We’ve all seen them, every Wednesday Feedly and BlogLovin’ streams are filled with What I Ate Wednesday or WIAW posts featuring all of the food the blogger ate…although not necessarily what they ate on Wednesday. Sometimes it’s their weekend eats. Sometimes it’s food from an event. Sometimes it’s…I honestly don’t know. I’m not entirely certain what the purpose of the WIAW posts are, so I decided to give it a try myself to see what it was all about.

[Disclaimer: I am not attacking the people who regularly participate in WIAW, I’m just saying I do not get it. If you’re looking for more legitimate details this write up should explain it for you.]

A few weeks ago I channeled my inner food blogger and began my day by photographing my iced coffee before I drank it. I was going to take this “What I Ate Wednesday” theme very seriously – photographing everything I ate for an entire Wednesday. On my first attempt I made it until about 2pm when I annoyed and realized it was affecting my actual meal choices. I avoided one snack because it would look bad then got mad at myself and intentionally ate candy I didn’t really want.

Last week I decided to give it another go – from the moment I woke up until my head crashed into my pillow that night I documented the food I ate. It’s not exactly interesting, but here is what a fairly typical day in the life of Heidi’s stomach looks like…



I was the carpool driver so I headed to work early to grab donuts…just enough to share with the guys on the ride up to Wyoming. I may drive them crazy with my non-stop chatter but at least I feed them donuts! Once we got to the office we detoured to the espresso bar for caffeine then used said coffee to wash down another donut.

Later that morning a pile of Mike & Ike showed up on my desk…then I hunted down the whole box of them in the cube next door. Lucky for my blood sugar levels it was not the blue box of Mike & Ike so I reigned it in after three handfuls.

For lunch we headed outside for a company picnic – not exactly a typical thing although my food choices at the picnic are a pretty good representation of what I pile on a plate and call a meal. With the exception of a frozen chunk in the middle of my cheesecake I inhaled all of my lunch. Typically I’ll eat a smaller lunch and about 4 more snacks but I’m not quite dedicated enough to turn down real life eating for a blog post so there were a lot of “usual snacks” missing in my afternoon.

I realized en route to a group run that I was just hungry enough to make running miserable. Luckily my Blend swag bag was in the car with a bunch of granola bars to choose from. I dug out some random bars so I’d be able to survive the run without my belly button rubbing on my back bone.


Getting out on the trails with Lynne, Marissa, Cassie and Amy!

After our mini run that was thwarted by stormy clouds and lightening the group of ladies running decided to make the most of the night and stop by the Cannonball Creek Brewery where I had my first legitimate food truck experience happened! You can order drinks from the brewery but they do not serve food, a food truck out front handles the food. This time Orange Crush was there – if you see them driving around town stop them and make them fed you! So god!

So there you have it – a [mostly] typical food-worthy day in the Land of Heidi, or something like that. It was weird photographing all of my food – I’d either forget I was supposed to do it or I’d feel ridiculous taking the photo with others around me. But I survived to tell about it! Would I do it again? No, probably not. It does nothing but make me overthink my food. However, I’d consider doing it mid-100M training to see just how much food I scavenge and inhale on a given Wednesday!

One thing I did notice while documenting all of my food was just how much thought I put into it. Both days [the first attempt and the second success] that I photographed my food I felt really weird about it. Even though I put a lot of work into not modifying my eating habits I felt judged and unworthy of the food I ate. I felt like I was either eating too much, too little or the wrong stuff…with every single thing I put in my mouth. I didn’t truly enjoy my food nearly as much as I should have and even on the day I document above I skipped typical snacks like Sprees, Cheezits, a few spoonfuls of Nutella, trail mix and more because it felt stupid to photograph and document how much snacking I do.

But that is what I do. I snack a TON. I am constantly eating. So, in the end this probably isn’t the best documentation of the food I eat on Wednesday, or any other day. Calorie/Macro-wise it is quite accurate…but in what I actually consumed and when I ate it? Not so much. I ended both days of WIAW feeling very unfulfilled. I’m not sure why but I am pretty sure that is my body and brain asking me nicely to stop thinking about food so much and just eat. And I’m okay with that…I can do that!


