The sun came out of hibernation today! It was glorious. I forgot what it felt like to have 90 degree rays beaming down on me.
Soak it up baby, soak it up.
I should mention Wed night after I posted I had toasted Alvarado Street bread with peanut butter and carob chips.
I’m not usually a late night eater (at least I try to avoid it) but this new purchase had to be tested. It passed. Waaaaay passed.
So all Thursday long, I thought it was Friday. I keep getting confused on the days of the week. Probs because Kyle gets back and we have the Shins concert, so it felt like a Friday all day, but I work this weekend. Not excited about THAT one.
Oh well, I’ll tackle that hurtle when I get there. Today, on the other hand, I had off, but I still got up early to be semi-productive.
I cleaned. I cooked. I cyber-stalked read all your blogs.
Obviously the above coffee and Vita Muffin were consumed prior to those chores.
CranBran is my favorite Vita…although with the amount of EB I dump on them, the flavors are probably not even that discernable.
One thing I’ve been thinking about lately, is my portions. To be honest, I never really pay any attention to the sizes of things I eat as compared to the actual serving sizes…I tend to fill my plate, regardless of the quantity of food that it takes to do that.
Maybe it is one of those things I don’t really want to know. Ignorance is bliss, right? But I am curious. The other day at work the endocrine team brought trays with cut-outs of the recommended portions for diabetic patients, and just seeing how SMALL the allotted portions were piqued my interest.
I always clear my plate, and often go back for seconds (sometimes photographing it, sometimes not). But seeing the amount of food that was considered one serving of carbs, was a eye opener! I have never in my life measured the amount of the block of tofu that I ate, or the number of chickpeas that I added to my meal. I have a feeling it would be a complete shock to see what the prescribed standard is. I probably eat 4 servings of peanut butter in what I would consider 1 serving.
Any opinions? I don’t want the mundane task of counting calories to mess with my mind.
But I wonder if I knew exactly how much is considered one “portion,” would that alter the quantity I served myself? And ultimately, the amount consumed?
Anyways, I DO know I had several portions of fruit as snacks throughout the AM.
Fruit galore.
I just craved fruit, what can I say? Must be the summer weather!
I decided an outside run was in order, so I got my corre corre on in Central Park. I did a reverse loop (the exact 10K I ran last weekend), which ended up being 7.66 miles door to door as per MapMyRun. I did take a little detour on accident and tacked on an additional 1/2 mile on Central Park South, but I still completed it in 55 minutes.
My mouth was parched so I gulped some H2O down once I was home, and then headed to the gym to do some weights and stretch. Somehow I ended up on the elliptical for 30 minutes, too.
I got home and got presentable looking for the concert.
I snacked on apple slices dipped in (my one-and-only) hummus, and popped open a bag of Newman’s Own Soy Crisps. Even though it was 4:30, I knew I wouldn’t get to eat until pretty late after we got back from the concert, so I ate the entire bag, and finished the Sabra, too, just for good measure. Portion whaaaat?
Sorry for the weird distorted photos?
I had these as I headed out the door, too…
The Shins were FAB-U-LOUS!! I love them, so I was expecting an amazing show, and they did me proud. It was their last performance of the tour, so they went balls-to-the-wall.
We got home pretty late, but I knew I needed to eat before passing out.
Step 1: Get nutty – apply copious amounts of PB to the tortilla
Step 2: Don’t be stingy with the extras (carob chips)
Step 3: Lick any residual from the spoon
Step 4: Enjoyyyyy
Step 5: **Caution, this is not for the faint of heart** Repeat steps 1-4 with medjool dates 😀
Ciao bellas!
Sorry if I’m long winded, but here’s my two cents. Although everyone’s different, you are a very active person and seem to know what your body needs to perform at a certain level. If you were at an unhealthy weight, I would suggest investigating those portion sizes a bit more and just cut out the extras. However, why limit the good stuff if it’s working for you? If you ever have to cut back, you know what you need to do.
Trust me when I say that obsessing about calories and portion sizes is NOT something you want to get sucked into, if possible (said the girl with OCD who still struggles with this every day, but whatever).
Second (see, I said this was long-winded), I just wanted to thank you for your great blog. I look forward to your posts and even started my own based on the fact that I’ve enjoyed reading everyone else’s the past couple weeks and am relieved to find that there are others who don’t think that hummus is something you do when you don’t know the words to a song.
Rock on.
Portion sizes are just guidelines- as long as you are healthy and happy with your weight, I wouldn’t worry too much about what the government decides is a ‘portion’ of tofu!
Lovin’ all of the pb-carob chip action! Even thought I’ve never tried carob, it’s not hard for me to imagine I would fall in love immediately with it 🙂
As far as portion sizes go, they are definitely just guidelines. Everyone has different needs and requirements, and I would not suggest going down the measuring route EVEN if you are just curious…curiousity is what led me to actually weighing the apples I was eating at one point. So, if you are satisfied with your eating style and not looking to make any changes, I wouldn’t worry about portions. I WISH I didn’t know what a portion size was sometimes!
