A Day in the Life - seahorse edition

I’ve gotten my eating and drinking routine down pretty good now. I have a really good grip on what helps me feel my best and what doesn’t. Today I’m going to share my typical meals for the day. As well as some little tips and tricks I’ve found helpful for me. 

5:30am 

Wake up and start sipping on ice cold water right away.  Ice water goes down best for me. Room temp water tends to make me nauseated

8am 

Eat breakfast. These days my breakfast is a chia seed pudding 

• 3/4-1cup RAW milk
• 2 tbsp chia seeds

Let sit overnight in the fridge

• sprinkle of cinnamon
• 3 tbsp hemp seeds
• 2 tbsp pecans
• Appx 3/4 cup fruit.  It varies depending on what I have on hand. Fresh or frozen berries, mango, apples, peaches, and bananas are a few of my favs

9am 

I start sipping on my protein/coffee concoction

• 1/2 cup coffee
• 1/2 premiere protein or Fairlife protein

I like the chocolate or salted caramel

• 1 scoop of Inner Beauty Collagen
• Sometimes I’ll enjoy homemade banana bread while drinking my coffee

After this morning routine, my day kind of flows depending on what’s going on.  I’ll give some examples of what time I eat and the foods I eat below. One of the things I learned over the last few years is the quality of my food matters. When I eat good, nutritious food, I feel my best.   And when I’m not eating, I’m focused on hydrating. Drinking water all day long. 

11am 

Snack time.  Sometimes I skip this one depending on when I’m going to eat lunch. 

1pm 

Lunch time.  Make sure I get a good about of protein with whatever I eat 

• Salad
• Sandwich

2pm 

Afternoon beverage time.  I drink Ningxia Red every single day, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. It’s packed full of amazing ingredients with tons of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.  Depending on where I am, I’ll add in more nutritional supplements to my daily treat.  

4pm 

Snack time.  Sometimes I skip this one depending on timing of dinner

6pm 

Dinner time.  Since I work 3 days a week at the hospital, I’m not home for dinner on these days. So I try to bring leftovers. Sometimes it just looks like apples with peanut butter/nut butter.  When I’m home, I try to cook dinner every night off.  Good balanced dinners with good protein and veggies. 

8pm 

Bedtime snack. My go to is avocado toast.  Sprinkle some hemp seeds and hot sauce on top.  With a side of plantain chips usually.

I’ve found when I eat some sort of bread (I use homemade sourdough or GF) before bed, I have less incidence of bile reflux.  Weird, I know.  I remember talking to a ‘seahorse’ before getting my stomach removed and she told me that her trick for not having bile reflux at night is to eat a Hawaiian roll and drink a glass of milk before bed.  I don’t know why, but that has always stuck with me.  Maybe there is something to eating bread before bread to avoid the bile reflux.

Snacks:

• 2 hard boiled eggs with clementine
• 2 tillamook snack cheeses with clementine
• Almonds with gf pretzels
• Hummus and veggies/crackers
• Pistachios
• Apples with peanut butter/but butter. I love the RX nut butter packets to take on the go
• Beef sticks (Archie’s) with clementines

The protein intake is super important for me because if I don’t eat enough protein with a carb, I get reactive hypoglycemia or late dumping about 2 hours after I eat.  It’s not fun to have a super low blood sugar nor is it good for our bodies.  Having a roller coaster of blood sugars can cause a lot of damage in the long run.  

I think it’s important to remember that everybody is different and responds differently to different things, so what works for me may not work for you. 

I hope you found this helpful or informative. ♥️

Being Social with Food

 With 4th of July being tomorrow I thought this topic was fitting.  When we gather with friends and family, there is often food involved.  Early in my stomachless journey this would cause some anxiety for me.  When you are so used to socializing a certain way and that changes just because of your eating habits, there is a learning curve.  So while teaching my body how to digest food in a different way, there was another lesson to be had.

How to be social around food.  When you don't have a stomach its pretty important to chew your food ALOT.  Think, no stomach = no stomach acid to break down the food.  So my teeth and saliva are what do the majority of breaking down my food.  When you're focused on chewing your food, it can be difficult to be social, talk, and interact with people.  I've found just being open and vulnerable has been the best way.  Letting people know I'm not talking a lot for this reason.  Or if I'm talking with food in my mouth, this is why.  Simply giving a hand gesture to wait for my response.  

I used to wonder what people thought of all this.  But life's way too short to worry about that.  I'm doing what I need to do to take care of my body the best way I know how.  And it's doesn't really matter what people think of it.

Just like when I have a plate half empty because I know I'm not going to be able to eat a ton.  People who don't know me say things like "is that all you're going to eat?"  I used to find myself getting defensive to this.  But I know it comes from a genuine place of curiosity.  People see how thin I am and how much food I put on my plate.  It's all good.  Then they see me go back for more in a couple of hours and wonder to themselves "I'm still stuffed and she's eating again?"  Kind of goes back to the idea that we shouldn't judge others.  We often don't know what they are going through.  There's no sense in creating shame, when we can be building each other up.  

It does get a bit annoying needing to think about food ALL the time.  But I embrace it most of the time.  I know I feel best when I eat often and fuel my body with good food.  And I want to feel good.  So if that's what I gotta do, that's what I'll do.  When we take care of ourselves, our bodies take care of us.  This month, I'm really focusing on self care.  What does that actually mean?  How do we accomplish it?  You can find me on Instagram @the_eo_seahorse to follow along.  

So for those of you who are feeling a bit anxious about socializing for the 4th of July for one reason or another.  You got this.  The more I've done it, the better it's gotten.  And I believe it will for you too.  Sometimes when we are the most uncomfortable are the times we are going to learn the most from.  Lean into that discomfort.  You might be surprise what you learn from yourself.