My New Way of Eating + What I Eay In A Day!

Breakfast: Banana, oat and chia smoothie

Snack: Grapefruit and pear with some brazil nuts

Dinner: Spinach and tomato wholewheat pasta with feta cheese

Afternoon snack: Rye bread with pesto, lettuce and tomato

Supper/before-bedtime snack: Red pepper and ricotta cheese with toasted sunflower seeds

(a day of eating for me is usually approx. 1500 kcal + a pre-workout banana if I go to the gym before breakfast)

If you have stuck to this blog for a while, you'd have noticed an odd food post here and there - today, the neglected scrumptious part of Sophia the Scavenger is coming back, yet not with a recipe for a buckwheat oatmeal, but a recipe for.. life?

I'm sure that my food story and bumpy journey towards being healthier will not come as a surprise to anyone - what is more, half of you can probably relate, cracking a bittersweet smile while reading this. 

I have gone through an abundance of different eating habits and ridiculous lifestyle changes, but I'd never stuck to any of them for more than a week or so, always ending up with a pack of Digestives and a Domino's tracking device permanently on my laptop screen. 

I would do 'clean' phases, when I would most likely undereat or overlook one of the macroelements, to swiftly bungee back to being even more unhealthy then before (I figured 'yoyo' would be too soft to describe my eating adventures). 

Because a) food and cooking is a major part of my life and makes me really happy and b) I'm a student, every diet routine I would try out was unrealistic - either because of the time management and money issue, or the fact that, being under constant stress, I needed to at least enjoy my food to stay happy, and if I didn't - well, Tesco is right around the corner and bakes fresh almond croissants every bloody morning…

And so it lasted, the moments of 'sod it!' yolo joy, where I thought I could never change my body AND remain a happy, satisfied eater and cook that I was, intertwined with periods of restriction that never led to any visible results anyway and made my body even more confused.

Until October this year, when I came across an amazing (qualified!) dietician blogger from Poland, who creates 2 month diet plans, tailored individually to order. 

And so I decided to embark on yet another journey, this time with a lot more perspective and not so much pressure, and simply go through it as an interesting experiment.

I am now mid-week 3 and will continue the meal plan till December 4th. And yes, I am saying I WILL, as for the past 3 weeks I haven't thought about quitting, not even once. 

I go shopping once a week and I'm never missing any ingredients. Most of the stuff I buy is bearably priced(no, you don't need spirulina and chia everyday to survive).

I eat 5 small meals a day, so I haven't had any 5pm-post-lecture-frantic-fridge-raiding episodes in a while. I don't spend extra money on 'little bits' from Tesco reduced section, because I know I have enough food in my fridge to prepare dinner.

None of the meals I make take more than 15-30 mins and they change each day, so I am far from bored. 

I still eat pasta, bread, mozzarella, pesto and feta cheese, but I know exactly how much I can eat so I'm not only carbing up on buckets of fussilli with cheese, but getting the right amount other macros and nutrients in as well. 

I also don't use sweeteners and have minimised my salt intake, which means I can finally taste things, as my buds have become sharp as knives. 

My pathological sweet tooth that used to make me crave cake five minutes after devouring a huge dinner, has also been kept at bay and it's been surprisingly easy. 

In terms of body changes, I haven't noticed a massive weight loss of course, because it is meant to be a gradual process - anything that's rushed, is doomed to cease as rapidly as it started. 

I am however a lot less bloated, and considering a pregnancy stomach has been a huge source of embarrassment for me for years, I see this on its own as a major accomplishment and a massive step forward.

I  will be giving you an update in December on how I'm feeling and also my progress - I hope this inspires those of you who wish to change their way of eating, but don't really know how to go about it. 

My tip no.1 - contact a diet specialist , as they actually know what they're doing ;) Don't risk developing eating disorders and deficits - it's not the healthy way of becoming healthier! 

Huge hugs,