What Does a Dietitian Eat? (Day 3)

Wednesday May 6th

• Snack - Cantaloupe (1/2 cup)
• 4 mile jog
• Breakfast - Mango smoothie 
• Lunch - Hummus (2 - 3 tbsp) with snow peas; Salad with romaine, red bell pepper, carrot, and sun-dried tomato-feta vinaigrette; Dijon-cilantro tuna salad sandwich on whole wheat toast
• Snack - Iced latte with skim milk, a splash of 1/2&1/2, and 1 packet of sugar
• Teach dance from 3:30 - 4:30 and 8:00 - 9:00 pm
  
• Dinner - Black bean soup with 2% cheddar and 0% FAGE
• Dessert - Apple

I had a little snack before my run.  I don't like running with food in my stomach, but I was hungry and needed something to keep my stomach from growling.  After my run, a smoothie sounded so good.  I blended together: 1 mango, 2 heaping tbsp Greek/vanilla yogurt, 1/3 cup cottage cheese, 1/3 cup skim milk, 1 tbsp sugar, and enough ice cubes to thicken it up...maybe a cup?  You probably think I'm crazy, and maybe I am, but I like the cottage cheese in it for 3 reasons...taste (it makes it a little tangy), texture (it thickens the smoothie and makes it creamy), and protein (without it there would only be a little protein from the milk and yogurt).

I only have smoothies for breakfast when I know lunch isn't too far away...less than 3 hours.  They are very filling at first, but not for very long.  I find that liquid calories don't have a very good satiety factor.

I had a little tuna salad leftover, but not enough to top a salad with...so I made a small sandwich and had a salad on the side.  I snacked on the hummus and snow peas while I was making lunch.

After teaching dance from 3:30 - 4:30, I needed a little pick-me-up.  Coffee with my CC's gift card!  I love not paying for coffee.  In the warm months, my standard is a grande iced latte with skim milk.  I add 1 packet of sugar and a splash of 1/2&1/2 (maybe 2 tbsp) - this adds about 50 calories to the 90 calories in my original order, and I'm okay with that.  I've learned to like coffee without all of the sugar.  I used to add 2 packets of Splenda or sugar-free vanilla syrup.  But when I made the decision not to use artificial sweeteners, I had to change my taste-buds.  I couldn't add spoonfuls of sugar to get the same sweetness I was used to...to many calories!

Dinner was from the freezer.  Whenever I make soup I always freeze half for a night when I don't have time to or feel like cooking.  The black bean soup has a Mexican flavor, so cheese and sour cream were the 2 toppings I automatically thought of, but I used 0% Greek yogurt for the sour cream...I think it tastes just like sour cream (that's probably why I can't eat it plain!).  

I try not to have a real dessert every night...meaning no added sugar.  That's the way things where when I was growing up too.  My mom would cut up an apple for us if we wanted something sweet.  Some nights we would have a planned dessert with dinner, such as a frozen fruit pie (a la mode, of course!) or spice cake (it was from a box, but she always made her own frosting and it was my favorite).  But usually it was fruit, no questions asked.  Thanks mom for passing on so many healthy habits!