar soup from Natalie’s recipe – pureed beans instead of cream! – and some homemade whole wheat French bread to sop up the goodness of the soup!
Calories: 490
Snack
Chobani was 10 for $10 at Dierbergs this week, so I stocked up! No new flavors but I got kinds we don’t normally get since we get them at Costco usually. A pineapple Chobani with 1/4 cup of the best granola that I don’t know the brand of! I still need to ask the cooks at work because it’s amazing!
Calories: 240
Dinner
Matt made a delicious quiche-tatta (crustless quiche but more like a frittata with the amount of veggies in it). We’re definitely making this from now on instead of our normal frittata. With half a Schlafly Pumpkin Ale on the side.
Calories: 485
Snack
Cafe Cioccolato contacted me a few weeks ago to try some samples of their delicious chocolates. They sent us a white chocolate covered marshmallow, a chocolate covered marshmallow, and a chocolate covered salted caramel. We split each of them so Matt + I could both try them. Their marshmallows are made in house and were silky smooth, but our favorite was the salted caramel. Sea salt should always be on chocolate and caramel. They are in the process of making a vegan marshmallow that I can’t wait to try along with their Swiss chocolate hot chocolate! We’ll be making a trip downtown for sure!
I also had some honey roasted peanuts and double chocolate Krave cereal that was an impulse buy last week at the grocery store. I am loving having a lower calorie chocolate treat! :)
Calories: 280
Total Calories: 2220
It’s amazing what eating MORE food can do. I actually woke up Tuesday morning weighing in at my lowest weight postpartum!
I used to have this fear of food. I would count calories religiously, avoiding certain foods because I knew how calorie laden they were. At one point, I could spout of the number of calories in almost any food.
While pregnant this summer, I realized that counting calories wasn’t doing me any good and that I need to eat to fuel not only my body, but my little girl I was cooking at the time. I ate what I liked, whether it was “healthy” for me or not. It forced me to start watching my portions more closely and actually care about what I was putting in my body, instead of just caring about the calories in a certain food. Now, I’m continuing to eat to fuel myself. As a nursing + running mama, I absolutely need to eat over 2000 calories a day. I am no longer afraid of food and I find myself eating healthier because I feel good when I do.
I’ve already lost more weight in the past week by eating more calories than I did all last month. I think that’s progress!
Are you a calorie counter? Do you feel better when you put healthier foods in your body?