As promised, I’ve been tracking my food. Honestly, it hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. On Saturday I fell off the healthy eating bandwagon and I haven’t gotten quite back on yet. But that is real life. It has been an education for myself about my eating habits and I’ve learned a few interesting things about myself in the process:

1. Brett and I have gotten into a bad habit of having pizza delivered when we are hanging out late at night. This is both terrible for my health and our budget. I don’t even know why I get such pizza cravings when I KNOW it will literally make me sick for at least the whole next day and usually several days – not to mention it does not make baby JoElle feel well either.

2. I am an emotional eater. I can’t believe this is a revelation to me, but I was always under the impression that I’m not very emotional at all. For the last seven years, I have been channeling my emotions into physical activity [which is largely what has allowed me to become a long distance runner]. But, since having my third baby, I am not always able to dedicate two hours each morning to exercise – which really messes with my emotional balance – and results in late night snacking on things I wouldn’t ordinarily eat.

I’m making it sound worse than it is – but I am about to be totally honest about the things I consumed over the last few days.

First of all, I ate the same breakfast – [oatmeal with maple syrup and raisins] and the same lunch [cabbage and kale salad with oil and vinegar] each day, so I’m really only going to share what I had for dinner, unless it differed from above.

Wednesday, July 18th:

Zoodles [and Squoodles?] with Pesto

Spiralized zucchini and summer squash with homemade vegan pesto [kohlrabi leaves, garlic scapes, almonds, olive oil, and homemade vegan parmesan]

Thursday, July 19th:

Sautéed summer squash, cabbage, garlic scapes and onion, roasted cauliflower

For a snack I ate homemade cantaloupe bread.

[As someone who doesn’t love cantaloupe – the bread was AMAZING! Made just like banana bread, but with cantaloupe instead of bananas which made for a perfectly sweet and delicious quick bread that the whole family loved.]

Friday, July 20th:

Leftover sautéed cabbage and steamed broccoli

For a snack later that evening I ate roasted cauliflower and eggplant chips.

Saturday, July 21st:

So this is where the healthy eating derailed…

Brett and I were up at 5:15am to get our kids packed up and dropped off before running a half marathon.

My pre-race breakfast is always toast [in this case, homemade whole wheat bread] with [homemade] peanut butter, maple syrup and a banana.

After the run, I ate an apple and grapes and was still starving so we ordered bacon, egg, and cheese croissants at Dunkin’ Donuts and split a donut.

For dinner we had roasted sweet potatoes, black beans, and grilled corn in a sort of burrito bowl. I topped mine with onions, tomatoes, lettuce and hot sauce.

Which was great, BUT…

…then, we ordered pizza and cheese bread while we tiled the bathtub surround until 2:30am.

Sunday, July 22nd:

My kids we’re up at a shocking 5:30am and I had to take them all to work with me that morning so I ended up eating no breakfast and leftover pizza for lunch. For dinner Brett picked up sushi for me and a rotisserie chicken for the kids.

Monday, July 23rd:

Despite a good workout in the morning, I just couldn’t get back on the healthy bandwagon today. I had my usual oatmeal for breakfast, pretty much no lunch and Brett picked up wok n fire sushi rolls for dinner.

So, this week was supposed to be an “on” week for the veggie diet, but it didn’t really happen. I ate meat and seafood, cheese and breads, chocolate and [gasp] donuts. I don’t even like donuts!

Well, I guess this is healthy eating in real life!

Karis