Lately I’ve been guilty of clocking twelve-plus-hour workdays. I say “clocking” more as a turn of phrase than anything. One of the best and worst things about working for yourself doing something you love is that it rarely feels like work, so it’s easy for the hours to just fly by.

I was thinking about this the other day and realized that in my nutrition career, I’ve had exactly one 9 to 5, Monday to Friday job, and that was for about two months in 2015. I was working alongside an amazing clinical team in one of the best hospitals in the country, but it just wasn’t the right place for me, so I resigned as soon as I’d figured out and accepted that. I’d never done something seemingly so impulsive—quit a stable job—but it was the absolutely best thing I could have done at the time.  That pivot was the beginning of a lot of positive changes.

Anyway, for this week’s What I Ate Wednesday post, I thought I’d share one of those marathon days. It began with an early morning networking meeting and ended with an evening event—specifically, the book launch for Dr. Oz’s Food Can Fix It: The Superfood Switch to Fight Fat, Defy Aging, and Eat Your Way Healthy). In between I worked a full day at my corporate wellness job at Discovery. I try not to do that, but this month I’ve had to change my usual schedule around a little to accommodate some family, so sometimes you just have to be flexible and go with it. Here’s what I ate to power through.

*Pre-Meeting (6 am) : After an early workout, I ate some leftover broccoli rice around 6 am to quiet my growling stomach before getting on the subway to head to the meeting. Oh, and a cup of coffee while getting ready.

*Breakfast Meeting (7 am) : There’s always breakfast here (eggs, bacon, sausage, granola, yogurt, fruit, bagels), but I often bring my own. Today it was two hard-boiled eggs, half an avocado, and some fruit from the buffet. Green tea to drink.

*Morning Snack (10 am): a stick of turkey jerky ; more coffee

*Lunch (12 pm): a salad I’d packed that had leftover cooked veggies and cooked ground turkey over arugula ; homemade vinaigrette for dressing

*Afternoon Snack (3:45 pm): whole milk plan Greek yogurt with white chia seeds

*Pre-Event Dinner Part 1 (5:45 pm): A bowl of turkey & veggie soup

*Dinner Part 2 (8:45 pm):  A microwave-steamed sweet potato with SunButter

You can bet I slept well that night!

What are some of your go-to foods when you need to power through a long day?  

To see more WIAW, check out founder Jenn’s blog Peas & Crayons or visit host Laura‘s blog.

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