Good morning ! Ahhh… it’s Friday :)

This morning I woke up before my alarm (probably because of Nylah snoring next to my ear), so I decided to get out of bed and so some Yoga Download.  My hips have been really tight all week, so I did 1/2 hour of Hip Opening Flow #2.

Boy did it feel good to stretch!  My neck and shoulders really needed it as well.

I wanted to change things up for breakfast this morning, so we made make fruit smoothies!  Chris was the one who actually made them.

We used:

• 1 cup frozen mixed berries
• 1 cup frozen mango
• 1 frozen banana

And we also added some Stonyfield vanilla yogurt!

As well as about 1.5 cups of milk.

Mmmm…  I sort of forgot about making smoothies.  Good thing I I just replenished our frozen fruit supply last night!

I didn’t think the fruit smoothie was enough for breakfast, so I also toasted a whole wheat Thomas bagel.

One half had AB.

And the other half had margarita jelly.

It was a very filling breakfast!

It took me about 20 minutes to finish my smoothie.

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So I was catching up on the NY Times Well Blog, and one of the titles caught me eye - “What Is Normal Eating?”

Great question!  I mean, how many of us really know how to define “normal eating”.  I tend to think I eat “normally”, but so may my colleague who has donuts for breafkast, and Chick – Fil – A  for lunch everyday (hypothetically speaking). 

Normal eating to me means consuming healthy, nutritious  foods (a balance of whole grains, healthy fats, and carbs) but also not depriving myself of any foods.  If I want chips with lunch, I’ll have chips!  I just make sure I don’t eat the entire bag in one sitting, and focus on portion control.

It’s normal to crave chocolate, cookies, ice cream, or chips, and it’s normal to eat these in moderation.  My thoughts are if you deprive yourself of your favorite foods, you are more likely to splurge later (like eat 1/2 bag of chips instead of a handful) and then you’ll just feel guilty.  Enjoy everything in moderation.

The blog post includes highlights of what “normal eating” means to an R.D.”

• Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied.
• Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food.
• It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful.
• Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating.
• Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.

I have to admit that sometimes when we go out to dinner, I eat until I am stuffed, not just satified. So this is an area I could work on!

Do you consider your eating “normal”?