Whether it’s studying for an exam, working on a complex project, or writing double-digit page papers, as students we are more than familiar with the feeling of stress. And many of us are familiar with stress eating, especially during finals week, all-nighters, and when we spend entire days in the library. When students are spending many hours studying, they often can be seen with bags of chips, cans of soda, cups of coffee, and pints of ice cream; mostly foods with sugar, fat, salt, and caffeine. These foods are comforting and may provide a small bit of relief from challenging brain work.

However, what many students don’t realize is that these comfort foods, the sugary, fatty, salty foods and caffeinated beverages can actually make it more difficult to study. These comfort foods are often made up of white flour and sugar, and are called simple carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates provide your body with a quick burst of energy while rapidly raising and dropping your blood sugar, which can leave you feeling tired and unable to focus. You’ll also feel more hungry after a shorter period of time, and crave another candy bar or bag of chips. And caffeine from soda, coffee, and energy drinks can make you feel jittery and anxious.

Complex carbohydrates are minimally or not processed foods such as whole grain bread, oatmeal, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables. Unlike simple carbohydrates, complex carbohydrates digest slowly and over a longer period of time, and your blood sugar gradually rises and falls. When you consume complex carbohydrates, you are better able to concentrate and focus. Complex carbohydrates also provide your body with the nutrients you need to stay healthy.

To avoid over-consumption of simple carbohydrates, it is important to plan ahead. If you know you will be spending all day studying, have healthy, pre-portioned food on hand. If you have healthy food ready to go, you will be less likely to reach for junk.

Here are some smart snacks to eat while studying:

• An apple and a serving of pretzel sticks
• Greek yogurt and a banana
• Baby carrots and a low-fat cheese stick
• 1 cup of whole grain cereal with skim milk and fresh blueberries
• Air popped popcorn and an orange
• Fresh veggie sticks and hummus

If you know you will be spending more than 5 hours studying, you should also have ready-prepared meals. Snacks are great for keeping your hunger at bay between meals, but they shouldn’t replace them.

Here are some smart meals to eat while studying:

• PB&J on whole wheat bread with veggies on the side
• Salad with sliced turkey breast or tofu and a glass of skim milk
• Meal replacement bar, a piece of fruit, and soy milk
• Brown rice and beans with veggies on the side
• Frozen, natural TV dinner such as stir fry

Remember, it is okay to have an occasional sweet while studying, but complex carbohydrates should be your staple. Snack smart to study smart!

• I left for school about a month ago
• My life has consisted of classes, exams, papers, with some room for eating, sleeping, and working out. Oh, and a lot of worrying about what I’ll be doing when I graduate in May!
• I miss blogging, but I just can’t seem to find the time at school. Also, the pictures of food from the dining hall would just be sad. Dining hall food is not fun!

Currently I am home for fall break, which is today (Wednesday) until Sunday. I haven’t been home in a month, and it feels great to be able to sleep in my own bed, eat real food, and enjoy more than a dorm room and classrooms!

(source)

Breakfast

Today I was able to start off the day with one of my favorite breakfasts: an egg sandwich! I don’t have much access to “real” eggs on campus. For omelets, the dining hall serves prepackaged, already-prepared eggs and egg whites, and egg sandwiches with real eggs are only served on weekends at 11am (long after I’ve been up and eaten) and look pretty gross!

I cooked up one egg in a skillet, and sandwiched it on a whole wheat English muffin with a tomato slice, 1/4 avocado, and a slice of American cheese. So good! I haven’t eaten this well in a month

Yummy! The weather looks iffy today so I’ll probably spend most of the day inside. My mom and I may go to the orchard later in the afternoon, but for now I may just take advantage of my empty schedule and do some homework so I can get ahead of the game.

Enjoy your day!

• My sister got married! A little more than a week ago, I was lucky enough to be the Maid of Honor at my sister’s beautiful wedding.

The wedding was beautiful and everyone had a blast! I wish I had more time to write about it but I don’t because…

• I’ve started class! My last fall semester as an undergraduate student. It really has me freaking out! Every year since I can remember, I knew what I would be doing a year later: school. Not anymore! It’s actually really scary. I’ll definitely be writing more about this later.
• I’m a teacher’s assistant (TA) for a healthy ways to weight loss for women’s class! I took the class for fun last semester, and enjoyed it so much I asked if I could TA this semester! I will be sure to share what I teach.

