Daily food.

The question I get asked most frequently about my weight loss journey is "so what do you eat?"  American culture has been following fad diets for so long, it shocks people when I say "whatever I want."   I found that with any diet that completely eliminates my favorite foods - I will eventually fall off the wagon, get back into bad habits, and of course the weight comes back on.  Now obviously this is not without a caveat, because if we always ate whatever we wanted I would easily be the most frequent diner at the local Chinese buffet and have needed to buy stock at Coldstone.   

When I decided to seek the help from a nutritionist, I was not looking for specific recipes or food that I would now only eat for the rest of my life.  I wanted to know what nutrients my body needs to build muscle, promote loss of fat, and fuel my workouts.  She looked at my goals, current activity level, and shockingly told me that I needed to actually up my calories and eat more!  The difference is now instead of just counting calories I would need to count my macronutrients.  

I will do a more detailed post about it soon, but a quick google search of "If It Fits Your Macros" or IIFYM will give a more detailed explanation of the process and even online calculators that can help you set your own macros.  My nutritionist set my daily goals to between 1350-1500 calories with 150g of protein, 135g of carbs, and 40g of fat.  Using this I can eat whatever I want, as long as it fits my macros and calories.  She also mentioned to look for nutrient dense foods and to watch my daily sugar levels.  

With that preface, here is the first of many daily feeding posts that show how I ate:

Post run breakfast: 310 calories, 31g of carbs, 6g of fat, 31g of protein
Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Rocky Road protein shake mixed with 8oz of cold coffee
1 slice of cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel bread with 1/2 TBSP of natural roasted almond butter
4 oz of raspberries 

Morning snack: 122 calories, 15g of carbs, 0g of fat, 16g of protein
Half of a grapefruit mixed with a 5.3 oz cup of Chobani plain greek 0% fat yogurt and sweetened with 2 drops of Stevia

Lunch: 352 calories, 22g of carbs, 13g of fat, 34g of protein
A turkey sausage, spinach, kale, and egg white omelet 
2 TBSP of sabra red pepper hummus with cauliflower and celery
1/4 C of blueberries
1 Ghiradelli intense dark sea salt chocolate

Mid afternoon snack: 200 calories, 21g of carbs, 10g of fat, 20g of protein
Peanut butter and Jelly Questbar

Dinner: 283 calories, 16g of carbs, 9g of fat, 37g of protein
Shrimp and chicken sautéed in olive oil with kale, tomatoes, onion, and garlic

Evening snack: 195 calories, 19g of carbs, 8g of fat, 16g of protein
Homemade popcorn with coconut oil and 1/2 serving of About time Birthday cake protein shake

Total daily profile looks like this for 1,460 calories:

Ideally I would not have eaten so many carbs at night, but overall I'm happy with the day and glad I got in my popcorn and dark chocolate I was craving.