'Feed me Seymour' Friday!

What I Eat in a day

'Getting used to the norm'.

It always intrigues me as to how quickly us humany-peeps fall into routines throughout the numerous stages of our lives. It’s almost as if we constantly look for patterns in everything, particularly in the ways in how we understand others. After a certain amount of time we can even learn to read between the lines enough to know what a person is saying without them even speaking - that's pretty impressive (well it is for me). For example, I’ve lived with my grandparents for well over a year now and whenever I’m recipe testing in the bungalow, at some point Nan will sneak up behind me (in a way eerily similar to something off of Assassin’s creed) and say ‘ooh that looks… interesting’. I know what she‘s really saying is ‘oh that looks like it’s just crawled up from the bowels of hell, is that.. Is that black beans with cocoa powder!? God Forbid!’

On top of such occurrences I’ve realised that it doesn’t always take as long as a year to become overly familiar with people; when my manager of four months walks into our office porta cabin at work and says in a seemingly innocent manner ‘Brrrrrr, haven’t you got your heater on? Oh, you have. Well I’m sure it will warm up soon’, what is actually being vocalised internally is ‘it’s amazing that none of these people have taken legal action for being forced to work in these conditions yet – shit the power’s about to go out again’.

Anyway, you may be wondering what any of this has to do with food. Well dear chums, as easy as it is to get used to the people in your everyday life, it is also very easy to become accustomed to a routine diet. It appears that despite trying to eat a wide variety of things day to day, I may have gotten a little too ‘used to’ my current living situation. Yes, I’m sorry to say that despite my best attempts to keep an exciting food profile under my belt (and inside my belly), the daily rhythms of work life, home life and everything in between have resulted in me becoming one of those people who wakes up in the morning and feels that they simply can’t function less they are wearing the same obnoxious tiger slippers and have extremely quick access to green tea and porridge. Christ!

Now routine and predictability aren’t bad by any means, in fact they usually make life much easier, however when it comes to food, I know that it’s probably a good idea to broaden the horizons a bit. I always try to make sure I’m eating lots of different nutrient dense treats on a daily basis but I am not one for tracking what I eat (as established in a previous post, I’m just too Hufflepuff for that sort of thing) and as a result calories, macronutrients, micronutrients and all the other numbers end up more unpredictable than Kanye West’s behaviour at award ceremonies. However, I quite like it that way. I don’t really want to become one of those people who obsesses about what they eat, I don’t think that’s very healthy and I’ve kind of been there, got the t-shirt, wore the t-shirt, realised it looked shit, threw the t-shirt away and then ate a cheeseburger (using said t-shirt as a napkin).

I am curious though, more so than that monkey George. I’m interested to see if my diet does change from week to week and as a result whether or not I appear to be giving my body what it needs. Therefore in the ultimate food blogging cliché, I’m going to start posting every ‘Feed me Seymour' Friday (guess the movie reference!) keeping a record of all the stuff I ate from one day in the week.

Do I follow a ‘norm’ diet or do I switch it up and get enough variety?

Ooooh the suspense. :/

Maybe you’ll find this interesting, or maybe you’ll think this falls well into the realms of subnormal but whichever the case I just want to verify that this is NOT me preaching to you a ‘right way’ of eating or how much you should be consuming. It is merely an example of what I ate in a single day of the year. Our bodies are all different and all need different things to perform at our best…Yada yada yada… more disclaimer type stuff.

Hopefully this will also show my Nan, who has recently started reading this blog (Hi Nan!) that I do actually eat throughout the day, despite me often looking like something that’s just been dug up. On a some what related point, I would like to note that I am trying to put on a bit of weight at the moment (healthily) hence I do eat quite a lot of food. Body builders call in ‘bulking’ but again I’m too puff for such a phrase. ‘Biggening’ that’s what we’ll call it. So, by eating a bit more and incorporating some strength training I’m sure I’ll soon be on the way to becoming the next BFG (Big, Flamboyant, Gay). 

Wish me luck. 

Oh and here’s what I ate Last Tuesday...

Breakfast

I should make a quick point that since deciding I would like to get a bit bigger I now have two breakfasts. Yes two, I don't get how people struggle with one. Today's double whammy consisted of some low fat cottage cheese on wholemeal toast topped with a sliced up pear and cinnamon and for afters was a huge bowl (bordering on being a double serving) of banana, coconut and chia seed porridge. 

As always breakfast was consumed in bed because THERE IS NO OTHER WAY. 

Snack: 1

Next up were some slices of carrot, cucumber and red pepper which were all happily dipped into some reduced fat Hummus before having their heads bitten off. I chased these down with purple grapes, plain popcorn which I popped from kernels I bought from Asda and some hazelnuts. 

Lunch

Since beginning the 'Make-away' series I have been testing a lot of Chinese inspired recipes and as a result I have now managed to take over 1/4 of the Freezer space with leftovers. Today's lunch comes stright from said Freezer and is a take on a chicken and Broccoli stir-fry - it was good but it needs some tweaking. I had this alongside some brown rice, kidney beans and peas. 

Dinner

Nan was responsible for today's culinary delight which consisted of a classic fish pie. I know it had prawns, smoked fish, basa and egg inside. The sauce was made from milk, corn flour and the secret ingredient - the reserved water that the fish was cooked in (very economic is my Nan). She topped it with some tomato slices, leek/potato mash and plated up some peas and sweetcorn as a side.

Snack: 2 (post work-out) 

This day I trained upper body and as a result my arms were crying out to be fed and what they wanted were CARBS. Naturally I obliged and dove head first into not one but two bowls of wholegrain puffed rice cereal. This brand is by Kallo and contains no added sugar so it comes as not surprise that the taste is a little bit lack luster but its a great alternative for a cereal addict like myself. I topped the first bowl with three torn-up dates and some hemp seeds for protein whilst the second bowl only got the hemp treatment. Both were christened with some Alpro Almond milk, both were devoured in very quick succession and both managed to satisfy my achy muscles and hangry belly (at least until morning). 

As mentioned earlier, this is just an example of how I ate on one single day. Sometimes I don't eat any meat, sometimes I go vegan and sometimes I face plant into cheeseburgers. I would like to say that I try to maintain a mostly 'plant based' diet but for me balance is also key and I won't say that I'm not tempted into slightly over indulging every now and then. Am I the 'healthiest' person? No. But I would like to think that this blog is documenting a journey, one both myself and maybe some of you are on whereby it's not so much about becoming the next Gillian McKeith and preaching a 'superior way of eating' to others but more about finding a healthy lifestyle that works for us individually and that manages to replenish the body, feed the mind and nourish the soul. Eat happy, be happy, that's all there is to it.

See you next week. 

;)