21 Comments

Marissa @Barefoot Colorado · June 25, 2021 at 8:13 am

I’ve only been waiting my whole life [aka this whole past week + this morning] for this post. That is all.

    Heidi Nicole · June 25, 2021 at 9:22 am

    I’m going to go ahead and pretend this means I’m the reason you got yo booty out of bed this morning! Because, you know, I’m humble like that!

Ashley @ Coffee Cake and Cardio · June 25, 2021 at 8:28 am

I’m a sucker for picnic food!

    Heidi Nicole · June 25, 2021 at 9:22 am

    Right? It was so good! And picnic food that someone else made for me?! Winning!

Jenn · June 25, 2021 at 8:59 am

Aw I’m glad you gave it a try! It’s totally okay that it’s not for everyone [because come on, what is? haha we’re all different!] and if it’s making you feel like you have to put thought into it, skip it girl! Being a food blogger and always wanting to recreate dishes I try throughout moves and travels, I’ve always been a mindless food photo snapper so it doesn’t have the same effect on me. Kudos for trying something new! <3

    Heidi Nicole · June 25, 2021 at 9:21 am

    Hey!You’re so right. It’s when you try things you aren’t sure of that you find things you love…that’s my explanation for all the running I do, so I totally get it with food! I’ve said many times I’d be a terrible food blogger…every once in a while I just need to remind myself why! 🙂

Colorado Gal · June 25, 2021 at 11:57 am

Hahah this made me laugh 🙂 But girl, do you eat any vegetables ever?!

    Colorado Gal · June 25, 2021 at 12:05 pm

    Conversely, good choice on the Mike and Ikes. I eat those like they’re going out of style.

    Heidi Nicole · June 25, 2021 at 12:22 pm

    Wait, potatoes don’t count? What about the lettuce on the taco?

    But really, I do, I promise! Had a salad for lunch yesterday!

      lynne · June 25, 2021 at 1:57 pm

      and baked beans!!

        Heidi Nicole · June 26, 2021 at 8:42 am

        …and ketchup?
        Okay, maybe that is a stretch…

Kate · June 25, 2021 at 1:48 pm

Documenting my daily food choices just does not do it for me. I love to eat, love to cook and love to read food blogs! But no one needs to know that I have a 5-lb bag of gummi bears that I dip into in my cube at work all day long…LOL.

    Heidi Nicole · June 26, 2021 at 8:41 am

    Exactly! And it’s those gummy bears that make you awesome.

    I have a full filing cabinet drawer full of snacks…at both offices I work at. I can’t help it, I like to snack. Plus, it earns me extra co-worker friends because sometimes I share!

Natalie @ Free Range Human · June 25, 2021 at 2:53 pm

Do you know how hard I laughed when I saw this post pop up in my email? Thank you for being unabashedly you 🙂

Amy · June 25, 2021 at 5:31 pm

I love the lines you drew around the food truck food. And, yes, awesome post.

    Heidi Nicole · June 26, 2021 at 8:43 am

    Well, I only want to take credit for the food I actually ate…probably should have scribbled out half of that lettuce on the second taco too. Oops. 😉

Cassie @ Rural Running Redhead · June 25, 2021 at 6:04 pm

I’ve never done a WIAW, either… I eat WAY more than the bloggers I see who do it. I also run more than most of them (and so do you), but it still feels too weird. And I never think to take a picture of my food, and when I do, it’s a terrible picture, so maybe that’s the real reason…

    Heidi Nicole · June 26, 2021 at 8:45 am

    Yea, it’s the taking a photo of the food that is hard. Almost annoying.
    If I want to eat 6 Cheezits 9 times a day it gets really repetitive and boring!

    Although I will say it might be really interesting to revisit this in the height of 100 mile training — I’ll probably be eating anything that’s chewable some days!

jena · July 9, 2021 at 6:31 pm

I’ve been wondering for weeeeeks what you do for work these days? Especially since you drive to an entirely different state to do whatever it is!? Please indulge me..

    Heidi Nicole · July 9, 2021 at 11:22 pm

    Ha. Yea…lotsa driving.
    I work at Sierra Trading Post, a retail/ecomm company with lots of outdoor gear. I’m on their social team, primarily Twitter/Pinterest…and their main office is in Wyoming, so I get to befriend my car + the interstate! Whoo hoo!

    🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0