A Week In My FOOD.

I thought I would put together this weekly overview to show you all how I manage my day food-wise.  This is a pretty typical week for me right now.  For some perspective –  I am currently 4 weeks out of the USAW National Championships.  As of now, I am weightlifting primarily where my sessions usually last about two hours.  Four to five days a week, I will incorporate some kind of conditioning piece in there with an aerobic focus (20-30 minute workouts at 150-160 bpm heart rate).  I get up at 4:20 am a few times a week to coach the 5:00 am and 6:00 am classes and I have learned how to adjust my schedule accordingly so I am not incredibly hungry on those days.  I do have the luxury of going home at some point almost everyday to make lunch, and pack meals with me for the rest of the day – as I currently am on a plan where I work to have a meal every 3 hours.  What you will not see in my log is my daily supplement intake.  I use TEN Performance supplements and take RECOVERY and PME every morning as well as HCE and BCAA’s in my daily water, with RPM before bed at night.  In addition to that, I take a multivitamin as well as a probiotic daily.  I aim for 1 gallon of water per day, and 8 full hours of sleep at night.

Currently, my caloric intake is fairly low (for me) at only around 1900 kCal per day with an untracked meal during the week that typically brings my calories up to about 2800-3000 on that day.  This time last year I was training for Crossfit Regionals, and then eventually the Crossfit Games, and my caloric intake was up to about 2600 kCal per day.  I do work well off an intuitive eating method, and if I am more or less hungry on some days I will eat accordingly.  I have no scenario coming up where I would need to cut weight or make weight.  I am lifting in the 69kg lifter at Nationals and naturally walk between 66kg-68kg so I am eating for performance and maintenance right now.  I am keeping my foods as clean as possible in order to enhance recovery, reduce inflammation, and get the most out of my training these last few weeks before Nationals.  After nationals, I will do this again and it is very likely you will see a bit more ice cream, cookies, and less quality foods incorporated into my week.  But for now, its full focus ahead to being the best me on that platform in a few weeks!

My basic intentions of writing this piece is to allow you to understand that although our nutrition often has a specific plan, life happens.  It is okay to work your plan around a different daily schedule, or to incorporate an untracked meal during the week.  I also wanted to give some insight into what my foods look like daily.  I eat a ton of Trifecta Nutrition protein, as it is quick and easy.  I try to work in a variety of fruits and veggies.  I do not eliminate gluten, nor dairy, but I try to limit them as much as possible.  I am a creature of habit – and often repeat meals day to day simply because I like them.

MONDAY – April 17th

Daily Overview:

Monday is always one of my busier days of the week.  I am up at 4:25 am to coach.  Before leaving the house, I make a bulletproof latte in my Magic Bullet using MCT oil, protein powder, and coffee (you will see this as an almost daily routine in my food log).  I coach until 7:00 am, and then start warming up to train around 7:30 am.  In addition to being up early, it is a higher volume training day – lots of lifts and heavy!  My session usually goes until about 10:00 am where I head home to eat breakfast (Meal 2), work on emails from nutrition clients, and get any daily errands done that I need to.  I ate Meal 3 at home, just before leaving for a chiro visit, then headed to the gym to get a conditioning workout in with the 3:30 pm class.  I had Meal 4 on the gym floor, right before coaching Barbell Club from 5:00-7:00pm, then headed home for dinner (Meal 5).  After cleaning up, taking a shower, and answering some emails, I was off to bed (early because I coach at 5:00 am again tomorrow!) with my pre-bed snack of popcorn and some tea.

Food Log by the Numbers:

MEAL 1: 14p/20c/10f

MEAL 2: 29p/47c/15f

MEAL 3: 33p/46c/6f

MEAL 4: 18p/30c/5f

MEAL 5: 30p/19c/12f

SNACK 6: 4p/23c/2f

TOTALS: 139 Protein, 206 Carbs, 57 Fat (32g Fiber, 48g Sugar) 1893 Calories

TUESDAY – April 18th

Daily Overview:

Tuesday is a lighter day in terms of responsibilities and training.  I did coach 5:00 and 6:00 am classes, but then headed back home to lay down, relax, and watch SportsCenter before getting up to have Meal 2 and answer some emails.  Tuesday is a lighter day when it comes to training volume, and I do not coach in the evening – so I knew I would train later on.  My day was pretty much just chores, errands, and emails until I headed to workout at around 4:00 pm.  I ate Meal 3 at home, and whipped up Meal 4 (which was an AMAZING homemade acai bowl – MY FAVORITE!) right before walking out the door. When I was done training, I had a text waiting from my amazing boyfriend that he wanted to take me out to a movie.  Our favorite theatre is one that serves dinner to you in incredible recliners while you watch the movie (seriously the best thing ever invented).  So, my Meal 5 was a restaurant meal.  Majority of their menu is fried food, burgers and pizza.  I knew I wanted to stay on track with my numbers so I ordered a simple grilled chicken salad with dressing on the side – a safe bet almost anywhere!  When we got home, I had a pre-bed snack of some Halo Top!

