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(This is cross-posted at BlogHer.)

Is it possible to talk about fitness without mentioning food? There aren’t many fitness- or sports-related bloggers who neglect to mention what they use to fuel their bodies. I like reading about what other people eat because it tends to give me new ideas (or at the very least, it reminds me I need more variety in my diet).

My go-to phrase is that I can cook – my dinners and baked desserts have always turned out good so far – but if I’m only feeding myself, more often than not I’m not going to make the effort. Especially now that I’m using my after-work hours to take belly dancing classes, or yoga, or to run a few miles around my neighborhood…I feel like it’s more productive for me to have that bit of activity rather than spending the time in the kitchen.

(Another advantage to being active after work? Just like I said above – there is less time spent in the kitchen. I don’t know about you, but when I had all those hours to kill between when I got home and the time I went to bed, I was always looking for something to snack on.)

I definitely eat differently now than I used to years ago, but I’ve found that when you become accustomed to eating foods that are good for you a majority of the time, you just don’t want the other stuff anymore. Cake, cookies, ice cream? I don’t buy it, or crave it. Do you know when people stop drinking soda, and then months later they try it again and complain that it tastes way too overly-sweet? It’s the same concept.

Certain people I work with think I’m strange because I never partake in the occasional ice cream parties we have. Another example? My new male office-mate bought me a cookie last week, and when he put it on my desk I smiled and said, “No, thanks.” (He’s a very quick learner. On Friday he bought me a banana instead.)

I’m the same way with fried foods. Co-workers don’t bother asking if I want their extra French fries or onion rings, because they know I’ll decline. (If you stop eating fried foods and try them again after a long hiatus? The grease will coat your mouth and leave an aftertaste for hours. It’s unpleasant.)

I take my own food to work every day, and I could probably count on one hand the times I’ve gone out for lunch in the 9 months I’ve been at my current job. I carry a large purse around so I can fit all my various containers: breakfast, lunch, snacks.

So what kinds of food do I eat?

Since my roommate and I hardly ever cook, most of my kitchen staples are quick to grab and/or easy to prepare: fruit, like apples and bananas. Low-fat mozzarella cheese sticks. Kashi Go Lean and Grape Nuts cereal. Old-fashioned oatmeal (not the kind sold in individual packets). Unsweetened applesauce. Chicken, turkey, and faux-meat sliced lunchmeat. Turkey burgers. Boca burgers. Frozen vegetables, like broccoli and Brussels sprouts. And, of course, soup. (I like this brand I find in the freezer section that comes in individually-wrapped plastic servings. It seems fresher and has less sodium than the kind sold in the can.) I also drink protein shakes after I do a weight workout (and usually before I go running, too – especially if I’ve just gotten home from work and I’m hungry, but don’t want a lot of food in my stomach).

An advantage to being a single gal (living with a female vegan roommate) is that it’s very easy to keep junk-food out of the house and focus on foods with less artificial ingredients. I tend to indulge in higher-calorie foods when I go out to eat at a restaurant or if I’m spending a weekend at my mom’s house.

Some people like to eat three meals and a snack. I eat mini-meals. This works for me, especially since I have a desk job (eating something every hour or two breaks up what I’m doing). Especially during the week, it’s normal for me to eat up to 7-8 times a day – but keep in mind, those eating-instances are usually 200-300 calories each. My normal calorie consumption usually falls between 1700-2000 per day.

The thing is, healthy eating has become automatic for me, and that’s the key. I’m eating the way I want to eat, so I don’t feel deprived. And the best part? If the majority of the foods you eat are good for you, you won’t ever have to worry about dieting.

Corinne at Phit-n-Phat agrees that eating well and living healthy become automatic after a while.

It struck me today…how it is second nature for me to think about my healthy foods and fitness FIRST, and the junk, indulgent stuff second.

I don’t know when the change happened, but I know the last few years of plugging away, doing the right things each day, that going off plan feels uncomfortable. It used to be eating right and exercising was abnormal. I had to work at getting it in, something always came up that was more important than the gym, buying healthy foods at the grocery store was “expensive” and “no fun”, and eating right meant most of my foods weren’t going to taste good.

Now, I move things around MY WORKOUTS because, yes, they are that important. I go to the store and am SHOCKED at how much convenience foods cost compared to the batch of chicken and rice I cook. Did you know a bag of eight to ten apples costs about the same as six little cups of applesauce? Unbelieveable, I know. The biggest WOW moment is the fact that I enjoy my oatmeal, grapefruit is no longer bitter and doesn’t need sugar, and Fiber One is a sweet cereal when you get off the sugar train. My taste buds ACTUALLY TASTE the fresh foods rather than searching for a gazillion grams of sodium and sugar added to it.

MizFit is a fan of clean eating (meaning minimally- or less-processed food), and I wholeheartedly agree with the advantage she gives of “eating clean”:

The cleaner you eat the more calories you can consume while not gaining weight.