I’m gonna be long winded too!
I counted calories for about 6 months a couple of years ago. I didn’t want to do it, but my trainer made me. I’m really glad I did it because I did realize that I was eating waaaaay too much – I had absolutely no idea! But, that being said, the reason I went to a trainer was because I was not as fit as I knew I could be and I wasn’t happy with my body.
So, I say, if you’re satisfied with the way things are, why change? You have a good balance in your diet, so who cares if your perception of a serving of PB is more than what’s on the jar?
glad you had a kick ass time at the concert!
portions schmortions man! you get chur hummus on. everytime i read your blog i think to myself that i think medjool dates or however you spell it should probably make their way into my mouth one day haha.
enjoy this gorrrrrrrrgeous weather 😉
no no no elise!!!!!!
you are a true inspiration + you eat what you LOVE.
you are happy. healthy. blessed with a beautiful family, home & city
measuring- counting is NOT for you or ANYONE.
it can suck the soul out of you…. and have seen first hand (family member battled an eating disorder) and the small step of starting to count, etc…. can lead down a horrible path.
keep on shining because we love you.
hummus -carob chips- fruit – frothy coffee-EB-avos- i mean what is better then that?
seriously. food is life and we should eat what we LOVE and not worry about numbers, because food & numbers were not meant to be combined!!
First off, can I just say how PROUD I am of the responses I have gotten on this issue, not just as a (self proclaimed) foodie, but as a female in general!
You all are absolutely right, it can be a slippery slope from checking portion sizes to obsessively counting each and every calorie – especially for the OCD, type-A people out there (hello, takes one to know one)! And since I am truly happy with my body, I have no interest in changing the way approach eating. I LOVE food and enjoy everything from cooking and creating new meals to setting up camp in my frequent food ruts (downing tubs of hummus day after day after day). I have found a nice (mostly) balanced way of living, with splurges that I don’t berate myself for, and wholesome food that gives me the energy I need to remain as active as I love being.
In the end I love food way too much to let something like the serving size deemed appropriate by the government dictate how I choose to get my grub on!
Elise, my foodie soul sista! I’d say DO NOT look further into all this portion business. You look great, feel great, and know what works for you!!
Once I started looking into all the facts I got too detailed with it all, which made me very unhealthy, in trying to just be (by definition) “healthy!”
I think i’m about to go have some medjools stuffed w/ pb too….yumyumyum, I hope you heated up that pb/carob chip wrap! All that melty carob goodness…mmmm!!
I had to delurk to say that I agree with the above commenters – eat what you love, girl!!
I love The Shins too!!
You inspired my afternoon snack of plump medjool dates stuffed with… raw walnut butter!!! Mmm….
Hope all is well otherwise 🙂
I have to agree with the others and say DO NOT start paying attention to calories or portion sizes!
It seems like you have an amazing relationship with your body (as in, you listen to it and you can tell what it wants) so don’t let numbers on the side of a box screw with that. I’d love to be as intuitive as you!
Bread + carob + PB?! I’m oh so glad it passed, that’s divine! I’ve never been a big fan of buttah but your EB makes me want to dive into a big tub of it! Is that weird? I don’t care 😉
When it comes to portion sizes, I kind of toss that out of the window! What I eat 95% of the time is healthy (veggies, two slices of bread at most for meals, etc) so I don’t care about the recommended “dose”. On top of all of that, from what I’ve learned about you, you’re REALLY active so EAT UP, CHICKPEA!
I would say what the others said. I think it is important to know what a serving size is, but I cannot let it control my life. I mean take cereal for example, I am going to eat a bowl and that’s that! I would never want to be the person who has to count every freaki’ thing. I might have a different opinion if I were trying to lose weight, but that is not my situation.
Bah, my comment just got deleted!
Anyway… I think, at this point, I know what works for me and what doesn’t, where portion size is concerned. Counting calories makes me crazy, although somehow taking pictures of everything that goes in doesn’t (usually). My body lets me know when I’ve eaten too much, or when I’m still hungry and need more (although this is a rarity). I feel a lot worse when I obsess about food than when I eat too much of it, so I try not to think about it so much and just enjoy. Obviously this doesn’t always work, but I’m trying to embrace the summer mentality of “RELAXATION” in all aspects of my life, so…
I just bought that same brand of carob chips last week–glad to know they passed the test.
I guess I’m kinda late to this party but I agree with the general consensus that you are obviously doing just fine with what works for you without counting 😉 But you know, I don’t think it’s a bad thing that you stopped to think about it. Knowledge is power, right?
Hey girl!
As you know, I don’t even think about counting portions or calories or food groups or anything. And I tend to eat a lot (readers are always asking me how many people my recipes serve, and I’m always responding, “um, one hungry person? me?”
But then, I eat a diet that’s radically different from most people, which changes things. Most of the time my giant plates are 90% greens. So it’s all about the individual scenario.
Definitely try to avoid calorie counting if you can — I do think it promotes an obsessive and not particularly health-minded way of being. But do what works for you, my dear!