Food Play

Our regularly scheduled program for today was supposed to include an update on how awesome Jenn’s half marathon went. Unfortunately, bad weather rolled in and postponed her race until next weekend, so I’m filling her running shoes for today’s post. Tune in next week for race day, take two, and her update!

Two weeks of craziness lately—being away from home and having a visitor in town—meant a break from grocery shopping and home-cooked meals. It also meant trying to keep control of my diet while eating out and consuming wine here and there (read: too, too often). But now that life has returned to normal, or as normal as a two-job life can be, I’ve gotten back on track with both my workout habits and my eating habits. And speaking of eating habits, I’ve got some strange eating quirks I thought I’d share.

Credit: NatalieMaynor

1. Spineless Greens. I’ve been eating veggies lately like it’s my job. I try to keep a gallon-size bag full of freshly cut carrots, celery, cucumbers, broccoli and peppers on hand to munch on with lunch or for a snack. I do add some calories with dip, but I figure it’s a small tradeoff to be able to get my veggie intake up. I’ve also been eating more salads, which brings me to my quirk. I used to buy pre-washed bagged lettuce, until one day I’d had enough when I saw that a head of red leaf lettuce was about a dollar, much less than the bagged kind. I love salads, but I HATE the hard white “spine” of the lettuce. I’ve taken to buying a head, tearing it up and bagging it myself, avoiding the hard white parts like the plague. It takes a few minutes, but I get custom lettuce.

2. Pudding Snacks. I almost always have something sweet after a meal. It’s a habit I picked up in college, and I’ve been unable to break it (nor do I really want to). My dessert of choice recently is Jell-O pudding snacks. Because my grocery doesn’t have plain vanilla in stock, I buy the chocolate-vanilla-chocolate version. Only I really like to savor the vanilla. So I slowly eat the top layer of chocolate, carefully avoiding the vanilla. Then I scrape the vanilla aside to get to the bottom chocolate layer. Once the chocolate is gone, I’m left with the best for last. I thoroughly enjoy every vanilla-only bite. As you can imagine, it’s a time-consuming and slightly OCD way to eat a pudding snack, but it makes those 110 calories of goodness last longer.

3. Leftover Love. I love eating cold leftover pizza. And I’m sure I’m not alone on that. What I might be alone on: cold burritos. I don’t know what it is about a cold burrito—the cool tortilla, maybe how the spices and the refried beans settle—but I prefer the leftovers of my homemade burritos to the hot ones every time. I know, it’s weird.Now you know some of my odd food quirks. Let us know some of yours!Self Challenge Update
After my traveling/visitor/crazy spree and falling off the wagon, I’ve jumped back on and am back in full swing. After my time off, I thought my first run would be misery. I think my body may have been thanking me for the break because my 30-minute run wasn’t as bad as I thought. Not bad enough to keep me from doing it again, anyway. I’ve also mixed up the cardio with some Core Rhythms dancing, which I’ll review in the coming weeks. —Erin