That’s all for now!

I’ve been tweeting whatever comes to my mind, and of course it’s been all about food.

Check out some of my tweets!

Finished lunch and still hungry? Drink a glass of water and wait 20 minutes. Still hungry? Try a yogurt and fruit.

Lower your lunch calories by swapping a soda for a seltzer with a splash of 100% cranberry juice.

At lunch, try a salad instead of a sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, avocado, carrots, celery, and beans!

Mid-morning snacks: banana with peanut butter, plain yogurt with berries, a hard boiled egg and a small granola bar.

Q: How many servings of bread are in a bagel? A: 5! Swap out an english muffin instead and save 200 calories! 

The quality of your breakfast can determine the quality of your meals for the rest of the day. Start off right!

Meat isn’t the only source of iron. It’s also found in- quinoa, chick peas, potatoes, cashews, raisins, almonds & broccoli.

Looking for a low calorie, protein packed snack? Try a hard boiled egg! They contain all 9 essential amino acids- a complete protein.

To motivate yourself for a workout, blast your favorite songs and imagine how you’ll feel when it’s done.

Conventional produce absorbs 90% of pesticides through the skin. Organic produce may not be pretty, but it won’t raise your risk of cancer.

Always wash produce before you eat it, Especially melons, which may contain traces of listeria or E. coli.

Keep your metabolism fired up and your hunger at bay by going no more than 4 hours without eating.

Breakfast is a great time for fruit! Berries on cereal, banana with oatmeal, melon with eggs, a peach with toast.

Craving potato chips? Try sea salted almonds instead. They provide crunch, a hint of salt, and antioxidants.

Small iced coffee black: 10 calories. With cream: 70. With cream and sugar: 120. With skim milk: 20

Another reason not to drink soda: the carbonation leaches calcium from your bones and can lead to osteoporosis.

For more tweets, follow me on twitter @ pbandoats!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

A post isn’t a post without pictures, and since I haven’t been taking many pictures, I’m turning to Pinterest for help! I’ve been pinning a lot lately, so I thought I would show you what I’ve got!

Nutrition board

Food and drink board

That’s all for now!

Where did I leave off? Oh right, Friday after dinner. After dinner we headed out to walk around the strip.

It was so cool! Especially knowing so many movies have been filmed here.

I really wanted to see the Treasure Island show, but we never found time. Maybe next time!

We did catch a pretty cool fire show though.

Saturday

Saturday morning we decided to get brunch at the Bellagio. Boy was there a long line! We went around 11:00am though, so we should have expected that.

The wait was something more than an hour (I lost track after a while) and I was starving when we got in. There were so many choices!

There were way too many options to take pictures of, but there was everything from an omelet station and cereal, bagels, breads, muffins, yogurt and fruit, to multiple sushi stations, pizza, and gourmet pastries!

I wanted one of everything it all looked so good! I filled my plate up with french toast, scrambled eggs, and fresh fruit.

We also had mimosas.

After I finished my first plate, I decided to go back for a second. We paid $30 for the buffet and drinks, so I figured I may as well try and get my money’s worth! I loved the french toast so I got some more.

And of course, I had to try some cheesecake

I’m getting hungry just looking at these pictures!

After brunch, it was time for the scavenger hunt! We split everyone up into two groups, and my sister (the bachelorette!) started off on my team. One of the things on the scavenger hunt was to make her a veil of toilet paper.

Doesn’t she look thrilled A little over two weeks and she’ll be wearing a real veil!

I went above and beyond for the scavenger hunt I even did downward facing dog in the middle of the mall!

I got to see more of Vegas as we walked along, including the Bellagio fountain show!

I also got to see Paris

And something else really cool!

Is this inside or outside? If you guessed inside, you are correct!

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more!

Be sure to check out Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for all the WIAW fun!

I took A LOT of pictures in Vegas, so it’s going to take multiple posts for me to share it all. So let’s get to it!

