I’ve been eating. A lot. Gaining weight is something I am truly good at, and at least this time I have a good reason (or two) for packing on the pounds.

While it’s been enjoyable to eat dessert (sometimes more than once per day), deep fried food, or other delicious “junk” food with no concern for the calories, I am trying to keep my food choices healthier on the whole. Not going to lie: I love French fries and cupcakes and cookies and candy and nachos and pizza, and I’m going to eat those things when I want to, and I don’t think anyone should ever feel guilty about eating things like this. I don’t like to associate guilt with food. Nonetheless, these obviously aren’t the healthiest choices and I can’t eat that food exclusively. So here are some of my more moderate but also delicious selections of late:

Greek yogurt (I like Fage 2%) with fresh berries and granola. I am basically obsessed with fruit lately, especially berries and cherries. I can’t get enough, and this is one of my favorite ways to eat them. I don’t know how or why, but these blueberries were magical.

More yogurt. Fancy yogurt. Two-hundred-eighty-calorie yogurt. This shit is good, y’all. The strawberry rhubarb flavor is my favorite so far, but I didn’t snap a photo of it, so you’ll have to accept this peach version. Still extremely delicious. I eat it with granola (I can’t stand yogurt or other creamy things without adding some other texture to the mix).

Avocado toast. This particular bread wasn’t anything special, but when made with some really great crusty French bread from the bakery? Divine. I can’t get enough avocado right now.

Eggs. These are my husband’s perfect poached eggs on french bread with mushrooms and tomatoes. Potatoes and Brussels on the side. CW is some kind of poached egg savant. He can’t really do scrambled, but his poached eggs come out uncannily perfect every single time. I don’t know how he does it, and — as long as he keeps making them for me — I don’t need to know.

Salads. Striped salads. With chicken. The taco salad on top was tonight’s dinner, and it’s a version of something I make all the time, except this one was made with chicken breast (marinated in Tapatio!) instead of my usual tofu. The second salad is a Cobb salad inspired by a room-service meal I had in Kansas City. The Westin’s was pretty good, but mine was even better, if I do say so myself.

Eating meat (especially chicken, not sure why) still bothers me on many levels (aesthetic, ethical, environmental, etc.), but I am trying to see it as 1) a means to an end, and 2) temporary. It’s quite honestly a struggle, but it is helping me successfully get to my calorie and protein target* almost every day.

*Recommendations range from 2700-3500 calories and 100-125 grams of protein per day.

Waffles. Delicious, wonderful waffles. Needless to say, these also provide a terrific vehicle for my berry obsession. I finally bought a waffle maker, something I’ve been meaning to do since CW and I moved in together, and it is already paying for itself. I’ve been using this recipe for Greek yogurt waffles, which makes about 3 waffles, each with 128 calories and 8g of protein. I usually eat two and generously give the other one to CW. Usually.