I do not usually eat fast food, well unless you count Tim Hortons or Subway, the only soft drink woul dbe tonic with my gin.
Bog, get out of my head! And I would kill to have poutine here. I was in BC a few years ago and they had poutine on the menu. I ordered it and it was a strange mix of disappointment but I was so desperate for it, I ate it all anyway. It's hard to get properly outside Quebec!
Now that my kids are all gone (the youngest graduated last year and moved to the city an hour and a half a way in good weather to dance) my eating has changed. I really try to focus on natural foods. In the morning I'm up at 5 am for a run with the dogs (even in the snow) and coffee before work. I drink another cup or two during the day. I don't add sugar to my coffee and have experimented with various milks. I dislike the grittiness and taste of soy, plus I think it's a bad idea to have too much of it in your diet. Almond milk is pretty tasty from time to time but fairly fatty. I stick with organic 2% milk most of the time or just have it black. I used to be a whole grain bread and peanut butter toast girl for breakfast when my girls were around but have recently started to explore other options. Bob's Red Mill makes this gross looking corn based porridge. I made the girls eat oatmeal growing up, just like my mum did, and this seemed like an interesting alternative. Plain it's as gross as it looks. But if you add some Greek yoghurt and jam or honey it's tasty and keeps me full all day.
My job used to involved going to one school. Now I have my office at the district buildings about 20-30 min from my house and then have to go to all the different schools in our district which covers an entire 600 square mile county (luckily the schools are a bit more concentrated, but it's still an hour drive to the furthest school north then east and west and that's if there isn't a blizzard, which is rare! I love my job though, promise!)
I usually don't have a morning snack except for coffee. For lunch, I used to make the girls pack theirs at home and I packed mine. Things haven't changed much. I like veggies like red peppers and carrots and cucumbers with hummus. I used to solely make it from scratch to save money when the kids were at home, but I'm not a great cook so I spoil myself from time to time and buy a Boulder based brand called Blue Moose. Sooo yummy. I like to throw in a tupperware of leftovers, usually some sort of stew or bake or soup. I might be the only woman over the age of 16 that still eats trail mix. I make my own with different nuts and bittersweet chocolate chips and different dried fruit. Yum, yum, yum, and it's good for on the go. A lot more I find myself eating at luncheons for school functions. They usually involve the standard sandwich platter and I like to go with the darker bread the better, a lean protein like turkey and lots of veggies (and spicy mustard, love my spicy mustard). A lot of my co-workers go the salad route at these things but it's mostly just iceburg, maybe mixed with bad romaine, with a couple veggies so they douse it with blue cheese or ranch for flavour. I'll stick with my sandwich, carbs aren't the enemy in my opinion. It's all about moderation.
I usually grab a snack when I get home from work, a hangover, so to speak, from when the kids were around. It might be fruit, a LaraBar (they're so expensive and when I first tried one I disliked it but I had another and I'm addicted, they're like crack especially the cherry chocolate ones, mmmmm), or cheese and crackers.
Then for dinner I live with my partner who's home more than I am and a wonderful cook. He'll do chili or chicken enchiladas or veggie lasagna or elk (lots of our neighbours and friends hunt and fill our freezer, we also make jerky out of it). I cook a really easy dish with sauteed spinach, pinto (or any kind of) beans and balsamic and in a pain. Pasta dishes are really great too.
When my son was home years ago we had a lot more food in the pantry. I kept our diets simple and nutritious but he graduated high school in 1995 and the emphasis on natural and local food was just not there. Living in a small mountain town helps us focus a lot on this, it's not like 'Little House on the Prarie', but people pickle and jam and made other things to sell at local stores. We still have City Market, the main grocery store and a subsidiary of Kroger. I still try to eat more naturally and locally. Not as crazy as some of my friends who are hard core ultra triathletes (yes there is an ultra version, the regular one is just to pedestrian) or naturalists. I'm not vegan, I don't follow the paleo-diet (yes it's what cavemen ate but since then we've developed much larger brains so there's got to be something right with our diets since then) or any of the trends. I'm not gluten free (though most of my students are, and only one actually has celiac). None of my kids have had major food allergies, except my son who broke out in hives when he ate strawberries when he was in preschool. He's since gotten past then. I haven't done anything right or magical with my children either, I just really try to make sure everything is done in moderation and basic healthy guidelines are followed, not ever changing food trends (everyone remembers the low-fat craze in the 80s right? Look where that got us).
I drink, not nearly as much as I did when I was younger and I spent a lot of time after that choosing not to drink. There's a lot of wonderful microbreweries in Colorado and they have great selections. They're heavy so they're not good for every day consumption, but they are wonderful. I like a glass of wine in the hot tub at night too! As far as treats I have a really big weakness of ice cream so I keep a thing of Ben and Jerry's in the freezer and have a little dish every so often. My great aunt lives a few houses down and loves to bake so we usually have homemade bread (whole wheat, banana, zucchini, whatever) and other goodies. I might have one every other day. We have loads of fast food in our area because the interstate runs through it and all the ski tourists drive it back to Denver. I avoid it though. Luckily we live just south of that area so there are more small local places that all my friends own that I like to patronize instead when we eat out. When Maddy was dancing and Bri was doing gym meets Subway was our mainstay. Colorado is also the birthplace of a lot of "fresh" fast food, like Qdoba, Chipotle (burrito places), Quiznos (grilled sandwiches), Garbanzos (a fresh mederterranian place), etc. That gave us more options. Everyone talks about how many calories a Chipotle burrito has but if you don't toss on loads of sour cream, cheese and guac and you share it with someone it's very reasonable, and they also have tacos. It's all about what you eat. It's possible to find semi healthy food at McDonald's too, like the grilled chicken wrap.
I don't beat myself over treats and haven't been on an actual diet since high school. I'm short and muscular, definitely not a model figure. But I run with the dogs everyday and when I'm not at school I'm backpacking, hiking, skiing (during winter and other school breaks I also teach children's ski school), rock climbing, mountain biking, you name it. My girls didn't like these things as much so now that they're gone I get to do it even more. Soon I can retire and just be an outdoor bum full time. I got rid of cable (we only had basic anyway) at the house when the girls left (Bri was upset when she had her surgery and was at home recovering). It gives me more time to read books for fun or catch up on work (or the CB online) when I'm inside at home and gives me even more motivation to get outside when I can. I didn't allow the girls to drink soda at home and recently kicked my own (slightly hypocritical) Diet Coke habit.
I think my girls eat well. Maddy has to to maintain her strict ballet schedule but I sometimes don't think she eats quite enough. When she wasn't structured by school or dance she liked to graze more than me or her sister. Bri has pretty good eating habits too. I know in high school her and her friends would go out and one day get fast food and the next eat a salad without dressing and a diet soda talking about how fat they were. But because of gymnastics she really did have to focus on eating healthier, even in college. I do know she still loves Diet Coke though, which is probably my fault ;-)
Sorry for writing a novel response to your post but I thought it was a very interesting topic.
My next question is when is Tim's moving to Colorado?
