Another day, another ridiculously early morning wake up!
I worked the early shift at the gym today and arrived before 5 a.m. to get everything set up. I had my first appointment of the day at 5:30 a.m. and took a new member through the various strength machines to teach her how to use them properly and select the appropriate weight. I also trained one client and now I’m working on some more training plans and trying to motivate myself to sneak in my own workout before my next personal training session at 10 a.m.
Breakfast
Breakfast this morning began with a LUNA bar in the car on my way to the gym. Taking pictures while driving obviously isn’t safe and it was still dark outside anyway, so I didn’t snap a photo. I suppose this recycled picture will have to do even though I ate a lemon flavored LUNA bar. Whatever works!
Whenever I eat LUNA bars, I think about running another race. LUNA bars are one of my favorite pre-race snacks and always remind me of early race day mornings.
It’s so bizarre how different foods remind us of different things.
Some of my food-associated memories:
- Monkey bread = Christmas morning
- Fluffy sugar cookies = My grandma’s house
- Gnocchi = Janessa and Ryan’s wedding (I first tried gnocchi at their wedding and was instantly smitten. That stuff is delicious!)
- Toaster Strudels = Breakfast as a kid (I’d always use two icing packets on one strudel and get in trouble.)
- Bagel Bites = Afterschool snack time (while watching TRL, of course)
- Cheez-Its = Sleepovers at my friend Carrie’s house
Around 6:15 a.m., I broke into a cup of 2 percent Greek yogurt topped with fresh raspberries that I packed and brought to the gym with me.
I’m already hungry again, so this breakfast obviously didn’t do much to hold me over. Thankfully I have a jar of peanut butter in my bag. PB to the rescue!
Question of the Morning
- Do certain foods remind you of certain things? Please share!
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pork dishes remind me of my mom, because she used to make various pork dishes when I was a kid and I used to hate them! Elios pizza reminds me of being a teen and eating pizza after school 😉
Yes! food is so tied to memory for me. i think the weirdest one is that scones remind me of soccer camp. i had my first scone there, and i dont eat them too too often, so it just always stuck.
Pringles! I used to come home in middle school and eat an entire thing of Pringles (yikes) before my mom got home (also while watching TRL). Then, after 2 years of doing this, I couldn’t even look at Pringles until college!
Another one is angel food cake. We only eat angel food cake if it’s somebody’s birthday in my family, so whenever I eat it somewhere else it always makes me smile!
Me too! My birthday and mom’s birthday are in late August and that was always the birthday cake we would have.
Angel food cake is my mom’s favorite, so it always makes me think of her! 🙂
Wal-Mart donuts reminds me of my best friend’s house from junior high through high school. Pumpkin bread reminds me of Thanksgiving time. Cinnamon rolls remind me of Sunday mornings. I used to eat Toast Streudel for breakfast too! Fun post 🙂
Yes! And I often associate food with people too. Examples: lamb & eggplant lasagna with my stepmom, fish dishes for my dad, samosas for my bro, … Everyone seems to have a special dish you can associate them with. As for me? Risotto & crumble!
Coffee cake and cinnamon rolls remind me of breakfasts at my grandparent’s house. My grandpa would drive to the bakery before we woke up in the morning–they were that fresh! We were only allowed to have some AFTER finishing our breakfast of cereal or eggs. 🙂
I love food memories! I think that’s why some foods taste so good when they really aren’t all that special. Frito BBQ Twists always remind me of road trips, Lunchables remind me of swimming at our community pool, and any sandwich on sourdough bread reminds me of field trips. So fun!
How are you doing with those super early mornings? I remember when I worked at the gym, I was just SO worn down from those ridiculously early wake up calls. Even when I tried to go to bed early, I couldn’t. I hope they’re going better for you than they did for me! 😉
Whenever I eat chips and salsa I am reminded of my freshman year of college. My friends and I used to take a whole bag and jar of salsa out into the hallway and eat it while talking/not studying ;). It is a good thing that the carpet was a brownish color already, because we definitely spilled quite a bit of it..oops!