Food Log by the Numbers:

MEAL 1: 16p/23c/7f

MEAL 2: 25p/35c/13f

MEAL 3: 33p/59c/14f

MEAL 4: 21p/46c/9f

MEAL 5: 28p/18c/7f

SNACK 6: 12p/30c/6f

TOTALS: 135 Protein, 211 Carbs, 56 Fat (34g Fiber, 86g Sugar) 1888 Calories

WEDNESDAY – April 19th

Daily Overview:

I got to sleep in today, so I was able to catch up on some much needed recovery hours!  I got up around 9:00 am which means I technically skipped Meal 1 and my day started with Meal 2 at around 10:00 am.  It is totally fine when this happens as I end up just having larger meals throughout the day and usually means a bit bigger of a pre-bed snack (I am very okay with that!).  My workout happened from about 11:00-1:00pm where I then headed home for Meal 3 at around 2:00 pm and some client emails until I had to head back to the gym to coach at 5:00 pm.  On my way to coach, I had Meal 4 and then had dinner (Meal 5) when I got home.  My pre-bed snack, Meal 6 was an amazing one (as promised) and included an Enlightened Ice Cream Bar and a serving of Reese’s Puffs cereal! I LOVE CEREAL!!!

Food Log by the Numbers:

MEAL 1: SLEEP!

MEAL 2: 27p/39c/18f

MEAL 3: 34p/65c/17f

MEAL 4: 32p/50c/6f

MEAL 5: 28p/13c/16f

SNACK 6: 11p/40c/7f

TOTALS: 132 Protein, 207 Carbs, 64 Fat (33g Fiber, 105g Sugar) 1932 Calories

THURSDAY – April 20th

Daily Overview:

Today started at 4:25 am where I headed in to coach 5:00 am, 6:00 am, 9:00 am, and Noon class.  I didn’t make my protein latte this morning as I was out of coffee (incredibly tragic), so instead I stopped for coffee on the way to the gym and added two tubs of creamer to it.  I did a 30 minute recovery workout after the 6:00 pm class but waited until normal feeding time to have Meal 2 as I wasn’t very hungry yet.  I had Meal 2 after I coached at 10:00 am which consisted of a protein bar on the way to my weekly chiro appointment.  After coaching noon class, I headed home for lunch (Meal 3) around 1:30-2:00 pm, and then worked on emails and nutrition programming for a few hours.  After a few hours of solid work, I worked up an appetite and was counting down the minutes until my planned meal time of 4:30 where I had Meal 4.  I worked on dinner for Brenton (a Beefy Mac & Cheese!) and I was pretty hungry in the process.  I checked my food log and realized I had quite a bit of food left and really only one meal to go.  So, I went had a snack around 6:30 pm.  When he got home we had dinner – Meal 5 – around 8:00 pm.  Pre-bed snack was my favorite popcorn while watching the LeBron be a man.

Food Log by the Numbers:

MEAL 1: 0p/3f/10c

MEAL 2: 21p/17c/9f

MEAL 3: 31p/53c/20f

MEAL 4: 42p/62c/7f/

(SNACK): 9p/25c/9f

MEAL 5: 32p/22c/5f

SNACK 6: 4p/23c/2f

TOTALS: 139 Protein, 212 Carbs, 55 Fat (30g Fiber, 54g Sugar) 1899 Calories

FRIDAY – April 21st

Daily Overview:

Friday is my favorite training day because it is HEAVY SINGLE FRIDAY! This training session is also one of my longer ones as I take my time.  I planned on meeting my training partner at a nearby gym that has kilo plates at 9:00 am to start our session.  So I got up around 7:30 am and had breakfast, or Meal 1 around 8:00 am.  I planned on just bumping my normal meal times back an hour – however, my training session went longer than expected as we got started later, so I ended up not eating Meal 2 until about 12:30 pm (usually 10:00 am).  Because of this, I technically skipped what is usually my first lunch.  Not a big deal at all, my schedule was just different today!  After eating at home, I worked on some client programs, ran some errands, and headed to the gym to coach the 3:30 class.  While they were hitting their workout, I had Meal 4 – which was a quick snack of a protein bar and Fitaid at about 4:00pm.  I then worked out with the 4:30 pm class, coached my lifters a bit, and headed home for dinner or Meal 5.  Often, my boyfriend and I eat out on a Friday night, however we will likely be out to eat tomorrow for a meal or two as we have a full day planned, so I was fine with dinner at home tonight.  Pre-bed snack was one of my favorites – Halo Top mixed with cottage cheese!

