What Does a Dietitian Eat? (Day 1)

Yesterday the kids at dance were all asking me: "Miss Blair, how do you stay so skinny? What do you eat?" And then they started listing all the things they like to eat, followed by "Is that good for you?" "Are Fruit Loops?" "What about chicken?" "Salad?" You get the picture.

One of the reasons I love teaching dance is that I get to be around kids everyday to model good eating habits. And I'm the one they go to when they have a nutrition question (so they don't have to rely on whatever they read in Seventeen Magazine). I get to help them lose (or gain) weight in a healthy way. I love my job!

One girl said "tell us what you eat everyday"...so here goes! Another week of everything I eat (& do to stay active).

Monday August 24th

• Pre-run snack - 1/2 a peach, a few figs, and a couple of walnuts
• 4 mile run
• Post-run breakfast - 1/2 a peach and a mango coconut smoothie (1/2 c light coconut milk*, 1/2 cup skim milk, 3/4 cup frozen mango, 1/4 cup cottage cheese, 1/4 cup yogurt (mix of Wallaby Vanilla and FAGE 0%), 2 tsp sugar, lots of ice)
• Lunch - small tomato basil panini (homemade pesto, roasted tomatoes, and mozzarella on whole grain bread); cucumbers with hummus
• Snack - iced coffee made with 1/2 cup skim milk, 1 tbsp condensed milk, and splash of half&half
• Teach dance from 3:30 - 9:00 pm
• Dinner - Mexican salad (romaine, corn, tomatoes, green onions, red bell pepper, jicama, avocado with a lime/cilantro/honey vinaigrette) and a bean tamale
• Dessert - watermelon

This is pretty much my breakfast pattern during the summer...a little fruit so my stomach doesn't growl during my run, followed by a smoothie afterwards. The coconut milk isn't something I usually have on hand, but I used it in another recipe and had some leftover...so good!

I try to have veggies at lunch and dinner...but it doesn't always happen at both. Today it did. My snack is usually dairy (in the form of a latte or yogurt) or fruit.

It was a meat free day...Adam (my brother) will definitely disapprove! But I did get lots of protein: milk, cheese, yogurt, beans/hummus. And don't worry Adam, chicken is on the menu tomorrow!

One thing someone said at dance was that they heard salads are bad for you. I'm guessing she heard that salads can have just as many calories as a high fat/calorie meal such as a hamburger and fries. And its true; these days many restaurants think that in order to make a salad taste good, they need to add lots of high fat items - cheese, dressing, nuts, fried crunchy things, fried chicken...this all adds up!

I see salads as a chance to eat lots of veggies in a convenient and delicious way. When someone tells me they had a salad with their lunch and it was made with iceberg, cheese, croutons, and dressing...I say skip it! It's a waste of calories and a missed chance at good nutrition.

As you can see above, my salads are FAR from boring. And I always add as many veggies that "go" with the salad theme. So of course with a Mexican salad, corn, tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, and avocado work. And I've never bought jicama before, but have had it in Mexican salads, so I bought my first. It adds such a great crunch (it has the texture of an apple, but it's not sweet).

Someone also asked "what if you don't like any veggies?" My response? Learn to! They are essential to good health!

But remember, if all of this healthy food wasn't in my kitchen I wouldn't be able to eat it! You have to buy healthy food in order to eat healthy food!