Pancakes, crepes, and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies will probably always remind me of my mom. I remember baking cookies with her when I was little, and impatiently sitting by the oven for those agonizingly long 10 minutes, waiting until I could -finally- have one with some cold milk. And my mom always made the best buttermilk pancakes on the weekends, which to this day I still haven’t been able to recreate.
Do you actually carry around a jar of peanut butter in your bag? 😛
Every Sunday, growing up, my parents would make dumplings for dinner. I have a hard time eating dumplings when I’m at restaurants because I always find myself comparing them to my parents’! And nothing beats home-cooked food.
Oh wow I forgot about TRL- hilarious. On days when you get to the gym before 5 AM, what time do you get up- I guess what I’m asking, how long does it take you to get out the door?
Coffee will always make me think of my mom. Every Saturday I would wake up and have coffee with her – in the kitchen when it was cold out and on the deck in the spring/summer. We would talk about anything and everything and it’s those moments where I got some of the best advice from her. Coffee will always be a soothing thing for me – no morning is right without it.
monkey bread! my favorite. also reminds me of holidays and special occasions. and Luna bars remind me of when I was a waitress — I’d snack on them in between shifts!
It’s so funny that you posted this because I never stopped to think about how much I associated foods with memories! Here are a couple of mine:
PB and chocolate chips: dessert whenever my favorite babysitter, Jackie, came over to watch us as kids
Watermelon: our family get-together for the Fourth of July every year
Dunkin Donuts Onion bagels with cream cheese: every Saturday as a kid my mom would take me to Dunkins after her workout class 🙂
Love this post! Brings back so many good memories 🙂
I used to eat Bagel Bites all the time when I was younger! They are so yummy! And of course…TRL..I would race home to watch Nsync beat the BSB on the countdown!
I always used 2 icing packets on one strudel too!! haha :-)
Juuuulie….*whiny voice….I started writing a post about “food memories” on Sunday… So when it’s up, don’t think that I’m a copy cat 🙂
Luna bars also remind me of races because that is where I was first introduced to them. The CARROT CAKE flavor is the best one yet!
Little Debbie brownies with the nuts (not cosmic brownies) remind me of my grandma’s house. Fried pork chops, pot roast, yummy french toast remind me of my mom. Monkey Bread reminds me of wonderful Christmas memories. 🙂
Great job waking up so early! I would have a hard time with that. Grilled cheese + apple juice reminds me of going home sick from school with my mom and chocolate milk reminds me of my grandfather bc he always tried to give us some, no matter how old we got!
I’ve heard so many good things about the blueberry flavor! I need to investigate that one! I’ve always been so tunnel-vision towards anything-chocolate flavored.
Every Christmas morning my mom makes these mini-ham and cheese rolls. They can only be eaten on Christmas morning…any other time of the year would definitiely be a mortal sin.
I totally know what you mean! Luna bars remind me of getting up early to swim in college…I used them as my bribe. I never wanted to get out of bed but would tell myself “if you get up to swim you get to eat a Luna bar and some coffee.” And subway and baked lays make me think of triathlons, because that is what I always ate after races. And ice cream…well ice cream just makes me think of happiness 😉
Almond poppyseed bread and those fabulous Pepperidge Farms cakes make me think of Sunday supper at my grandma and grandpa’s house. Every now and again growing up we’d go over there after night church, and we always had sandwiches, poppyseed bread, and Pepperidge Farms cake. Mmmm.
I could live on LUNA bars – pretty much my breakfast every day. Lunchables remind me of my childhood sleepovers with an old friend, especially the pizza ones!
I always eat breakfast really early (around 5:45) before going to work. Consequently I am starving by 9:00am. Thankfully my kids eat snack at 8:45 so I just bust out my own snack with them! 🙂 Here are some of my food memories:
Tamales: Christmas Eve
Latkes: Chanukah (obviously I come from a split family)
Lean Pockets: College
Honey Nut Cheerios: Favorite breakfast cereal growing up
Chili: Superbowl Parties
My mom’s homemade butterflake rolls (even though I ask for them on EVERY special occasion) they always remind me of Thanksgiving dinners when I was younger 🙂
Crawfish crepes – Christmas morning in Louisiana! I should definitely share my dad’s recipe on my site.
