Tag Archives: healthy eating blog

Day 27: Zombie-like exhaustion

Absolute and utter exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks on Day 27. I pretty much spent the majority of the work day like this.

I think our strategy going forward, should involve napping

Actually, that’s too cute-looking. In fact, it was more like this:

What do you mean I look tired? I'mma go zombie on your ass

I look tired, you say?

Zombie-like exhaustion is the perfect way to describe it.

I dragged myself, from meeting to meeting, struggling to keep my swollen, tired eyes open and contributing nothing of value to the conversations, aside from the odd snarl to let people know I was still alive. How to not make friends and influence people!

In addition, I wanted to eat EVERYTHING around me. ALL of the food. I was ready to upend the entire jar of granola straight into my mouth, followed by a carton of FULL FAT milk, right there in the middle of the kitchen, not caring who saw me.

Needless to say, my body was definitely crying out for fuel just in an effort to keep itself awake and functioning.

I was never more thankful to see the back of a working day. And I was never more thankful for having a long commute home. I fell asleep as soon as I sat down on the bus!

(This actually isn’t unusual for me. I practically have a super-human ability to fall asleep anywhere and everywhere, in under 5 seconds flat. My friends Marie and Kate, who both suffer from sleep issues, hate me for it. I’m convinced they always try to wake me up on purpose when we’re on long-haul flights together. Don’t hate me cos I sleep well).

Whilst Day 27 was a tough one, it ended in the nicest possible way – with the offer of a home-cooked meal from Venessa. Venessa is the ‘house-mom’ and an amazing cook! In under 30 minutes she can whip up a feast fit for a herd of ravenous zombies. So, rather than cave into the exhaustion and order a take-out, which is what I think would have happened if left to my own devices, I sat down to freshly baked Irish soda bread, quinoa and roasted veg and homemade beans. I was never more happy or thankful.

I’ve been mulling over the reasons why I was so exhausted on this day.

It could have been the fact that I stayed up slightly later than usual watching TOWIE – a trashy reality TV show set in Essex in England. Totes amazeballs. Even Lysbet, a pure Cali girl, thinks it’s well funny.

But, now I know, for a fact, that it was all the fault of ‘that time of the month’ (these words should be said in an exaggerated stage voice, looking furtively over your shoulder to make sure nobody heard you).

I know this because:

‘That time of the month’ happened the VERY NEXT DAY
It was exactly the same as last month. Utter exhaustion and pure chaos from a health eating perspective.

When I stopped to think about it, it all made sense – the granola obsession, bad skin, blah blah blah. I’ve basically been PMS-ing my way through the entire week.

I should obviously have copped on to this sooner – the whole thing happens like clockwork, obvs. But, funnily enough, I haven’t paid close enough attention until writing this blog.

The good thing is I can take action for the next time. The two things I always hear recommended for bad PMS are Omega 3s (EPA/DHA) and Evening Primrose oil. I buy the Minami Nutrition brand of Omega 3s as I’ve heard from personal trainers it’s high quality. Omega 3s are also apparently great for fat loss!

Needless to say I will be stocking up for next month!

Food and exercise

I was too tired to take pictures of food today. But to sum up:

Breakfast: oatmeal and flaxseed, bee pollen, apple and a little bit of peanut butter
Exercise: 1 hour of PT
Lunch: Salad with chicken, avocado, quinoa, grapes
Snack: Granola – not the whole jar but a big bowl with some yogurt and berries
Dinner: Roasted veg, quinoa, homemade beans, fresh bread, 2 squares of dark chocolate

Day 20: Snack Attack

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Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs, chia seeds, steamed kale, coffee with milk
Exercise: 1 hr PT
Lunch: Mixed Salad with chicken and pumpkin seeds, coffee with milk
Snack: 1 apple with 12 almonds
Dinner: Chickpeas with puttanesca sauce
Snack: Plum, granola with yogurt and grapes, chocolate

I was too ashamed to put in pics of the granola and chocolate. If I didn’t photograph it, it didn’t happen right?

Gahhhhhhhhhhhh! I fell victim to a snack attack last night. I was stunned by a plum, taken down by granola and then pummeled by chocolate. I was left sprawled and dazed on the couch, wondering what just happened.

And it all started so well!

After the previous days’ coffee fiasco and subsequent granola/burger indulgence I was so committed to having a golden day. No fruit in the morning, just one coffee, no fruit with lunch and then a light dinner.

But as soon as I had finished dinner, the minute I had put down my fork, I started to get ‘snacky’ as my roommate Lysbet described it. I wanted something more – it was almost like a raging thirst. So, I had a plum. Didn’t help. Then I had some chocolate. Made it worse. Then I had some granola with yogurt and grapes. Didn’t stop the feeling, but by then I was full so I stopped eating.