Food Log by the Numbers:

MEAL 1: 25p/31c/16f

MEAL 2: 35p/57c/14f

MEAL 3: N/A

MEAL 4: 22p/34c/7f

MEAL 5: 28p/38c/15f

SNACK 6: 19p/48c/9f

TOTALS: 132 Protein, 210 Carbs, 60 Fat (37g Fiber, 68g Sugar) 1908 Calories

SATURDAY – April 22nd

Daily Overview:

Today I was up early (for a weekend) as I was headed to train and hangout in Joplin, MO – about an our away from home – at Midwestern Built’s new gym.  They are one of my awesome sponsors, and the brand that supplies my Honor Your Gifts apparel line.  My boyfriend and I were shooting to be there for 11:00 am, so I got up and made breakfast – Meal 2 – by 10:00 am.  Almost always, Meal 1 is skipped on weekends as I sleep right though it!  By about 1:00 pm, I was mid squat sets with about an hour of exercise ahead and no lunch in sight.  I grabbed an RX Bar and got back to squatting – it served as Meal 3 and was good enough to hold me over until lunch!  I was hanging out with a handful of athletes training for Crossfit Regionals, so naturally I got tempted into some high intensity workouts with them.  I hit two different conditioning pieces, something I haven’t done since putting weightlifting first this season.  I felt great, but knew it was more volume than I was use to and I was going to be HUNGRRRYYY later (and sore tomorrow!).  Lunch, or Meal 4, happened between 3:30 and 4:00 pm as soon as we were done training.  It was Chipotle and an ice cold TravelAID, provided by the awesome MWB staff.  I easily tracked it using the Chipotle Nutrition Calculator.  We headed to the hotel to shower and rest a bit until the big cookout we had planned.  We stopped at the grocery store and picked up some snacks to hold us over until then.  I grabbed 6oz of blackberries and a non-fat yogurt as a small snack.  We headed to the cookout around 6:00 pm and sat down for an AMAZING dinner around 7:30.  I used this meal as my untracked meal of the week.  I try and do this once per week both for mental sanity and to keep metabolism strong.  It works well for me, and I find it helps to keep me on track the rest of the week.  I didn’t go overboard (okay, maybe a little when the desserts came out), but I surely ate more than the macros I had left for the day.  I stopped when I was full (or VERY full, oops) and felt just fine.  The homemade desserts were SO worth it after the long day of training.

Food Log by the Numbers:

MEAL 1: SLEEP!

MEAL 2: 26p/37c/13f

MEAL 3: 12p/23c/8f

MEAL 4: 36p/47c/11f

SNACK: 14p/19c/1f

MEAL 5: UNTRACKED MEAL

TOTALS: UNKNOWN, probably around 2800-3000 Calories

SUNDAY – April 23rd

Daily Overview:

Sunday mornings are slow and calm, and I love that.  I don’t usually get my day started until I start getting ready for church which usually happens at 10:45 am.  When I got up and started getting ready, I had my bulletproof latte.  I didn’t have my first real meal – Meal 3 – until I got home around 12:30 pm.  I went food shopping for the week (where I had a snack when I got in!), finished up new client programs, did some errands around the house and then had Meal 4 at around 4:00 pm.  I then headed out with my boyfriend as we did his food shopping for the week, and went to a few other stores.  When we got back to his house, I helped him cook meals for the week and then we both sat down to dinner – Meal 5 – at around 8:00 pm.  Pre-bed snack was pretty much immediately after that, as I tasted my homemade Peanut Butter Energy Balls that I made for the first time tonight as per Brenton’s request.  THEY DID NOT DISAPPOINT!

Food Log by the Numbers:

MEAL 1: SLEEP!

MEAL 2: 5p/5c/6f

MEAL 3: 25p/64c/17f

SNACK: 11p/24c/4f

MEAL 4: 37p/37c/13f

MEAL 5: 32p/23c/9f

SNACK: 10p/33c/16f

TOTALS: 119 Protein, 185 Carbs, 60 Fat (35g Fiber, 65g Sugar) 1756 Calories *my carbs (and overall intake) were a bit lower today which I don’t totally mind as it was a complete rest day, and the day following my high intake (untracked meal).