My day on a plate
I haven't done one of these in a while but thought I would give you a typical day on my plate and go through what i typically eat each day and the times I eat it. I'm also actually so boring and could eat the same thing for breakfast, snacks, lunches and dinner every single day for the rest of my life and not get bored. It's definitely my personality type - so regimented and If I find something I love I stick to it.
So lets get to it
4am or 5am - training
I generally start training in the morning anywhere from 4 to 5am. This time depends on which day of the week it is and what time my clients start or I have to be at the office or at my first meeting. But because I train so early I don't eat anything before training and I never feel like eating at that hour anyway. I've never generally been one to eat before training as it usually makes me feel full and sick and I don't train my best. Especially training that early in the morning I try and get up as late as possible so don't want to wait around after I eat to let food digest. In another lifetime it seems, I used to train at 6.30 or 7pm at night. (How did I do that?!? I'm sometimes already curled up bed already watching tv or reading at that hour). When I used to train at night I would always make sure to have a snack or something 2 - 3 hours prior to training to tide me over until dinner after training.
Between 5 and 6am - Breakfast
(within 30 minutes of training, I literally finish training and then go make breakfast (I train at home ) so i'm generally eating within 5 minutes or so but sometimes on the weekend it can be a bit longer but I always aim for within 30 minutes)
I have 2 breakfasts that I generally go between. In Summer I generally have a smoothie or smoothie bowl and in winter I've started to love having porridge. Breakfast is the meal of the day where I get my carbs in as it's after my training and when your body best utilises them. When I say get my carbs I mean heavy carbs such as a grain (oats, millet, buckwheat etc), legumes (chickpeas, lentils, peas, beans) or starchy carbs such as sweet potato. I generally don't eat those heavy carbs any other time of day as they do make me feel quite full (and sometimes bloated) but after training they don't seem too.
For my smoothie bowl (and lots of recipes are up on my website) I'll generally have Almond milk, coconut water, some fruit such as berries, banana, mango or pineapple, vegan protein powder, LSA (linseed, sunflower seeds and almonds), chia seeds, maybe some peanut butter and then top it with some activated granola.
My winter porridge is generally the same (yes I mix my protein powder with my porridge - this is so important to get your protein in after training) except I transfer out the granola for gluten free porridge.
Even if i'm eating breakfast out I generally opt for a smoothie bowl (not a big fan of acai bowls as they contain a lot of sugar) or granola or some eggs, avocado and greens on toast.
Around 8.30 or 9am - Snack
My snacks also vary year round. My snack i'll usually have sitting at my desk so needs to be something I can have quickly and doesn't take a lot of preparation. In summer I generally try and save one piece of fruit to have as a snack as it's so refreshing. Some of my other favourite snacks are organic popcorn, nuts and seeds, vegetable sticks and dip, greek or coconut yoghurt and berries.
Anywhere from 11.30 - 12.30 - Lunch
Lunch i'm generally at the office during the week, so in summer I generally take a salad to have and make it the night before. Look generally in winter too, but in winter I do like making soups to take although that definitely takes more meal prep.
In my salads i'll have some sort of protein. My go to easy proteins for lunch are tuna, boiled eggs or tofu. They are all so easy to have in the fridge pre-prepared to put in salads. I then have salad vegetables such as spinach, rocket, cucumber, olives, tomato, avocado, hummus, maybe some Halomi or goats cheese and then olive oil and lemon dressing on top.
Around 3 or 3.30 - Snack
When I say creature of habit, I mean I am. My afternoon snacks are generally a variation on whatever I didn't have for a morning snack.
6 - 6.30 Dinner
So dinner I like to generally have a light dinner of just protein and veggies. This could be with chicken or beef with roast veggies, or Konjak noodle pasta with a lean meat Bolognaise sauce loaded with veggies, a mexican bowl with shredded beef and veggies, or my healthy version of fish and chips with green veggies (pictured below).
So as you can see i make sure I am getting Nutrient dense meals in but without all the fuss of calorie counting.
