smoothie, stir fry, and some thoughts

This afternoon I had a smoooooooooooooooothie.

A cup of skim milk, half a banana, 1/3 of a cup or so frozen strawberries… *perfection*. You can see the sun coming in my window… we really did have a beautiful day. Smoothie weather for sure!

I know it’s a little ghetto looking all smeared on the cup, but why dirty up (and subsequently have to clean) a new cup when my genius blender converts into one?

The frozen strawberries are unremarkable on their own, and I probably won’t buy them again, but blended with the fresh banana and the milk made for a very nice smoothie.

I needed more post workout fuel, so I supplemented my afternoon snack with a wee spoonful of peanut butter (1/2 tsp or so?). This is serious progress for me, allowing myself to nosh like that. Obviously it’s a habit that can be taken too far, but I had gotten to be a bit much about measuring and mentally calculating the calories of every little bite.

My camera is having some emotional problems, so I only have one picture from dinner. It was a good one though! Baked tofu (pressed; marinated in 1/2 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp honey, 1/2 tsp chili paste, 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce; baked at 400 for 40 minutes—but this may have been too long, see later note), brown basmati rice (so good! the deliciousness of basmati with the nutrition of brown!), and veggie stir fry. To make the stir fry, I sauteed some fresh ginger in 1/2 tsp vegetable oil, threw on a frozen veggie mix (sugar snap peas, carrots, shrooms, and onion) and sauteed, and then I added the leftover tofu marinade. It was GOOD.

I unfortunately overcooked a few of the tofu pieces and they did not taste good :( but 90% of them were lovely and crisp.

Then I went to my favorite coffee place to try and do some work (I spent last night on less academic pursuits… aka vegging out with my friends and watching Old School) and I literally sat down and typed two sentences and they said they were closing. BUT they were giving away free pastries, which they sometimes do at the end of the day. I got one of those puff pastry pinwheel things. WOW it was good. I ate like 3/4 of it (I wanted the cinnamony sugary parts and was less interested in the rest).

Honestly, I feel a little guilty, and I know I shouldn’t. Part of me, “comforting” myself, goes “You’re fine, Ileana! You worked out so hard today!” but that is not even the point. Even if I hadn’t worked out, I should not feel bad for feeding myself something delicious that I enjoyed!

My diet is ludicrously healthy, and I really have to let myself occasionally have a treat and not worry about every single meal including every single food group. The whole point of healthy eating is the long term effects—having a single pastry is not going to have any effect whatsoever on my lifespan or my energy level, and it can also make me happy. I think the past few months I’ve been wary of emotional eating, which can certainly be a bad habit, but I have to let food make me happy not just because it’s healthy but also because IT TASTES GOOD! Even (occasionally!) when it is not incredibly good for me!