Friday:

On Friday my flight was scheduled to leave at 3:00pm, but was delayed until 4:15 because the storms from thursday had pushed everything back. I woke up around 8:30am to make sure I had enough time to finish up packing and get anything else done that I wanted to. I started off the day with my usual breakfast:

Flaxseed oatmeal cooked with almond milk, and topped with 1 tablespoon of Teddie’s flaxseed PB, blueberries, and 1/2 a peach.

I spent some of the morning packing up the little things, and most of the morning on the phone with Amazon trying to work out my Amazon Prime account and my Kindle Fire. I talked to 3 people about why books weren’t shown as free to be delivered to my kindle, and got 3 different answers! Eventually I figured it out, but I was glad I got up early so I had enough time.

Dinner was scheduled at Caesar’s Palace at 9:00pm Vegas time, which is 12:00am NY time. That’s a pretty late dinner! I packed myself a lot of snacks and a PB&J sandwich on brown rice bread for the flight.

(Sea salted roasted almonds and dried apricots)

I managed to get a window seat on the flight and had some pretty nice views! I love flying over the west coast and being able to see mountains and canyons.

It’s also pretty neat just to be able to look at the clouds from eye level!

They don’t serve meals on Southwest, but they do serve snacks. I ordered roasted peanuts and a gingerale. I wanted to make sure I ate as bland of foods as possible so I didn’t have any digestive problems on the plane. That would be bad!

We landed in Vegas around 6:30pm PT. The luggage took a while to arrive in baggage claim, which was stressing everyone out a little because we had dinner reservations at 9, and we still had to drive to the hotel, check in, get ready, and head out!

We stayed at the Venetian, and our suite was beautiful!

I didn’t take as many pictures as I should have, but we had a flatscreen TV in the bedroom, a flatscreen TV in the living room, and even a little flatscreen TV in the bathroom! There was also a big shower with glass doors, and a big tub.

We headed out to dinner shortly after we dropped our bags off. Caesar’s Palace is huge!! And beautiful! I didn’t realize that the hotels were also casinos and malls!

Dinner

Dinner at Caesar’s Palace was incredible! As soon as we were seated, we were immediately swarmed with waiters bringing out complimentary appetizers.

Check out the size of this block of cheese!! They sliced off a little piece for each of us.

They also brought us a bunch of little breads- sliced baguette, garlic bread, focaccia, bruschetta, and fried eggplant.

For my entree, I ordered an endive salad with lemon and olive oil. The menu was amazing, but also really expensive! Pasta with marinara sauce was about $25. Also, I wanted to order something that I knew my stomach could handle. I shared some of my sister’s gnocchi with pesto.

I also ordered a pomegranate martini.

When the meal was over, a waiter brought us out a traditional Italian dessert wine. Not many of us could handle it though; it was very strong! It kind of felt like I was taking down a tequila shot

The total bill for all 7 of us was over $400!

My bill was $41. $12 for the salad, $15 for the martini, and $14 for tip! Crazy!

I’m going to leave off here, but don’t worry because there is plenty to come later!

So anyways…

How was your Thursday? Thursday’s are one of my favorite days of the week (besides Friday) because the long work week is mostly over, and I have all the excitement of the weekend to look forward to! This weekend I just have this little plan of GOING TO VEGAS!! Can you tell I’m excited? I’ve never been to Vegas before, and I’m going as part of a bachelorette party for my sister who is getting married in just over 3 weeks!

I’ll be sure to take LOTS of pictures and blog when I can, but I’ll be pretty busy Saturday and Sunday. Sunday evening through Tuesday afternoon I’ll be in LA with my sister, and be back home late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning!

This morning I woke up to the sound of rain, which with this drought we’ve all been having, was a sound I wasn’t used to!

I actually kind of like the rain (unless I’m walking/jogging in it). It gives a new prespective on things. Like this flower

And the little reflection of the chair!

The wild mint loves the rain too

Also along the lines of rain, I hope everyone stayed safe during the big storms that hit today! Luckily we barely got anything- like less than 10 minutes of rain.

When I opened my PB jar this morning, I took one look at it and immediately smelled oats in a jar

I made my usual instant flaxseed oatmeal with almond milk, poured it into the jar, and topped it with 1/2 banana, a handful of frozen blueberries, and two spoonfuls of maple granola!

