I get asked A LOT of questions about food. What do I eat on a daily basis? What nutrition advice can I dish out?
I’m always hesistent to talk about food because:
[ONE] I’m not a registered dietician, nutrition expert or even a health coach. My certifications are as a personal trainer and yoga teacher. Yes, my personal training text book talked a teeny tiny bit about nutrition. But hardly enough to qualify me to dish out nutrition advice.
[TWO] My eating habits are pretty meh.
I’m not very confident in my cooking abilities. I make the same thing for lunch every day. Certain veggies really hurt my stomach. And I eat fried rice for dinner fairly often.
Working out has always been easy for me. I love moving my body. I don’t have to actively think about working out or going to yoga. It’s part of my life.
Eating “well” and cooking for myself are a whole other story. People are always surprised to hear I don’t really cook, but it’s true. It’s not something I enjoy doing and finding delicious food in NYC isn’t very hard. But cooking in my closet sized kitchen in NYC feels hard to me because I suck at cooking and don’t *really* know how to do it.
I make lunch for myself 4-5 days a week, which is pretty easy because I’m usually home in the middle of the day. Lunch is the same thing literally every day. Kale. Chickpeas. Sautéed in coconut oil with nutritional yeast and lemon juice. Served over brown rice. It’s easy. I know that if I buy two cans of chickpeas and one big batch of kale I can get a week of meals out of it.
Dinner is a bit of a crap shoot. I’d like to say I eat Sweetgreen for dinner most nights. But that’s a total lie. I love Sweetgreen, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes salads are hard for me to digest.
More often than not I’m ordering delivery from somewhere or meeting friends for dinner. On Thursdays I always treat myself to sushi from my favorite place.
I share all of this and the below to remind you guys: I’m so NOT perfect when it comes to eating. Or anything in the wellness-sphere. I have days where I’m nailing this healthy living thing. And then days where I snack every hour on the hour.
I wanted to address some of the FAQ I get surrounding food topics + chat a bit more about my current food philosophy and how I approach eating. I know this can be a super sensitive subject for some, so if this is not a topic for you to read about right now I so respect that and send lots of love and healing vibes your way 💗
First things first: I don’t follow any particular diet.
Sometimes I tell people I’m pescatarian out of laziness. But I’m not a pescatarian. If we’re getting nitty gritty I don’t eat red meat or pork. But I will eat chicken and turkey. I do my best to eat as dairy-free as I possibly can because I’m lactose intolerant. But I’ll pop a Lactaid pill and suck up the belly ache for an Indian food date with Jeremy once a week.
Why don’t you eat red meat / pork?
I don’t have a good reason except that it grosses me out and I decided to stop eating red meat and pork when I was 12. For whatever reason chicken and turkey don’t bother me. My mom also doesn’t eat red meat or pork so it wasn’t a big deal growing up.
Will you always eat like this?
Maybe. But if some day I’m craving steak or a hamburger, I’m going to eat it. This isn’t about a food restriction but rather something I simply don’t like. Apparently you also lose the ability to digest red meat when you haven’t had it in awhile. Buuuuut I’ll conquer that issue if/when I need to.
So you’re dairy-free, right?
Yes, I try to eat dairy-free as best as I can. Minus my love of Indian food like I said above. But I also try not to drive myself crazy when I’m at a restaurant and don’t know every ingredient in what I’m eating.
Why dairy-free
I’ve always had some digestion issues, like most Jewish people from eastern European lineages. Growing up I remember my belly used to always hurt after drinking chocolate milk at my favorite diner. I spent a good chunk of freshmen year of college battling serious nausea spells. I blamed it on anxiety, because my god was I anxious freshman year, but now I realize it was probably all those non-fat chai lattes I was drinking before class. Okay and maybe a little bit anxiety too.
Shortly after graduating college I decided to play around with removing dairy from my diet. I noticed a HUGE difference in how I felt. My belly no longer felt so angry all the time. I stopped having frequent nausea spells. And giving up dairy ended up not being all that difficult. I joked with a friend recently that giving up dairy was WAY easier for me than if I would have had to give up gluten. I’ve always kind of hated milk. As a young kid my parents would bribe me to drink milk because they were worried I wasn’t getting enough calcium. But bread is easily my favorite food, ever. I could happily eat a breadbasket for dinner.
For the record, I’ve never been *officially* tested for lactose intolerance. But according to 23 and Me, based on my genetics I’m likely to be lactose intolerant. I probably should get the test one of these days… but drinking that sugary goop sounds awful.
Do you miss cheese?
Yes, of course. I’m human. But when I realized I love cheese but cheese doesn’t love me back it was a lot easier to stop eating dairy.
Also, in the year 2018 there are like a million delish nut cheese options out there. Shout out to Kite Hill and Miyokos for making lactose intolerance suck less. And Double Zero for making the most delicious vegan pizza ever.
Sometimes I feel like I’m the last gluten eating wellness blogger out there
I’m half kidding. But also kind of not…
When I was having all those stomach issues in college my doctor tested me for celiac, as you do, and the tests came back negative. I eat a lot of gluten and don’t find I have any major issues with it. Considering I lived off of pasta and bread when I was marathon training in 2015, I think I would have figured out if it was a major no-no for my digestion system.
Everyone’s body is SO different. Eating gluten works for me. Dairy does not. You gotta figure out what works for you.
What are some of your go-to places to grab lunch / dinner:
I really love:
• Dig Inn. I lived off of Dig Inn bowls at my previous job. So. Good.
• byChloe. Okay Chloe’s is 100% healthy, but it’s 100% vegan. When I’m in a pickle and want something I know is going to be meat and dairy-free, Chloe is the best. I’ve tried [almost] everything on their menu, no joke. They have the best vegan mac’n’cheese I’ve been able to find. And it’s made with sweet potatoes!
• Mulberry & Vine. Mulberry & Vine focuses on offering clean eats. It’s a bit like Dig Inn in the sense that you can build your own meal. I personally am a mega fan of their turkey chili.
• sweetgreen. It’s basic but it does the trick. My two favorite options here are the guacamole greens (I like to add cabbage instead of onions) and the shroomami.
• Peacefood Cafe. Living near Peacefood Cafe has been a game changer for me. When in doubt, I know I can order something delicious and vegan from here. Also if you’re looking for the best vegan dessert in town, Peacefood is your best bet. I want my future wedding cake to be the vegan strawberry cheesecake. Yum.
• poke of all sort. I’m really glad NYC has embraced the poke graze. My personal favorite for poke are Pokee and PokeSpot. Solely based on freshness of fish and the topping their offer.
• Glaze. Glaze is one of my favorite quick lunch options. I like to get the salmon teriyaki over brown rice which comes with a little side salad. I’ll pretend that by eating the salad and ordering salmon, it’s a super healthy meal.
I share all of this to address some of the questions I get asked and also to say I’m SO not perfect when it comes to eating. By now you know I’m far from perfect when it comes to anything in the wellness-sphere…
Leave a Reply