Since you’re probably being bombarded with diet talk, I wanted to do something a little different for my post this week and tell you about my day yesterday! I’ll tell you about what I ate and why, which I’m hoping will be helpful when you’re making your next food choice.

I’ve definitely had my fair share of holiday yummy foods these past couple weeks, which I FULLY enjoyed, but they’ve left me with a bloated belly that has been a bit uncomfortable. I know that what I’m experiencing is temporary and that it’ll go away soon, but I can understand why people want to do a cleanse or an extreme diet after eating and drinking more than normal. I also know that a cleanse won’t do anything other than give me diarrhea and dehydrate me, and that’s not worth the temporary relief of something that’ll go away on its own without any kind of extreme intervention. And a diet will only end up failing, here’s a post I did two weeks ago explaining why that happens.

Despite feeling kind of bleh the last few days, I decided the night before that I would eat three normal meals (instead of skipping breakfast, which is tempting when you wake up feeling uncomfortable in your own skin) because I know that if I skip breakfast I’ll get really uncomfortable cravings at night. Which is normal, because if you didn’t give your body sufficient nutrition and energy during the day it does everything it can to get what it needs before the day is through. And nighttime eating, for me, leads to more bloating in the morning–it’s a vicious cycle. Thinking through everything that I wanted to eat the next day before I went to bed was really helpful, it gave me structure that made my day feel very stable.

In the morning I went to Donovan’s Strength and Conditioning to do some strength training, which always makes me feel better when I’m feeling bloated because exercise helps with peristalsis (intestinal muscle contractions that move things along) and eliminates the source of my bloat, if ya catch my drift. After that, I made avocado toast and scrambled eggs. I like putting a scoop of salsa in my eggs, which is why they’re kind of gross looking, but they taste delicious! And then on top of the avocado I put Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel seasoning, which I seriously put on everything, it is so good. And, of course, coffee.

The afternoon was more phone calls and faxes, honestly so boring, so let’s skip to dinner. Earlier this week I bought the ingredients to make this Shepherd’s Pie, which I’ve had before and is really tasty. But, again, I wanted to increase the fiber in it to make it more filling and to help with my tummy woes, so I made the recipe as described but added lentils and frozen broccoli. I should also say, because I was intentionally adding lots of fiber today, I was really mindful to drink plenty of water. More fiber without enough water is like pouring oatmeal into your garbage disposal and then letting it sit there for hours before you try to rinse it down–things get gunky and stuck. After dinner I had two clementines because I find it really satisfying to end my meals with something sweet.

And then my husband and I watched some Murder Stories™ and after he went to bed I watched The Office for the thousandth time.

Shameless plug: It’s a new year, which means flex spending accounts have refreshed and new insurance policies have kicked into effect! If you’re wanting help with your food I can check with your insurance or teach you how to check to see if they’ll pay for you to talk to us! We’re in network with United Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, and Cigna. You know me, your friendly neighborhood dietitian, just trying to save you some money!

-Jen Lyman, RDN, LD, CLT