Ice cream cake – my family. We have it sometimes at Sunday dinner for no reason haha
Trail mix – my college roomates senior year
Special K – senior year of college everyday
Bologna and cheese – childhood
Sauce / Eggplant parm – my parents
Whenever I need to get my workout in after I’ve trained others, I remind myself how hard they just worked for me and that pushes my butt to get moving!
I did the same thing with the icing packets, and then we would be upset at the end of the week when we had no icing for out strudels 🙁
Now that you made me think about it, there are a lot of food that bring back such good memories. Luna Bars take me back to my days of working at USA Triathlon. We used to eat the peanut butter cookie ones while working race day.
Yes! My “Papa’s Pancakes” remind me soooo much of growing up having sleepovers at grandma and grandpa’s house.
Waffles! My mom use to make them for my birthday breakfast every year- and I can’t eat them without thinking of her.
I guess Cheez-its were the “go-to” sleepover snack because it reminds me of my best friend. Chocolate milk and potato rolls instantly make me think of her as well. Doritos make me think of Blues Clues and meatballs, Italian cookies, and bridge mix make me think of my Mommom. <3
I don’t eat pancakes anymore, but character pancakes remind me of my grandparents’ home. When my sister and I were little, my Bumpa (grandpa) would always make us character pancakes for breakfast after we slept over! Bow tie pasta always reminds me of home because my mom makes a dish with it all the time and it’s so comforting to me 😉
Julie –
Have you tried the new PB2 from Bell Plantation? I just did and its delish! Would love to know what you think!
Boston cream DD Doughnut- my summer job at room service (gained 5 kilos thanks to it 🙂 )
I love that you keep a jar of pb in your bag haha- perfect on the go snack!
Wow, TRL! I had totally forgotten about that show! I remember being so excited if I didn’t have practice after school and was able to watch TRL!
Love that you have memories for food too! Baked lays–sleepovers with my friends in HS. Cheese fondue-Christmas eve with my parents/fam!
We have monkey bread on Christmas morning, too! But we call it “pull apart cake” because that’s what my great grandma wrote on her recipe card. It stuck 🙂
Oh my gosh, TRL…I used to watch that everyday after school too!
Schwan’s frozen pizzas make me think of when I was in middle school – they were go-to dinners…which is probably why I can’t imagine eating another bite of them for the rest of my life 🙂
I have so many foods that I associate with memories! Love the bagel bites one – I used to have those as an after school snack too. Chocolate chip pancakes will always remind me of Saturday mornings in my house as a kid because my mom would always make them for me and whoever I had sleepover 🙂
Great topic! I’ve written several times about how food has the ability to bring up such nostalgia! For me, Pop-Tarts and Country Time Lemonade with pretzels remind me of when I was a child. For my BF, his mother used to make him those cupcakes in ice cream cones and frost with rainbow frosting. Now, I do that for him to take him back to his childhood days!
French toast always reminds me of Christmas morning. It’s become our tradition each year, and one of the things I look forward to!
It’s so funny how foods remind you of certain things! Frozen chicken nuggets and homemade cobbler always make me think of my Grandma’s. Quite the combo, huh?? 🙂
Oh I agree! Cinnamon rolls remind me of Christmas! 🙂 homemade bread = the county fair! …I could go on and on!
Peanut butter m & m’s – remind me of my best friend barb and sleepovers at her house!
This is a great topic! I think food is a HUGE reminder of great memories! Mimomas on Christmas morning/ and brunch of course. { I adore brunch}, homemade waffles and whipped cream with fresh strawberries for Christmas morning as well, { my FIL makes that}, any chobani yogurt and smoked almonds from when I ate a ton of them when I first started working out and wanted to shed some pounds, and I’m totally with you on the TRL=bagel bites! Too funny.
I love Luna bars! I often eat them as a mid a.m./p.m. snack. So good! I would have to say that fresh basil reminds me of my grandma. 🙂