What the hell causes this? How can I so easily sabotage a day of such clean eating? I can I stop the snack attacks? If anyone has any thoughts on this please let me know.

I have a new theory on this. I take back all I said about coffee (I’m sorry, my love, I didn’t mean it. It’s not you, it’s me) and instead I’m actually going to blame the lack of carbs.

SHOCK HORROR!!!!

I don’t mean bad carbs, I mean low GL carbs – brown rice, quiona, sweet potato, etc.

I did two tough exercise classes over the past two days (spinning and a personal training session) but I had no carbs after. So, maybe I didn’t recover properly.

Also, I remember a while ago becoming absolutely exhausted while I was doing a lot of resistance training. Gordon, my PTrainer at the time, suggested I need to cycle in some good carbs every few days.

So, this is my new strategy. And I hope to God it works.

Any other advice let me know! Am I the only one to fall victim to a snack attack?

The Snack Monster

Day 19: The perils of too much coffee

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Snack: 10 almonds
Exercise: 45 mins spin class
Breakfast: Eggs (scrambled), chia seeds, steamed kale, strawberries, lrg coffee x 2
Lunch: Mixed salad with veggies, chicken and avocado and balsamic vinegar
Snack: Granola and banana and chocolate covered blueberries
Dinner: BURGER…with a BUN

So, today I kind of fell of the wagon. Not only did I have granola (and it was a large bowl, I’m not going to lie), I also got a burger with a bun for dinner. Granola and hamburger s with buns are not foods that should feature in a healthy eating plan – apart from as a treat. And today should not have been a treat day.

So annoying!!

But, the one positive I can take from this experience, is that I kind of understand why it happened , which hopefully means I can prevent it in the future.

My theory is that the two large cups of coffee I had with breakfast (as well as the strawberries) wreaked havoc on my blood sugar levels. After drinking the coffees I felt on edge and restless all day- just not satisfied. After lunch I still felt like I wanted more food, even though I wasn’t hungry. And then, when I walked past the cereal at around 3pm it was like an invisible force dragged me over to the counter, made me get out a bowl and go to town on the granola. OK, I’m being over-dramatic, but normally I can avoid the cereal no problem. I JUST NEEDED THAT GRANOLA.

And then of course I needed chocolate covered blueberries and a hamburger.

Does anyone else get like this after too much coffee?

Biggest lesson here for me is that I need to be careful with what I eat and drink in the morning- avoid too much coffee and too much fruit and make sure you’re well hydrated.

As I write this, I’m sitting on the bus on way to work on Day 20 and I know I’m de-hydrated and looking for a coffee. Fingers crossed I can get it together later!

Day 18: Dolores Park life

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Breakfast: Low fat natural yogurt, raspberries, red grapes, 6 pecans, cinnamon, coffee with milk
Snack: banana
Lunch: Vietnamese chicken salad (grilled chicken with cabbage, carrots, pickled onions, peanuts), kale smoothie made with almond milk and almond butter. All from Delores Park Cafe (really tasty).
Snack: Apple
Dinner: Chicken with tomato ratatouille, cherry tomatoes, red grapes

The summers in San Francisco are not the best. It’s cold and foggy and you’re more likely to be investing in a sensible Northface fleece than a cute pair of shorts. The fog is kind of cool to see though- it rolls in over the city like a wave and hovers so low you feel like you could touch it. The San Franciscans have become so acquainted with it they’ve even given it a name. Meet Karl the Fog. It’s a definitely a love-hate relationship.

Anyway, SF summers kind of suck (which is a lot for an Irish person to say) but the SF fall can be spectacular- like this weekend! It was so hot, but with a light breeze so very pleasant indeed. I love the sun!!

If you’re staying in the city there’s really only one thing to do when the weather is nice- hit up a park. And my park of choice is Dolores Park. Not only is it in my hood, but it’s the most fun in my opinion, even with half of it under construction as it is now. It’s chock-a-block with people, dogs (sometimes cats), babies, birthday parties, acrobatics, hippies doing hippy things, hippies selling hippy things (like things 😉 ) and…people kicking back and drinking.

Beers in the sun, in a park. Is there anything nicer?

Before heading over to meet my friends I tried to steel myself against the lures of Delores Park by reminding myself of my goals, blah blah blah.

But as soon as we sat down and someone mentioned getting beers my resolve began to waver and the internal battle commenced.

‘Well maybe one, tiny, light beer won’t hurt.’ ‘

‘That skinny girl over there is drinking beer, how bad could it be.’

