What I Ate Wednesday

I find myself being so busy posting recipes that take time, fancy ingredients, and a whole lot of effort to style & post but i’m rarely sharing with you what a normal day of eating looks like to me. It’s usually a product of my Sunday night meal prep & most certainly not always fancy. I don’t want to send the message that eating healthy has to be hard, cost a lot of money, or even time. I want to send the message that ANYONE can do it and integrate it into a healthy lifestyle instead of feeling like they’re on a diet.

Healthy Lifestyle is a key word.

My personal focus is to make sure that food isn’t a reward, a cheat, or tied in any way to restriction. I try to eat from a place of abundance not scarcity. What does that mean? It means food is fuel, it’s healing, it’s energy producing, and it’s integral to optimizing my health in order to be the most productive, energized, and happy version of myself. When I “restrict” food, I CRAVE food because I que my brain that it’s off limits. When we do this, we’re more prone to eating 5 cookies instead of one because that night turned into a ‘cheat night’. What if we looked at that cookie not as a cheat meal but as… if I want one, I can have it. The concept immediately feels less tempting.

OK —

The shpeal is over about my eating philosophy. I’m not eating in a “boxed” program everyday like Paleo, Keto, etc but I do really try to remain low-dairy & low-gluten because I have sensitive digestion and I feel eating this way really optimizes that and increases my energy. Everyone is different, so explore the way food makes you feel and my best advise is start to look it like a fuel source with a correlation to what you eat and how you feel (because there is NO disconnecting the two).

“Make choices from the mindset of empowerment, not deprivation. Focus on what you have to gain, not on what might fall away. The feeling of being empowered is assurance that you have better things to gain than anything you might lose.” – Jennifer Williamson

So that said, i’m going to start “What I Ate Wednesday” where I’ll share with you the simple ways I try to optimize my health by eating to fuel whatever I’ve got going on that day.

6:30am – Wake Up

6:35am – 1 Liter of Warm Water (sometimes I add lemon or AVC)

7:00am – Four Sigmatic Lions Mane & Chaga Coffee (black this morning but I usually add adaptogens + coconut oil). I went for the black coffee this morning because I snacked late last night so felt like I didn’t need that extra coconut oil fuel this morning.

8:00am – Left the house with 2 hard boiled eggs + an apple in hand + a big glass of water for my commute

8:30am – Ate the hard boiled eggs at the office before my 9:00 meeting + a glass of warm water with lemon. I drink warm water with lemon ALL DAY LONG. I bring a lemon and cut slices into the water throughout the day until the lemon is gone (good reminder to keep reaching for that water).

10:00am – Another glass of warm lemon water. I have a daily to do list that actually has 8 glasses of water on it & every time I finish a glass, I cross out the water icon. SMALL DAILY WINS!

10:30am – Apple

10:45am – Matcha w/ 1/4 cup Homemade Almond Milk (I needed the extra kick this afternoon but sometimes I save this for the 3:00 hump)

1:00pm: Stuffed Chicken Breast with Eggplant & Zucchini thanks to my fine friends at Pittsburgh Fresh. Using them to cater my dad’s, brothers, and my lunches each week has saved us all so much time and really kept us eating better, more balanced meals on a tight schedule. I don’t know what I did without these guys & the boys agree (even though they’re not health nerds like me) + warm lemon water

3:00pm – hopped in the car for a client meeting with another big glass of water.

5:00pm – I made an emergency smoothie. I hate that this was my dinner on a night i’m featuring my meals but shiz happens & this is a good example of a dinner on the go if you absolutely have to. I was attending a 5:30 networking event tonight for work (Pittsburgh’s Fast 50 – GO SCALO COMPANIES). I popped home to whip up a low sugar, high fat smoothie to make sure I stayed full through the event since it wasn’t a sit down dinner.

8:00pm – I served up a liter of water with some added apple cider vinegar for flavor and gut care while relaxing and watching TV. Tip: I always prep my liter water bottle so it’s filled up to the tippy top and I can grab it first thing in the morning to start my day on the right foot.

That’s about it! I hope the next What I Ate Wednesday has a better dinner to report but THUS IS LIFE.

xx, Jess