It's Okay For Life To Feel Messy [Daily Eats]

What you see on this blog isn’t the whole story. What you see on WIAW’s isn’t how I eat 100% of the time. Sure, most of the time I’m slurping green smoothies, eating kale for lunch and snacking on peanut butter and bananas.

But there’s plenty of times throughout the week where my eating isn’t as put together as it seems on most of WIAW’s. And there are many foods that cross my lips that some might think, “Oh, an RD would never eat that.”

Um, what? I’m certainly not the perfect picture of health. And I have no desire to be. Because to me, that seems like a really stressful and boring way to live.

That goes for other areas of my life beyond food too. And I feel like I need to tell you guys, “I don’t have it all together and I don’t know what I’m doing half [actually most] of the time!” Really, I’m just a big hot mess of a human, walking through this life one day at a time. I’m not super organized and my days usually look more like functional chaos where I go from one thing to the next without a plan or set schedule. Sometimes it gets super messy and I forget my lunchbox on the subway, or I lock my keys in my apartment or I don’t eat dinner till 9pm and then get in bed at 9:30 with a full stomach and a to-do list with way too many unchecked boxes to even count.

I don’t know how, but somehow it just works. But what you should know is that sometimes it’s crazy and 99.9% of the time, it’s the farthest things from put together…whatever that even means. I hope some of you can relate.

And food is so far from perfect too. Most mornings, I’m eating a bowl of oatmeal or eating pancakes [my latest obsession]. Yesterday morning breakfast was blueberry pumpkin pancakes with sunbutter and banana. But then there are mornings where I leave my pumpkin oats on the counter [such a tragedy, I know] and I end up having to buy two hard boiled eggs and eat plain oatmeal from the hospital cafeteria, shoving it down in two minutes as I’m walking into clinical.

I pack a lunch almost everyday. And usually my lunches are pretty filling and satisfying. Like yesterday’s lunch which was kale, mushrooms and green beans in coconut oil with nutritional yeast and hot sauce plus pretzels and celery + hummus and clementines. But sometimes, even though I’m full and I “know” I’ve eaten enough- I eat two peanut butter chocolate chip cookies because I just want to. And then I end up really full and kind of wish I didn’t do that, but I move on. And I remember how I don’t like feeling that full and remind myself not to do that again.

A few hours later after a three mile jog, I came home to a green smoothie made with 1/2 scoop chocolate Vega One, 1/2 frozen banana, almond milk and whole lotta frozen spinach. I make one of these almost everyday and I still can’t believe this cup contains almost six servings of veg. Crazytown.

Hunger hit shortly after and I snacked on two pieces of double chocolate banana bread and baby carrots with Wild Friends cinnamon raisin peanut butter. Sometimes though, snacks don’t look so healthy and there are times where I eat coffee and carrot cake for an afternoon snack. Or in all honesty, sometimes I’m out and about and forget to eat an afternoon snack and then go into dinner so hungry I end up eating wayyyy too much. And again, I’m reminded of why snacking is so important in taming the hunger breast within.

One of my favorite things about NYC is the food scene. I feel totally spoiled rotten now that I’ve experienced what it’s like to literally eat whatever you want, whenever you want. I probably eat out two to three times a week for dinner or lunch and sometimes brunch. That might mean I’m eating a vegetable curry with brown rice and tofu, but more often than not, like last Friday, I’m eating a burger with fries because there’s no veg options and that’s what sounds good. Or I’m eating a plate of dumplings with people after church on Sundays. Or I’m not eating the perfect balance of carbs, proteins and fats like Monday night when our community group hosted some visiting students for dinner and we had beef chili with amazing homemade bread, spinach and goat cheese salad and chips + guac all washed down with Baked by Melissa cupcakes.

Some weeks I’m eating pre-made kale and black bean enchiladas, and other nights I get home at 8pm and pull out whatever I have in the fridge to “make dinner.” Last night was two eggs, kale and mushrooms on their last leg with leftover sweet potatoes and a bowl of popcorn. It might not be pretty or perfect, but it works in this busy season of life.

I preach about sleep all the time and I can’t tell you enough how important sleep is. But sometimes, sleep isn’t always as good as it should be. On Friday I was out till almost 2am and had to be up by 8am to see a client. Thank goodness my college days are long gone so I was just tired and not hungover, but those nights happen and spending time with those people you love is always worth it. And that’s when you brew an extra strong cup of coffee and promise to get to bed early the next night.

My life isn’t put together in the least, but I’m not sure I’d ever want it to be. And if yours isn’t either, know I’m right there with you. Life is unpredictable and that’s what makes it exciting. And if a messy life means eating chocolate chips out of the cashew butter jar at 11pm, I’ll live a little messy.