‘Drinking in the sun burns off calories immediately.’

And so on.

It wasn’t until another friend Katie refused the offer of beer in favor of coffee that I was able to calm the inner voice and say no myself.

And the good news is I still had a good time. Parks are fun without the drinking.

But it just goes to show that while I have won a few battles on behalf of healthy eating, the war with my old habits had yet to be won.

In other news, I got a hair cut today as well. It was really needed! Thanks Henrik, magic work!

Day 16: That Friday Feeling

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Breakfast: Scrambled egg whites and eggs, pineapple, berries, coffee with milk
Lunch: Mixed salad, roasted veg, Grilled chicken breast, balsamic vinegar
Snack: Pineapple, cherry tomatoes, sugar snaps
Dinner: Appetizer – mixed meat, main course – vegetable cassoulet (smoked chickpeas, corn, green beans) and arugula salad, 2 x glasses of wine

What is it about Fridays – you always feel like you want and deserve a treat! It’s the end of a hard working week and all you want to do is kick back with a glass of wine and something nice to eat.

Or, as has been my habit of late, go out for happy hour, not eat any food and finish up at around 1.30am in the pizza joint.

Guess what I did not do! (The pizza one).

But I did kick back with something relatively nice to eat and a glass of wine (x2). Not 100% healthy but I think it’s healthy enough. Just to be clear – I still want to live my normal life by going out on the weekends and going for dinners and drinks. I just need to healthify the norm.

It was a slightly special occasion as well – my parents’ last night in SF. And we had a lovely time!

We had an aperitivo in the sun at Noeteca in Noe Valley. Such a cute little wine bar if you’re in the neighbourhood with good food.

We then went to Precita Park Cafe in Bernal Heights. Sweet little neighbourhood, with a great dog park if you’re that way inclined, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it for a Friday night. Full of kids (actually the perfect spot for a family on a Friday eve) and they totally rushed us through our meal. The food and wine were tasty though.

Then afterwards we went back to my parents’ Air BnB to chill on the couch and watch TV. There’s something so lovely about doing this with your family – so comforting, so normal, so relaxing. So precious.

I’m going to miss them loads.

Also, one last point to show you what I’m up against when it comes to healthy eating.

This is what I was faced with when I walked into the work cafe this morning:

Death by doughnut holes…

Thankfully they also had this, so I was easily able to be healthy.

Yum!

Day 15: Reflections and Refocusing

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Breakfast: Low fat natural yoghurt, bee pollen, flax seeds, tsp dried cranberries, apple
Exercise: 30 mins PT
Snack: Acai bowl (frozen blended acai, bananas, strawberries, shredded coconut)
Lunch: Mixed salad with plain tune
Snack: Half carton of low-fat cottage cheese, crudites
Dinner: Mediterranean chicken (chicken with homemade tomato sauce and zucchini, peppers, onions and mushrooms) with mixed salad and avocado
Dessert: What I didn’t have was some of the Mitchell’s ice cream my parents bought. BOOM.

The acai bowl is more of a cup really. False advertising.

I am now in my 3rd week of my 100 Healthy Days in SF challenge – where did the time go?!?

This has prompted me to do some thinking and reflecting on how the challenge has gone to date and what I want to focus on for the next while.

Biggest learning for me has probably been that it’s not just a matter of saying you want to change a behaviour and relying on sheer will power to get you there. Yes, will power plays a part, obviously, and the more you practice using it, the easier it gets. It’s like a muscle, don’t ya know.

But I think you also need to think about pro-active, intervention strategies as well. Bad habits take a while to form and they can be steadfastly entrenched in your day-to-day life. It’s going to take some effort and planning to get rid of them.

So, one of my big focuses over the next while is to plan ahead and be prepared to meet the various challenges head on.

The second biggest learning is around FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). This will happen a lot!! You see someone else happily drinking a margarita in the sunshine of a Friday evening, or ooo-ing and ahhh-ing and smacking their lips over an ice-cream and a little voice inside your head screams ‘THAT SHOULD BE ME! I DESERVE TO BE HAPPY! HAPPINESS IS NOT FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF A BAG OF STUPID CARROTS.’

What I’ve learned is that it takes a lot of shouting back at that inner-voice to get him to shut up. You need to constantly remind him it’s all for the greater good, that this is a new way of living, that carrots are tasty in their own way and that the person who appears to be having such an amazing time eating or drinking may not actually be enjoying themselves that much. (Although I’m pretty sure the people eating Mitchell’s ice cream are having an amazing time).

