Makin' Healthy Choices (Maybe)

I'm going to include here a random quick analysis of a usual food day in the life of Shinseiko.  I haven't really thought about it in awhile.  Sure, if I go out to eat (happens once a month!) I might eat more (or maybe less, since eating out usually means I'm not hungry enough for 3 meals in a day).  Sometimes I'm in the mood to eat a whole bag of wintergreen Lifesavers if the inclination strikes, and I don't hold back (but in that case, I'm not hungry enough for more than 2 meals in a day).  I'm also influenced by my husband Caspian, who has the smallest appetite of any dude I've ever met (except on kung fu days - he eats like a horse).

• Breakfast: 200 - 300 kcal (cereal with skim or two toasts with light jam)
• Lunch:  300 - 400 kcal (anything from leftovers to a bowl of cereal to a couple of eggs)
• Dinner:  300 - 400 kcal (usually something relatively elaborate that I made from scratch, incorporating a lean meat like chicken or fish - I like to cook!)
• Random snacks thrown in (glass of skim after a workout, a cookie or two, etc.), a customary evening glass of wine and coffee with plenty of cream:  300 - 500 kcal

1200 calories sometimes, 1600 max, probably.  And I eat as the whim takes me, trying vaguely to make healthy choices (never ever soda under any circumstances, almost never fried food or beef, a couple tall glasses of water with lime throughout the day), but exercising very little willpower.  It's actually probably a bit unhealthy, especially given I run for an hour every day and burn probably a third of those calories off (maybe even half, some days!).  Not to mention any dancing I might do (one dance practice is 1.5 - 2 hours and burns at least 700 calories).

And yet, I am still roundy-ish at 5' 3" and around 107 lbs.  Small-boned and curvy with a narrow waist and hips, muscular thighs, broad shoulders (for my frame) and big boobs...  I can't be called skinny or willowy; I have the completely wrong body type.  More like small, feminine and compact.  And I'm probably not skinnier because I don't really eat a whole lot, and I hate forcing myself to eat another bite when I'm not hungry, a spillover from my super-picky childhood, I'm guessing.

Maybe I should woman-up and actually start making food choices.  Like not eating a bagel and cream cheese or a bowl of cereal for lunch if there are hard boiled eggs in the fridge and a pile of fruits in the fruit bowl.  Adding in more protein, especially in the evening.  Substituting protein or nutritive calories for the sugars that make me so not hungry for real food afterward.  I'm just usually lazy and thinking of something else, and I just want to grab whatever's on hand to fill the tummy before going back to whatever pursuit has me in its grasp.  Hunger is not particularly associated with negative emotions in my mind, and sometimes I will feel hunger pangs for a couple hours before finally making the decision to eat... BAD BAD BAD for my metabolism.

Perhaps if I replace some carbohydrate cals with protein cals and force down a few more well-thought-out snacks in there, I'd be able to counteract my curvily-inclined genetics?  Bah, Caspian would kill me.  He thinks I shouldn't have such an antagonistic relationship with my natural body type.

Also, I have been ultra, super-tired these past few months.  No idea why.  I'm inclined to sleep through my lunch break and fall asleep after work in the evenings, and it's totally destroying my feelings of productivity.  In fact, being so damn sleepy stresses me the heck out.  A bright idea occurred to me ---  It's gotta be vitamin D deficiency.  So, I took 1000 units this morning with breakfast, but with no change in energy level, really.  I guess I have to keep it up for a month or so?