Which I drank with a glass of apple juice.

Where’d my breakfast go

I tried to stick to the FODMAP as much as I could for lunch, so I packed a salad with:

• spring mix lettuce
• cucumber
• green pepper
• avocado (not FODMAP friendly)
• green beans
• carrots
• a HB egg

And olive oil and vinegar for dressing. We didn’t have much lettuce on hand, so the salad started out pretty small.

Pile on the veggies and watch it grow!

I also ate a Stonyfield O’Soy yogurt because Chobani has been bothering my stomach so I wanted to avoid the milk, but it turns out O’Soy has cows milk in it! They use it to make the probiotics they add to the yogurt. My lunch didn’t bother me too much though, so maybe I’ll keep buying the soy yogurt.

This is totally random but I just wanted to mention it- after I left work, I went to the liquor store to buy a bottle of tequila and didn’t get ID’d! I just turned 21 almost 2 months ago, and I look like a 15 year old. When I worked at a grocery store, the rule was ID anyone who looks over 40!

My dinner wasn’t quite as FODMAP friendly. My mom and I cooked up some ears of corn from our CSA (not FODMAP friendly), some swiss chard and white beans (beans are not FODMAP friendly), and a salad similar to my lunch one, but with tofu instead of the egg.

Unfortunately, I think beans are out I took a Beano before I ate, and 3 hours later I’m still feeling the symptoms. I really love chick peas and hummus, but maybe not this much. I was starting to get used to the comfortable feeling of not having gas trapped in my stomach after I ate! (sorry if that was TMI).

I think in Vegas I’m going to do my best to stick to the FODMAP because if I’m not feeling comfortable, I won’t have fun. I’ll be sure to indulge a little though, because it is Vegas!

Also just want to mention something about my Couch to 5K program- I hit a new PR of jogging for 8 minutes today! It was pretty difficult though, and about 4 and a half minutes in I started to find it tough to breathe. I managed to push through and finish it out! I’m not sure if I’m ready to move on to the next day because it has me jogging for 8 minutes twice, and once was hard enough.

I’m off to do more packing- hopefully I’ll be blogging tomorrow before I leave. If not, have a great weekend!

Last night I wasn’t sure if I wanted to post for WIAW, because not only were my eats yesterday pretty boring, they represent something I don’t like. I mentioned the other day that I was trying the FODMAP diet, because of my IBS. I wanted to try the FODMAP to relieve my severe bloating, as well as other symptoms. I only tried it for a day, but already I think it’s a bad idea (for me). If I follow the FODMAP diet, I feel like I will be focusing on how my stomach appears (bloated or not), and not how I feel.  I also don’t like the feeling of being restricted. Any diet that takes away chick peas and avocados is not a good time for me; what’s a life without avocados .

When I feel restricted, I tend to binge, and then I’ll just be even more bloated than I was before!  I do hate the feeling and how I look when I’m bloated, but unless I want to cut out some of my healthy staples (like avocado and broccoli), I’m just going to have to learn to live with it. I think I’ll just stay away from foods that cause other symptoms (which is unfortunately Chobani ), and keep experimenting. Foods that I really know that irritate my symptoms are mostly fake foods! “Fake” bread- bread that most people buy, with a bunch of weird ingredients bread shouldn’t have, “fake” peanut butter- like Jif with partially hydrogenated oils, greasy food, and sugary food really bother me. But there’s no need to eat those anyways!

So now that I vented a little, here are my  eats from yesterday (Tuesday)!

I started off my day with my usual bowl of oats, because luckily they are FODMAP friendly just the way I cook them!

For my lunch, I decided to pack a salad and see how it turned out. I read that eggs are FODMAP friendly, so I hardboiled some up and tossed them over a bed of lettuce along with some diced tomatoes.

Shaken, not stirred

I found the salad did bloat me, but not too bad. I took a Beano before I ate it, so I’m wondering if that helped.

Along with my lunch, I had a Larabar.

After I left from shadowing, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some extra FODMAP foods like soy yogurt, bananas, and an Amy’s TV dinner. I decided to pick up a TV dinner because I had no clue what to make, and I was pretty hungry. It was mac and cheese made with rice noodles and soy cheese. It tasted great, but it was super high in calories! 520 calories for such a tiny box.

