Eating too much?

[Kakakailee]

Hi everyone! I'm on day 8 of my whole30 and am starting to have concerns that I am eating too much. I'm 5"4' and around 130 pounds. I work out 6 days a week doing a half hour of strength training followed by 10-30 minutes of running, and I throw some HIIT in at least once a week. I'm also pretty active working full time on my feet all day. While I'm definitely not sedentary, I feel as though I may be justifying eating too much due to my activity. 

A typical day of meals looks like this:

Preworkout @7am: hardboiled egg

Workout @7:30

(typically don't do a post workout and try to get breakfast in shortly after)

Breakfast: A bell pepper stuffed with 2 eggs, 2 servings of egg whites, and a half avocado served with 2 cups of mixed vegetables and 3/4 cup mixed fruit

Lunch: 1 chicken breast, 1 egg, 4 cups mixed vegetables, and a half avocado

Dinner: Sometimes up to 5-6 cups of veggies (is this overkill?), a chicken breast or serving of 93/10 ground beef, 2 eggs, and a half avocado

*All mixed veggies do contain a lot of starchy vegetables (typically sweet potatoes, carrots, butternut squash, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and asparagus) 

In the past 2 years I lost around 80 pounds from a lot of restriction and am hoping to restore my healthy relationship with food. I am not used to not tracking calories, so maybe I'm being over analytical. However, despite feeling good, I can't help but think I won't be able to heal my relationship with food if I'm overeating.

Any feedback would be appreciated, thank you!

 

[ShannonM816]

When you finish a meal, do you feel satisfied? Still hungry? Stuffed to the point that you're miserable?

Do you easily go 4-5 hours between meals?

Do you have energy to do your workout, and do all the other stuff you need to do every day?

If your meals leave you feeling satisfied and you're easily going 4-5 hours between meals, and you have energy to do the things you want and need to do, you're eating the right amount, and shouldn't worry about it. 

Your meals mostly look good to me. I'd probably just do another whole egg, not the two egg whites at breakfast -- most of the nutrition in the egg is in the yolk, not the white, there's no particular reason to just have the white (unless you just happen to have it left over from some other recipe -- I know some people make their mayo with yolks only, for instance, and then would just use the whites in another meal).

I'm assuming that over time, you're varying the fat sources and the types of vegetables -- you don't have to have something different every day, but don't get in a rut where for 30 days you have basically the same thing over and over.

 

[jmcbn]

Ok, if you're coming from a back ground of restriction be prepared for a possible gain before a loss as your body adjusts to the new diet & steady stream of wholesome food. You may also find that you're body is hungry for nutrients and so your appetite may take a while to balance out.

With that out of the way I think you could make a few tweaks to your meals:

Don't skip the post WO meal. You're training six days a week, including strength training. Your body needs the protein postWO for muscle repair, growth & recovery. Try a few bites of a lean protein immediately when you're done - then shower, THEN have breakfast. Combining postWO & breakfast in the way that you're doing will slow down recovery as the fat in your meal will slow down absorption.

Lose the fruit postWO as it preferentially restores liver glycogen and your focus should be on starches for muscle glycogen. You can eat it later in the day if you want to include it.

Eat the whole egg - the yolk is where it's at!!

Cut back on protein overall - no need for the chicken breast AND  the 2 eggs.

Oterwise your meals don't look too bad to me.

 

ETA: Shannon had already replied but I'd typed out a few different pointers so thought I'd post anyways......