Tag Archives: wiaw

WIAW - Counting Cals Edition

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Happy Registered Dietitian day!

orchids

I walked into the office today greeted by a lovely little orchid plant and a bar of chocolate.

All of the dietitians received flowers and chocolate (how fitting, right?) from the Director and Clinical Manager, and they were so kind to include me. Albeit they tweaked mine, but I still felt pretty special.

RD day is smack in the middle of National Nutrition Month, which I have yet to talk about here on the blog but I promise I have a post for it coming up! How could I possibly let it go unnoticed?

Anyway, in honor of this day/month I thought I would bring back What I Ate Wednesday but with a little twist. Dietitians everywhere know that there is an energy/calorie calculation for just about every situation. Naturally, as a test, I plug in my stats to see what the numbers come out to. From the Harris-Benedict equation to the classic calories per kilo, most estimations for me fall within the range of 1800-2000 calories per day (*including a factor for physical activity).

Considering I stopped counting calories a few years ago, I always just assumed that I ate within my needed range because, well, my weight hasn’t changed all that much (give or take a few pounds). So out of sheer curiosity, I present to you:

 

What I Ate Wednesday - Counting Cals Edition

 

Breakfast: Overnight oats with mixed berries, vanilla protein powder, coconut yogurt, bran buds, milk and old-fashioned oats, black coffee - 460 calories

Snack: (unpictured) Banana, black coffee - 120 calories

Lunch: (unpictured) Half of a turkey wrap in spinach lavash with spicy mustard, spring greens, tomato and onion, cup of boston clam chowder, chopped cucumbers and pickled beets on the side - about 500 calories

Snack: Crackers with avocado hummus (a.k.a. guacummus.. recipe soon!) - 270 calories

Dinner: Cabbage rolls stuffed with brown rice and ground turkey topped with marinara (food bucket list item, another recipe coming soon!) - 330 calories

Dessert: Hunk of chocolate from my RD day gift - 180 calories

Total: 1860 calories

(unless I go back for more chocolate, I can’t make any promises…)

 

So I’m pretty much right in the range of my estimated calories needs. Lunch was a guesstimate because I forgot to check the calorie label on the clam chowder, but I do know that the hospital uses low-fat versions of creamy soups so I had a good guess.

Some days I eat more and some days I eat less. Today was a pretty good snapshot of my norm, although dinner is usually a bit larger. And I don’t typically have an afternoon snack but the calories evened out.

I want to reiterate that I do not normally count calories, if ever. Mindful eating is ALWAYS encouraged. If I’m hungry, I eat. If I’m not, well sometimes I still eat but that’s just because I can’t deny my love of food. Never do I restrict or deny myself anything that I want. Please know that this is simply how I eat, and not to be used as a guide. To each his own!

 

How do you feel about counting calories?

WIAW: It’s always the same…

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15

I have been kind of slacking on my “What I Ate Wednesday” posts.

Want to know why?

Because I eat the same things basically everyday. Except for dinner, that changes up a bit more often than my other eats. But I’m serious, do you guys really want to see all of my egg&cheese sandwiches, egg scrambles, green smoothies and bowls of oatmeal? I mean let’s be honest, they all look the same to you, no?

I’m a creature of habit mostly. And also, eating the same rotation of foods ensures that I stick to my insanely strict budget. Next year when I have more disposable income, I will be more apt to expand my everyday eats, but for now, this is what I have to work with.

Don’t get me wrong, I do still eat a well-balanced diet. I mean, what kind of dietitian-to-be would I really be if I was eating boxed macaroni and cheese at every meal? As much as people think it’s more expensive to eat healthy, I can assure you that is not the case. Remember when I posted about grocery shopping on a budget?

Anyway, I’m not entirely sure where I was going with this post. Mostly I was taking a break from working on yet another case study (critically ill trauma patient… can you say enteral/parenteral mess?).

But I also wanted to ask you guys, my readers, how you feel about WIAW posts. Would you prefer if I posted different foods from the past week as opposed to just a single day’s worth of food? Possibly my weekly dinner menu? I don’t know, you tell me!

WIAW: Ugly and green

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20

When was the last time I posted for What I Ate Wednesday?…

I know I know, you guys are dying to know what I’ve been eating every Wednesday, so sorry that’s been missing from your lives!

This will be quick because I’m putting off studying for a quiz and doing a case study. So prioritized I know, but it’s all on cardiovascular disease and I know that ‘ish better than my vitamins and minerals. Pretend I didn’t just admit that ok? Ok good

The day started with an egg, muenster and raspberry jam sandwich, along with black coffee.

For an early lunch around 11, I had leftover spaghetti from last night. Homemade marinara yum! No photo since it was in a public place and I didn’t feel like getting made fun of. But then again why should I care what people think, you can already tell I’m weird as evidenced by this blog.

Since lunch was early, I had another lunch around 3… giant green smoothie! I call it the Hulk. Banana, peanut butter, vanilla whey protein, milk and lots of spinach.

After a good workout, I was feeling something hearty for dinner…

Meatloaf (I swear it’s meatloaf it just looks more like mush with onions), Alexa sweet potato fries and roasted broccoli. Yes this entire dinner was done by oven. And yes, I realize I could easily make my own sweet potato fries but I impulsively bought a large bag of these at Costco a few months ago and am trying to use them up. Still tasty and good for refueling.

You would never know that I was a decent cook by looking at this day of eats, so disregard it’s lack of aesthetic. Except for the green smoothie, that’s pretty, right?

 

When’s the last time you had a green smoothie? Go make one!