Intuitive Eating – A Week of Thoughts & Eats

Hello! It’s been awhile since I’ve done a blog post (missed you guys!) and I wanted to do this one in particular for a couple of reasons.  I see a lot of meals shared on social media and to be honest most of the time I think to myself:

1. No wonder people are confused about “what to eat” (YIKES! mixed messages) and…

2. Not. enough. food. Like Robyn and I joke, “that’s a toddler meal!” 

I’m not here to tell you how or what to eat. But, I get a LOT of questions from clients because they are just confused about what to eat and how much (no wonder!). So, a few things to keep in mind…

YOUR BODY IS YOUR BODY IS YOUR BODY (and your hunger is your hunger)

It does not matter what the person next to you is eating.  It would be weird if we all literally ate the same foods and amounts everyday. We cannot use another human as our guide on what to eat.  

These are just a few examples of snacks and meals throughout the week

I intentionally didn’t share a full day because again, your day will likely look different and I think it can be easy to fall into the mindset of thinking you should be eating exactly the same amounts.

Intuitive Eating looks different for everyone

Some may need to turn up the “mind knowledge” more than others depending on their schedule, medical condition(s), active eating disorder, etc. IE is not about always eating at the exact point of “perfect” hunger and stopping at some magical point of fullness. It is far more nuanced than that. IE looks different for everyone.

One thing I will say though is often when I ask a client how they know they are hungry, their answer typically points to waiting too long to eat – feeling their stomach growling or having a headache. Those are signs your body is getting into overly hungry territory and a sign your blood sugar is dropping. Ideally, we eat before hitting that point. What would be a more reasonable point? For me, I notice I get distracted from whatever I’m doing and start to think about food, right away that’s a signal to think about what I’m going to eat and make it. 

There’s an ongoing “debate” in the Intuitive Eating/Eating Disorder world about whether or not to share what we eat. For me it’s a personal choice that I have taken into serious consideration whether or not it’s helpful or hurtful. Based on the feedback we’ve received on these posts they are overwhelmingly helpful so my hope is that is true for you and if not, please let us know! We are always open to feedback. 

Ok so onto…EATS! 

I personally prefer larger meals, especially for lunch and dinner, breakfast and snack sizes/frequency vary depending on the day. Again, this is something that will vary for each person – I know some people who prefer 3 larger meals and a snack or two and others who prefer to eat more frequently – neither is better, do whatever works for you. Since I work from home a lot it’s easier for me to mostly eat based on hunger and what I’m in the mood for, but I realize this is not the case for most people and for this I am grateful…also grateful for being able to be in my pajama pants on a regular basis. I do bring meals to work on some days and have done that when working full-time in the past so it’s totally possible to pack things that you know will be enjoyable and easy! 

Breakfasts

I’ve really been loving these breakfast sausages paired with something else, the flavor is perfection if you ask me. I made these apple & oat bars at the beginning of the week and then had them for breakfasts with yogurt or sausages, eggs would also be good too. I doubled the apple filling because we had gone apple picking and didn’t think 3 apples was enough, I was right! They were also really good with milk 🙂 

Toast with cream cheese and eggs + sausage. Perfect combo! 

Thursday’s breakfast: oats w/ butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin, apple, dash of salt, vanilla soy milk (I like the flavor, but Robyn prefers whole milk…do what you like!) Both of us conclusively agree that oats with water = no bueno. I was really hungry & knew it was going to be awhile before I could eat a snack or lunch…this breakfast actually didn’t hold me over for as long as I thought, probably because there wasn’t enough protein, but that’s okay, I just ended up having a snack.

Side note: I like my oats thicker and I keep forgetting to leave out some of the liquid! Most ratios do ½ cup oats to 1 cup liquid but I prefer using ¾ cup liquid instead. Maybe next time!

Lunches

Tuesday’s lunch: I’m home on some days during the week so I was able to toast the bread and melt cheese on it but if I were bringing this to work I would just melt some cheese into the soup and eat it with crackers or bread. 

Panera Tomato Bisque mixed w/ some leftover pumpkin puree with cheesy bread – delightful on a Fall day. 

Wraps are another go-to for lunches – fillings vary depending on my mood. I had bought veggie burgers for something quick, but sometimes they can be quite small/not enough. BUT these ones were a decent size and really tasty! Highly recommend the Dr. Praegers brand. Ate this in a wrap with with mayo & mustard (my favorite combo), greens, tomato, and yummy melted cheese (always melted cheese, clearly). 

My other favorite fillings are mayo & mustard (duh!), turkey, cheese, pickles, tomato, and greens – this was my favorite lunch in high school and I still love it. 

Leftovers! Eggplant pizza w/ ranch dressing. Sometimes I dice up leftover pizza and put it into a salad like croutons, but I wasn’t in the mood for that this time. 

Dinners

I’m a big fan of leftovers, whether it be using random things to make another meal or having whatever’s left from dinner for lunch. This was Monday night’s dinner leftovers from the night before. The salmon actually reheated really well. I should have just done a low temperature for longer in the oven, but I was impatient so I did a high temp to start in the oven and then like 30-60 seconds in the microwave to warm it through….but it worked. I also discovered I really enjoy salmon with mayo and soy sauce – don’t knock it til’ you try it! 

Salmon w mayo & soy sauce + corn w/ butter & salt + pumpkin mac&cheese – Really satisfying! 

Take out for Thursday night’s dinner – forgot to take pic! It was late and I was super tired & hungry by the time I got home from work. My husband was going to cook, but he was also pooped from work so we we both got pizzas and then he ordered this buffalo chicken cheese dip concoction that was better than my pizza so I mostly ate that with tortilla chips.  It also inspired me to make a buffalo chicken sausage cheese dip later in the week so I basically had that twice. SO good! 

Snacks

Siggi’s vanilla w/ roasted & salted nuts – don’t you dare give me a plain nut 😉  

THESE chocolate chip cookies which really are the BEST, promise. The recipe made 19 but I’ve been instructed by my husband to double that. Noted and agreed. You must make them immediately. 

Also not photographed: Tortilla chips w/ salsa and a bunch of other things I don’t remember…AND I also had Cheetos Puffs at work which I haven’t had in SO long and you know how sometimes you have a childhood snack you haven’t had in a long time and you’re like…oh that’s not what I remember it tasting like 🙁 haha well these did not disappoint! In case you were wondering, Cheetos are still good! Phew. 

Well, overall this was a really yummy week of eats.  My routine is to make a list of 5ish meals for dinner before I go grocery shopping. Lunch and breakfast are just staple/quick items on rotation for the most part or leftovers. For dinner meals I try and do a mix of ones that take a bit longer and ones that are quick. I highly recommend signing up for the NY Times cooking site, it’s where I find like 90% of my recipes unless I make them up. They have a free trial, but even after it runs out you can still save and print recipes, they also send weekly emails with recipe round-ups so I use those for inspiration. Speaking of round-ups – we’re going to do something new and have a monthly RLWH Recipe Round-Up post here where our team shares our favorites from the month so stay tuned for that!

For more recipe ideas and all thangs intuitive + CATS follow me on Insta! 🙂

Xx,

Crystal