Exercise fuel? (and WIAW)

So today we have a:

But we’ll get to that in a minute

This post was actually planned for yesterday, but by the time the evening rolled around I was too exhausted to do anything but crash in front of the TV with a friend and watch “The Office”. But then again, I had a crazy busy day, followed by an INTENSE workout – so I’m not being TOO hard on myself.

I’m kind of going through a dilemma at the moment, and I’m hoping some of you can help me with some advice. For a long time I’ve stayed away from running and other more intense forms of exercise – simply because I felt I wasn’t yet ready to have a healthy relationship with them. However, I am now cautiously getting back into exercising on a regular basis, and I feel great about it.

I have noticed something strange however, in that whenever I exercise I am WAY more hungry. This fact in itself doesn’t bother me but it seems I can never get full. Worse yet, by the time I sit down to eat I find myself eating in a very panicked, frantic manner – and I hate that. This results in some pretty unpleasant stomach aches and a less then peaceful frame of mind. I always beat myself up for letting myself get to this stage, but at the same time I’m not really sure what I did wrong.

However after looking back on my diet for the past few days I’ve found that it seems to be lacking in protein. Right now I’m usually in a time crunch when I eat my meals, so I go for what’s easiest and most convenient. I haven’t really been focusing on balancing out my proteins, carbohydrates and fats – so my diet has been very carb heavy.

As of today I’m trying to do better and hopefully things will slowly normalize. I’m trying to eat less fruit and other carbs (which have been about 90% of my food intake these past days) and focus on quality protein and healthy fats. But I wanted to ask you all for advice on what I should be fueling up on while I’m working out and what foods tend to fill you up when you’re really hungry. Also any easy post-workout snack ideas would be greatly appreciate.

And without further ado I also present today’s eats:

A protein packed oatmeal bowl (oats and wheat bran with 2 egg white whipped in, topped with a melted banana ala Katie)

Snack was eaten “”on the job” so it was pretty simple : a large orange and a mug of green tea

Next came lunch – a morroccan inspired millet anc chckipea dish with zucchinni and carrots, garnished with some raisins and roasted almonds

I personally LOVED this dish – mainly the spices used in it (cinnemon, tumeric, cumin and koriander). My co-workeers were a little less enthusiastic, maybe because it was vegetarian (at least they let me take the leftovers home).

Afternoon snack was eaten in two parts and on the go, so I don’t really have a picture of my own for it. It was a protein muffin (I used this recipie  and subbed the pumpkin for banana, nixed the cocoa powder and used brown flour) with a bit of yogurt on the side and a peach.

Snack part 2 was a cracker with cottage cheese and a few veggie sticks.

I’m happy these snacks kept me full as long as they did because I ended up going to the mall with a friend and coming home around 8:00. I didn’t feel like cooking anything elaborate – so a simple canned salmon salad it was. This was my first time eating canned salmon, but I still really enjoyed it.

A salmon salad with brown rice, diced carrots, corn and pickles. Simple, yet satisfying.

Have a nice day everyone!