We’ve all seen the magazine articles where they show us a donut versus a large bowl of fruit and a stack of crackers and a few cubes of cheese and ask which would you rather have for the same amount of calories?

(Another tip from MizFit: If you need snacks when you’re on-the-go, you can avoid fast food by making sure to stock your trunk in advance.)

Eartha at Trying Fitness likes the idea of eating clean, but admits it can sometimes be a hassle. One of her examples:

Fact 2: Cooking Every Day Kinda Sucks
Eating clean means no fast-food convenience and if you’re super busy in your daily life (which a majority of people are) you’ll be spending a lot of time preparing your 5 to 6 meals for each day. Whether you do it every morning, every evening, or once for the entire week, that is time that has to be found.

I liked the post Spin Diva wrote about how proud she’s to be a “health nut” mom.

My son, we’ll call him Jteen, was discussing food with his friends, something he does frequently because he’s always hungry. [...] The kids were talking about what they eat or were planning to eat after school. Jteen said, “we don’t have any soda or junk food at home.” To which one teen replied, “oh that’s right, your mom is a health nut, ha ha!” Another teen said, “no junk food or soda for him.” They all laughed, he said, then the next comment was my favorite…”that’s pretty cool that your mom is a health nut, so you really enjoy it when she does buy junk food.” Another teen said, “no wonder I never see you buying anything from the junk machine.” [...]

I am proud to be a “health nut” mom. It’s a plus that his friends think “it’s cool” to be a health nut.

Taylor Ryan from Real Women Lift has a list of the 10 Greatest Post-Workout Snacks.

The post workout snack is responsible for replenishing the body with lost sugar and nutrients during a hard, intense workout and helping the body to recover. Research shows that people that have a post workout snack (particularly one high in protein) have bigger muscle gains that those that don’t after a 30 day period.

A tip I’ve heard many times, when you have food in the house you don’t want to eat? Throw it out. This is what fellow BlogHer-contributor Suzanne does.

To avoid eating too much of something good at home, I often throw a portion of the food away. However, there are times when I want it back so badly that I actually retrieve it from the trash. I’m not so depraved as to do so if there are nasty things in the garbage, but if the item I want is on the top of the pile, maybe on a clean-ish napkin, I may find myself eating it. Seriously.

Noel Figart doesn’t like the idea of vitamin water.

I was passing through one aisle and saw these vitamin water thingies. A couple was debating the health properties of the various brightly-colored water in plastic bottles.

IT’S VITAMIN KOOL-AID, PEOPLE! [...]

I mean, you want kool-aid with vitamins in, go for it. It’s probably marginally better than kool-aid alone, but you’re paying a lot for a marginal health benefit that would do you better if you’d eat a bloody apple or a damn carrot.

Weetabix at Elastic Waist discusses the benefits of eating whole grains.

Having been a child of hippies, who grew up having to eat chewy breads full of seeds and twigs and rocks and maybe a small log cabin, I avoided whole-grained anything for a long time and stuck with carbs that were usually as white as the driven snow. However, I’ve come to appreciate dense fibery breads, chewy brown rice, and steel-cut oatmeals that stay in my gut all morning so that I’m not scrambling for a Little Debbie Nutty Bar by 9:30 a.m.

You can do your best to eat foods that are good for you, but don’t beat yourself up if you take advantage of something you don’t normally eat. As Stephanie says, never eating junk or processed food is unrealistic.

[T]here is a difference between eating a handful of potato chips versus eating a whole bag of the chips. There’s also a difference between eating organic potato chips versus eating potato chips loaded with additives and preservatives. And, there is a difference between eating potato chips once every 3 months or eating them every day. If you start cleaning up your eating by doing things like eating more fruits and vegetables, eating more organics, and drinking more water, then an indulgence here and there is not going to throw you off your path of healthy living.

(Another tip from Stephanie: Buy pre-packaged fruit and veggies if you don’t have time to cut them up yourself.)

Speaking of making vegetables as convenient as possible — Kathryn is a nutritionist, and even though she prefers fresh veggies, she encourages people to eat frozen vegetables, too.

I use them at the end of the week, when the fridge is looking bare. Or when I’m tired and want instant dinner. No washing, peeling or chopping required – simply cut open a bag and empty it into a steamer. A few minutes later and the vegetable component of dinner is sorted.

Over the last few weeks, if I didn’t have frozen vegetables in the house, my diet and health would have suffered.

What are your favorite healthy foods? Do you think you “eat clean” most of the time, or do your eating habits need work?

Related reading:

Don’t take healthy eating too far. Bethany at That’s Fit and Katie at Her Active Life warn about the dangers of orthorexia.

Caroline at Eat, Pray, Run talked about an indulgence at Coldstone Creamery.

JoLynn at The Fit Shack: Do you know what your trigger foods are?

ABC News: Chew On This: Foods That Affect Your Mood

MSNBC: The opposite of eating clean? Junk food dieters.

Veggie Chick: 12 Tips for Eating More Veggies

Diet Blog: A Visual Guide to 15 Healthy Snacks