What you eat, when you eat, and where you eat say a lot about your lifestyle.
I wanted to document everything I ate in a whole day, and I wanted it to be as candid as possible. The day was randomly chosen by whether or not I remembered to take a photo of breakfast that morning. I did my best to not let my knowledge that this was going to go up on the internet affect my eating behavior.
This mini-project has been delayed for weeks because I kept on forgetting to take a photo of breakfast. But I finally remembered, and that day happened to be a Wednesday (May 4). Other than water, this is all I consumed that Wednesday:
breakfast
[9:37 am] home (Santa Clara)
Contents
- TJ’s egg/egg-white spinach scramble (3 whole eggs, 4 egg whites, 1 fistful of spinach, sriracha)
- 2 slices of toasted ezekiel bread
- 1 giant mug of coffee with milk
Commentary
I usually have breakfast between 9:30 and 10:30 on a work day. Being an engineer in Silicon Valley, I wake up irresponsibly late every morning (sometimes afternoon). In fact, I’ve stopped setting an alarm. I’ve found that getting a lot of sleep makes me smarter, more productive, more patient with difficult people, and allows my body to sufficiently recover after workouts.
I like to get vegetables in with every meal, and the most palatable way for me to have some in the morning is by either putting mushrooms, spinach, or tomatoes in scrambled eggs. I used to only use egg whites in my scrambles, but that got old after a few years, and so I’ve began throwing in a couple of whole eggs in there.
My morning ritual is to start the kettle to make coffee, open my laptop and view any new videos from the YouTubers I’m subscribed to, and make/eat my breakfast on the counter standing while watching the video. At the time that I took this photo, I believe I was watching boogie2988 talk about Hearthstone and Magic the Gathering.
morning drink
[11:14 am] my desk at work (Box HQ, Redwood City)
Contents
- 1 Samurai unsweetened green tea
Commentary
I like to get at least one non-coffee drink in between the several coffees and energy drinks I usually consume throughout the day (though, on this particular day I didn’t drink too much coffee), so the first thing I do when I come in to work is grab a non-caffeinated drink.
I just realized green tea has caffeine.
lunch beer, 1
[12:42 pm] Aly’s on Main (Redwood City)
Contents
- 1 Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale
Commentary
This particular week was the last week of a coworker, and so we had a team lunch that day at a nearby restaurant.
I’ve never had this beer before and I chose it exclusively because it was the only name of beer that I could remember when the waitress came to take my drink order. Turns out, this scotch ale is absolutely delicious.
lunch beer, 2
[1:03 pm] Aly’s on Main (Redwood City)
Contents
- 1 Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale
Commentary
It was taking forever for the food to come out, so I ordered another beer. Again, what an excellent beer.
I just noticed that I drink approximately twice as fast as Joey. You can see in the background that his glass is about half-full.
lunch
[1:11 pm] Aly’s on Main (Redwood City)
Contents
- Chicken taco salad (chicken breast, lettuce, salsa, guacamole, black beans, tortilla chips)
Commentary
I didn’t want to be seen taking a photo of my food in public, so we are left with a blurry photo.
post-lunch coffee
[2:06 pm] cafeteria at work (Box HQ, Redwood City)
Contents
- 1 cold brew coffee with milk
Commentary
Our office provides a kegerator full of cold brew and nitro coffee every morning, both of which I love.
post-coffee cookies
[2:22 pm] cafeteria at work (Box HQ, Redwood City)
Contents
- 3 raisin cookies, small
Commentary
Our cafeteria puts out three oversized jars of cookies every morning. It’s hard to say no.
mid-day snack
[5:03 pm] my desk at work (Box HQ, Redwood City)
Contents
- 1 CheeseHeads string cheese
Commentary
It’s string cheese. It’s okay. I prefer eating a pack of two hard-boiled eggs, but the office is out of them today.
dinner
[7:07 pm] home (Santa Clara)
Contents
- sirloin-patty sandwiches (2 sirloin burger patties, 4 slices of toasted ezekiel bread, fistful of spinach, sriracha)
Commentary
My meal recipes are all pretty simple. I don’t have this particular meal regularly, but it fits the typical formula for all my meals:
- A large portion of lean meat.
- Some veggies.
- Some carbs (usually brown rice, ezekiel bread, or sweet potatoes).
- Sriracha.
I don’t use sauce or oil (other than Sriracha). I buy cooking spray in bulk.
I usually eat dinner in front of my computer, doing about an hour of work. Sometimes I get more done in the hour I spend at home after work, than I did at the office. The number of meetings, emails, code reviews, and interruptions I get can get really bad on certain days.
post-workout shake
[11:06 pm] home (Santa Clara)
Contents
- protein shake (1 scoop of mocha-cappuccino flavored whey protein, a spoonful of creatine, 1–2 cups of almond milk)
Commentary
Although I recognize that most of my knowledge about optimum times to intake protein are entirely broscience, some of it has been so deeply ingrained in me that I continue to follow it.
I’d just as happily eat a slab of chicken after working out instead of whey protein, but making a protein shake is significantly easier (and more delicious) than frying up some chicken.
