Wednesday, April 17, 2013

What My Husband Ate for a Week

So how about something a little bit different? I have gotten questions (mostly from my mom) about how much Terry eats. It's funny, because he's gained a reputation around my family, his friends, and his coworkers for being something of a garbage disposal. But, as you'll see below, that's not his usual routine.

Fun observations I've made about Terry's eating habits since I met him almost seven years ago:
  • Terry tends to eat big meals, and he's not really much of a snacker. 
  • He can eat around three times as much as I eat in a sitting, but he also tends to skip meals, or he'll just eat what's easiest, which isn't always very much food. 
  • He eats more at night than during the morning. A lot of times he'll eat a single piece of toast for breakfast, which is probably not nearly enough to keep him satisfied, but I think that's again what's easiest.
  • And he's not the type to scavenge for food. If I put out a big plate of snacks, he'll munch away, but otherwise he will just go without eating for hours. (I find this contradiction so strange, likely because I'm constantly thinking about food: What should I eat next? When is my next meal? What are my options if my planned meal doesn't work out?)


I mentioned this idea of Terry tracking his food awhile back, and I finally remembered to ask Terry to log his food intake for about a week. He was totally on board--as always--and we set up a Google Doc where he could write in his meals, snacks, and desserts. Terry is a super disciplined guy, so when he sets out to complete something like this, he has no problem remembering (with the exception of Friday, but we left for our trip that night, so I can't blame him). So anyway, here are Terry's meals for a regular work week in lieu of the usual What I Ate Wednesday, but please note:
  • This week was during Lent, and we weren't eating meat but were eating fish for Lent this year.
  • Terry also gave up alcoholic beverages for Lent.
  • Terry works out about 5 days per week, a combination of cardio and strength.

What My Husband Ate for a Week

Note: Overnight oats contained about 3/4 cup oats, 2 T almond butter, 2 t honey, 1/2 cup milk, and 1/2 cup yogurt.








So there it is! I asked Terry how he felt about this week of food. His response: "I could definitely eat more." Yep! I completely agree. Aside from adding back in the meat (I'll post soon about our experience as pescetarians, but we definitely won't be going that route full time), my totally amateur analysis of Terry's meals suggests that he definitely needs to eat more.



Terry has already agreed to log another week of meals now that we're done with Lent, so I'm really excited to see if there are big changes or if the week looks similar to this one.

Special thanks to my awesome hubby for being up for tracking his meals for a week! I'm a big advocate of writing down what we eat now and then, just to have a sense of what we're putting in our bodies. I'm glad he found it helpful, too!

Do you like to write down what you eat? Has it led to realizations you wouldn't have otherwise figured out?

4 comments:

  1. This is really interesting! He eats much more healthfully than my husband, although mine is trying ....

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  2. SO funny- he sounds a lot like my husband- he won't snack at all, but if something is out he'll eat it. The only difference is that mine eats a big breakfast and not so much at lunch. Seems like guys tend to be better balanced while we obsess over when we last ate, how well it was balanced, what we'll eat next. etc. :)

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  3. What a cute/interesting idea for a post! My husband can go without eating much longer than I can, too. It's crazy.

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  4. This is great! I remember when you had said something about getting Terry to do a post like this so I was excited to see it...so excited in fact that I waited like THREE WEEKS to read it?!? Yeah, I know...I'm soooooo behind!

    I love how carefree most guys are about food. As women (and especially us foodies) we are almost always overthinking our food choices/options.

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