Funny note – my mother is obsessed with the phrase FOMO. She laughs every time she hears it and has started saying it as well. I’m trying to get her to start saying YOLO as well. That would make me LOL.

The third part of my reflections are around exercise. I haven’t been doing nearly enough. Partly because my parents are over and partly for no reason at all. Laziness most likely. So the next few weeks will focus on getting my sweat on!

Last note for today – do you know how to pronounce acai? I did not. Apparently it’s pronouced ah-sigh-ee. Morto for me, I was pronouncing it A-Kigh. Oh how the Californians must have laughed at me.

Day 14: The Take-Out Challenge

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Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs and egg whites, steamed kale with enochi mushrooms, watermelon and strawberries
Lunch: Mixed salad, grilled chicken, hummus, olives, berries (try berries or any fruit in your salad – may seem odd but it’s yum! Kudos to my friend Ly for bringing this into my life)
Snack: Sugar snaps, cherry tomatoes and walnuts
Dinner: Prawn salad (spring grees, cooked prawns, roasted red peppers, mango, avocado, queso fresco) from The Liitle Chihuahua

It’s a veritable, vegetable fiesta!

I did it, I did it!!!!!! I passed one of the 100 Healthy Days in SF challenges!!!

Note- these are not necessarily challenges I devised at the beginning of my 100 healthy days, but rather events that occur during every day life that I know will be difficult to navigate without going mad with the food. It turns out there are many! And we haven’t even hit any kind of holiday, first date, monthly emotional roller-coaster or bad hair day challenges yet.

San Francisco does great Mexican food, it’s a fact. Maybe even THE BEST, if you put any faith into the ‘America’s Best Burrito’ contest, which La Taqueria, in the Mission, recently won. Mexican wave for you guys!

As such, I wanted my parents to experience it. We don’t have great Mexican restaurants in Ireland. The food tends to be of the Tex-Mex variety and you don’t even get free tortilla chips. I knew we would be lining up for a year if we wanted to get into La Taqueria post-award so I suggested we try The Little Chihuahua in Noe Valley. This is also great food – really fresh ingredients from sources that use sustainable farming. They were a bit too wrecked from all the sightseeing and shopping so we decided to get a take-out.

Take-outs are normally a nightmare for people eating healthfully – you get FOMO, there are typically no real healthy options, you’re normally starved by the time the food comes so you end up eating way more than you should.

BUT good sense prevailed and I went for the Tostada salad. I left behind the tostada (basically deep-fried carb of some sort) and halved the portion (it was HUGE). I also politely declined the free tortilla chips, much to the delight of my parents. SUCCESS.

I think a lot of it had to do with keeping well hydrated during the day and having a really healthy, veg filled snack late in the afternoon.

Regardless, this has given me a much-needed confidence boost. I know it is possible to make the right choice! Bring on the next challenge! (I’m not looking forward to the bar hair day one though. It can get emotional).

Note – I ordered the take-out from trycaviar.com. The site is great, easy to use, and they seem to have much better restaurants than grubhub.com.

Day 13: Spotlight on breakfast cereal

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Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and egg whites, steamed kales, chia seeds, raw celery, tomatoes
Exercise: 1 hour PT session (leg day)
Lunch: Mixed salad, with grilled chicken and avocado, apple cider vinegar
Dinner: Brown rice and spicy eggplant with shrimp and chicken
Snack: Almond brittle

I didn’t photograph the almond brittle. It was only a tiny piece!

I read a really interesting article today from The New York Times, about the decline in cereal sales over the past decade. The reason cited are varied- millennials are too busy to sit down and eat meals in general so are ‘snacking’ instead (not this millenial!); people went crazy for bagels for a while; the number of breakfast options available in the marketplace are growing so people are branching out; and lastly people are becoming a lot more health conscious and don’t want to eat unhealthy food.

About 2 years ago I started seeing a personal trainer in Dublin (howya Gordon!) and one of his most important pieces of advice to me was to fix the breakfasts- ditch the sugary, processed cereals and concentrate on eating protein. Not only is it better for you from a nutritional standpoint, it will also help to balance your blood sugars for the day so you’re not craving the bad stuff.

I cried a little when I heard that.

Cereal and I – we go way back. Some of my most fond memories relate to cereal – my gran sprinkling on the sugar for me when we vactaioned with her in Italy, being so excited to eat Captain Crunch and Lucky Charms when we went back to visit Canada. I would happily eat cereal at all times of the day – it’s carby and comforting. Carbforting – does that work?!

But, based on his advice I did it, I quit cereal! Even the ‘healthy’ muesli I had convinced myself was OK. Instead I started eating eggs, smoked salmon and even smoked mackerel (there was a small bit of gagging the first time)!