It actually did taste really good. I knew it needed some veggies so I poured it into a bowl and topped it with some diced tomatoes. It was a pretty boring meal to look at, but it tasted good and I had to eat it quickly!

I had to eat quickly because my friend Hilary invited me to go with her to a local community college to watch a tennis game that featured John McEnroe and Martina Hingis! I’m not really a big fan of tennis, but I thought it would be cool to go and see these world champs play, especially for free!

It was pretty cool!

Have a great Wednesday!

Imagine that after every meal. Not fun.

After my colonoscopy, my doctor told me about the FODMAP diet, which is supposed to reduce IBS symptoms. FODMAP stands for Fermentable- Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides, and polyols. The theory of the FODMAP diet is that eating foods high in FODMAPs results in increased volume of liquid in gas in the intestines, which leads to bloating, gas, and abdominal pain. (source)

Foods I cannot eat on the FODMAP diet include:

Fruits high in fructose such as apples, cherries, mango, peaches, plums, pears, and watermelon

Grains with wheat or rye (basically grains with gluten)

Lactose containing foods- I tried a Chobani with 3 lactaid pills, but it did not reduce my symptoms. Does anyone know why?

Legumes- no more beloved chick peas or hummus

Artificial sweeteners and HFCS- not a problem, I don’t consume them anyways- however, also includes honey

Veggies- avocado , broccoli, cauliflower, garlic , onions, sugar snap peas

Foods I can eat on the FODMAP diet include:

Fruits- bananas, blueberries, grapes, kiwi, oranges, raspberries, and strawberries

Sweeteners- maple syrup, sucrose

Lactose alternatives- butter, hard cheese, lactose-free products

Veggies- bell peppers- carrots, celery, corn, eggplant, green beans, lettuce, sweet potato, tomatoes

Grains- oats, gluten-free products, spelt products

I think the hardest foods for me to give up are avocados, chick peas, hummus, American cheese, and Heidelberg bread. These are part of my diet staples, and it will be hard to let them go!

Yesterday I followed the FODMAP diet. I’m not sure how long I want to do it for, because even though it definitely helped, it will be difficult when I go to social events or go back to school. I recently heard about a study that shows taking a Traveler’s Diarrhea antibiotic can kill the bacteria responsible for the symptoms of IBS. I’m trying to talk to my gastro about taking this, but it seems to good to be true!

Breakfast

For my FODMAP breakfast, I had my usual Luckily my ol’ bowl of oats is completely FODMAP friendly! Yay!

Lunch and snacks

I also packed FODMAP friendly lunch and snacks for the day at work. For my lunch, I made a PB&J on gluten-free brown rice bread. The pieces were really small compared to my usual bread, but for the same calories! The taste wasn’t so bad, but it was a little crumbly instead of fluffy like Heidelberg.

I also packed a banana, some almonds, blueberries, baby carrots, and a soy yogurt.

My meal/snacks filled me up much more than I thought they would! I’m a volume eater, and compared to the big sandwich and multiple servings of fruit I usually snack one, these foods were tiny.

Dinner

I was pretty hungry when I got home though, and I had to remind myself not to eat a lot or eat fast because that’s another way to get bloated.

For dinner, we cooked up some FODMAP approved squash, carrots, scallions (accidentally used the white part instead of the green!), red peppers, beet leaves (I think?), and tofu marinated in sesame seed oil. It was pretty good, pretty filling, and didn’t bloat me!

Workout

After dinner, I hit the road for another my first week 5 Couch to 5k training! And guess what? I ran for 6 minutes at one point! I know you runners who go for 7 or 8 miles probably think that is not even a drop in the bucket, but for me it’s a pretty big accomplishment! A month ago, I could barely run for one minute. By the end of my training, I’ll be going for 35 minutes straight! Which I’m not sure if I believe yet.

Overall, I had a pretty good day with my first day of FODMAP, other than when I broke the FODMAP with a Chobani and a lactaid pill. It didn’t work, which shows that I’m not lactose intolerant, but if lactose isn’t causing the bloating, what is?

Hope you have a great Tuesday!

Do you find any foods upset your stomach?