As a strength and conditioning professional, you might think that most people ask me what I do for my workout, but you would be wrong. The first two questions I typically hear are:
Do you train anyone famous?
What do YOU eat?
So today I am going to show you exactly what I eat everyday. I am a creature of habit, so Monday to Friday I am pretty consistent with this type of structure. On the weekends I will typically eat a bigger breakfast, smaller lunch and then a little bigger supper.
Before I get to that I want to tell you a story about how getting to bed early saved me from ending up in a stripper club.
So I am at the Fitness Info Blueprint conference in Orange County, CA and a big part of these things is networking, so there is always a social on the first night. I am actually quite an introvert, until I know you a bit, so these things are typically pretty stressful for me and it is something that I work on.
I approach it just like training – I set a goal. How many new contacts do I have to make or how many ‘big wheels’ do I need to talk to before I can be satisfied with my effort. In this case there were two big wheels I wanted to talk with and I wanted to make five new contacts.
Mission accomplished – it took me 3 hours – so I was up WAY past my bedtime.
As I was leaving, John Romaniello and some members of the Mastermind group were going to head out to a really nice club one of them knew of. I was having none of it – straight to bed.
Turns out it was a stripper bar – – a nice one apparently – – but a stripper bar nonetheless. Glad I went to bed, I don’t think it is my scene 🙂
Anyway, having a great time at the conference meeting nice people, learning and seeing some friends, but I am excited to hop the flight home tomorrow. I have a 5 hour stop over in Chicago, so I am going to do what I do pretty much every time I have a stop over at O’Hare…gone have a Pizza Uno – – yum yum. My splurge for the week!
Now that I confessed that I am having pizza tomorrow, here is how my ‘normal’ eating schedule breaks down…
What I Eat Every Day
Eating is a habit and we can adjust our taste, so I am going to share with you what I eat almost everyday because I know many of you don’t know what exactly to eat.
Put it in perspective…
Keep in mind that I am a 45-year old female who has a fairly active occupation but I am also trying to stay on my target weight – I am not okay with the scale creeping up 3lbs every calendar year 😉
So this is not what a young hockey player should eat, nor a player who is trying to add mass. For you, look at my meals as ‘snacks’ that you could add throughout the day or take the idea for the meal and just ‘supersize it’.
First thing in the morning (4:30am)
Glass of tepid water (not quite warm, but not cold)
I don’t eat as soon as I get up – partly because I do not need to – I am not trying to gain mass and I prefer to get up and get right to work for a few hours and then have my breakfast. I don’t suggest this for young players or players who are trying to add mass.
I do eat breakfast, just a little bit after I get up.
7:30am – cup of coffee with milk (no sugar)
Breakfast – 9am
Small handful of almonds and a piece of cheddar cheese
Here’s a good article from the gang at Precision Nutrition about ‘All Things Breakfast-y‘
Lunch – 11:30am or noon depending on my schedule in the gym
Typically chicken with either pasta, rice or quinoa, but sometimes it is just plain chicken. Sometimes I will have pork tenderloin or lean steak instead of the chicken.
If I don’t get my meat prepared at the start of the week and I am stuck I will take a gluten free burrito rather than buy lunch
Afternoon Snack – around 3pm depending on my schedule in the gym
I typically take this before I go into my afternoon sessions for the day.
Protein shake with one scoop Vega One, ½ cup plain yogurt, ½ cup frozen berries, ½ cup orange juice. Sometimes I make my mocha smoothie – but this is my ‘go to’ shake.
Dinner – around 6:30/7pm
This varies day to day – but we will typically eat eggs one night, sushi another night, chicken (or some other lean meat) with pasta one or two nights. Then on the weekend we will typically eat out one night.
I very rarely eat anything after supper – I might have a cup of tea around 8pm, and then I typically get into bed around 8:30pm.
So that is what I eat. I am not saying that you should eat this way, but you might get some meal ideas out of it. Since I stopped buying lunch at work and bringing my snacks along with me on a daily basis I have dropped about 6-7lbs of fat that I did not want to be carrying around. With this plan I am maintaining my healthy target weight and like I said, I have very low tolerance for letting the scale creep up since I feel so much better.
Cheers,
M
PS – I just did an interview with Registered Dietician Lisa Cianfrini about eating during the holidays, so stay tuned for some of those videos in the coming weeks.