I stopped short at eating chicken for breakfast, which is what his recommendation was. I think I nearly threw a dumbbell at him when he suggested it. Chicken!

And, you know what – I feel great for it and it’s one of the healthy habits I’ve managed to keep up. I rarely get sugar cravings, and I don’t feel hungry until lunch time. So great, it’s a healthy habit I’ve managed to keep up. I can safely say that my breakfasts are 99% clean. (Don’t you dare throw those Day 11 pancakes back in my face).

Note, I actually also try to avoid fruit sugars at breakfast, where possible. Even having too much fruit has an effect on my blood sugars (ie sugar craving).

Try it! And tell me if you have any good breakfast recommendations that don’t involve eggs. I eat them a bit too regularly.

The cereal selection in work. You have no power over me, cereal!

One of the breakfast options I want to try is this. It looks soooo good!

Avocado with eggs. Yum!

Day 12: Getting back on track

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Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and egg whites, chia seeds, sauteed escarole, raw red peppers, coffee with milk
Snack: Strawberries
Lunch: Salad with chicken and avocado, apple cider vinegar, coffee with milk
Snack: 6 almonds, half a carton of Chobani greek yogurt
Dandelion and nettle tea
Dinner: Brown rice, with chicken, stir-fired veg and Thai curry sauce from a jar
(Dessert: Gluten Free Banana Bread. If I put it in brackets and italicise it, it means it never happened, right?)
Exercise: zzzzzzzzzzzz

After my carb/sugar/alocohol-fueled weekend of debauchery, Day 12 was all about trying to get back on the healthy buzz – both mentally and physically.

I was still utterly exhausted from Saturday night. I’ve started to notice this recently – it takes around 2 days to recover from a big night out. Not worth it.

Thankfully, at my place of work, healthy food is always at hand, which makes this challenge so much easier. We have an amazing cafe, with fresh veg, fruit, eggs, salads etc. I am so incredibly thankful for this. I think if I was left entirely to my own devices today I would have been too exhausted to prepare anything healthy and I would have definitely indulged (more than I did) in a ready-made sandwich or pastry. But, I was able to easily grab some good food.

However, when I got back from work I did cave and I had carbs (and gluten-free banana bread). They were clean, brown carbs though so not entirely bad (unlike the gluten-free banana bread, which was also laced with chocolate chips FYI).

Lesson learned- have healthy stuff to hand at all times for those days when exhaustion takes over. In the real world, when there’s not a handy cafe, this probably means doing some prep work in advance. I need to work on this.

One good thing I did today was to drink lots and lots of dandelion and nettle tea. These teas are great for detoxing.

In SF news, I saw this really cute dog today. Everyone in SF has a dog. Even the dogs have pet dogs. I would love a dog.

Day 11: The Hangover Challenge

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Food: Bad all day, I don’t wanna talk about it. Suffice to say pancakes were involved (from the delightful Chole’s Cafe in Noe Valley.)

Of course, failing the ‘Pre-gaming, night out challenge‘ meant I was battling an additional challenge on Day 11.

The Hangover Challenge.

Question – is it possible for anyone to pass the hangover challenge? I would say it’s only possible if you’re too sick to eat. At least you force yourself into a calorie deficit. Healthy, right? Emmm.

No need to elaborate on the details of how I failed this challenge, you’ve all been there.

My coping mechanism for this going forward is to not fail the fecking challenge the night before.

Orrrrr, if disaster does strike again, I found these interesting tips from one of my fave sites mindbodygreen.com on how to get over a hangover the healthy way!

Coconut water (agreed – if you can stomach it.)
Regular water (obvious, but get as much down as possible, just force yourself!)
Asparagus (!?!)
Yoga (My friend Marie is a huge fan of this!)
I’ve also heard watermelon has all the vitamins you need to cure a hangover.

Or just getting a hug from your mama or loved ones helps. That’s what I did.

We also went for a mani pedi in Noe Valley. I was very pleased with the job the Rainbow Nail Spa did!

This may, or may not, have been my hangover breakfast.

Mama enjoying her mani-pedi

My friend Marie doing hangover yoga.

100 Days in SF

100 days of fun in San Francisco

Tag Archives: healthy eating blog

Day 27: Zombie-like exhaustion

Day 20: Snack Attack

Day 19: The perils of too much coffee

Day 18: Dolores Park life

Day 16: That Friday Feeling

Day 15: Reflections and Refocusing

Day 14: The Take-Out Challenge

Day 13: Spotlight on breakfast cereal

Day 12: Getting back on track

Day 11: The Hangover Challenge