Eating Like a Toddler

This post was originally published at Get Fit Chicks. It may refer to posts on Get Fit Chicks that no longer exist. Please email me if you run into any of those and I will break the links. More information about the reposting is available here

(written yesterday).

So, I’ve discovered if I stick close to my toddler’s diet, I feel pretty good…hmmm…I wonder why!

Well, in all likelihood it’s because I don’t want to feed her junk. Which is good and makes sense. But then I wonder, why, if I won’t feed my baby junk, would I think that junk is a good thing to feed myself?

After that light bulb went on, I thought maybe I should try following J’s diet. So, for the past few weeks that’s what I’ve been doing and I feel a lot better!

J and I have been having breakfast together since she was born and since I started back at work, most mornings we eat oatmeal cooked in milk with all kinds of yummy things in it – raisins, cinnamon, other dried fruit. We also typically have dinner together because, well, I’m home by then and Alex is off to work.

Which meant the biggest challenge for me would be lunch.

Because I HATE lunch.

Most days J gets a sandwich or some leftovers, a few little containers of fruit and I try to give her at least one vegetable – usually peas, beans or avocado. She usually has a homemade mini muffin or a home made (piece of) granola bar and a yogurt or some applesauce for her snacks and she always has a juice box with a mixture of about 1/5-1/4 juice and the rest water and one that is plain water. Those are accessible to her all day and get refilled with plain water by the sitter when they’re empty. J gets milk to drink at lunch.

I didn’t know where to start with my lunches. It’s my least favourite meal of the day and sandwiches, the lunch staple, are at the bottom of the list (I also don’t eat mayonnaise which makes sandwiches a little more difficult). Most days I take my whole lunch – usually leftovers or maybe salad (bean and quinoa or coleslaw are my favourite these days). Then there is usually a container of cut up veggies (usually I eat them plain, but sometimes I take some hummus), an apple and some other fruit and usually a yogurt or a hard boiled egg and a mini muffin. It seems like a lot when I write it down and often I bring at least a piece of fruit home. If I skip the egg or yogurt, I find my afternoons are super sluggish. If I only take part of a lunch it I pick up the “main” part of the lunch somewhere. And lunch places on campus are somewhat scarce. Healthy lunch places are pretty much non existent.

But amazingly (well, not really amazing but anyway), eating this way I feel better. I just need to make my lunches more interesting.

Any suggestions?