It's been a minute since I’ve written a blog post. Life has been moving a million miles a minute and if I’m being totally honest I haven’t been really inspired or focused enough to sit down and write. So today I decided to quit messing around and share with you all a sneak peek into my food diary. Now when I say food diary that doesn’t mean I track my macros or write down everything I eat in a little notebook. I use to do that during my contest prep days but I found that it became taxing on me both mentally and emotionally. I developed a SUPER unhealthy relationship with food and a calorie counting obsession so at the beginning of this year, I made it a resolution of mine to cut out calorie counting and mend my relationship with food.

I started from scratch. For weeks I treated my body like a science experiment. I put it through a trial and error process to see what my body would respond to best. I redeveloped healthy eating habits, trained my brain to eat intuitively and relearn to listen to my body. I had been in “contest prep mode” for so long my body didn’t know anything other than to eat every two hours (whether I was hungry or not). It’s been such a rewarding experience to develop a balanced lifestyle. I’ve learned to stress less, eat what I want, when I want AND lose weight. I honestly was so terrified to quit the calorie counting. Never would I have imagined that eating flexibly would benefit my body so well.

Now when I say that I eat what I want when I want I don’t mean I eat chocolate cake for breakfast 3 days a week and lose weight. Only in a perfect world would that happen (if only). What I mean is, that I eat in a balanced way. Typically I spend Monday through Friday keeping my diet clean. I eat lean cuts of meat, fresh fruits & veggies and stay away from processed foods. Balance means that I if I have a last minute lunch date with a friend come up I go. I don’t avoid social gatherings because that meal “won’t fit into my macros”. I mean BARF! Confession… I use to do that. I would avoid social gatherings and time with friends because it didn’t fit into my meal plan… YIKES! Talk about feeling confined to my diet.

I kicked those old habits to the side and decided to just eat the dang food and live my life! Over time I’ve learned what my body likes and what foods work best to keep it in fat burning mode. Unfortunately my body has never been super efficient at fat burning (perks of being an endomorph… insert eye roll here). It takes me time and consistency to see good solid results in my physique, so that’s why I stick to eating relatively clean 5-6 days out of the week. There still has to be a component of self control when trying to cut fat and build muscle so sticking to a clean, whole foods based diet has worked best for my current goals. Below I’ve gone through what I eat in a typical day and why I eat what I eat. This is what has been working for my body and my current goals. Feel free to leave any comments below or send me a DM on Instagram.

Breakfast

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day! I usually eat breakfast right after my workout so in order to replenish the muscles that I just spent time breaking down I eat a protein & carb oriented breakfast. I try to aim for 25-30 grams of protein and about 40-50ish grams of carbs. This is my largest meal of the day. You can find the recipe to my current breakfast obsession here.

Snack

Snack time usually occurs about 2 hours before lunch during that weird time in the day where you start to get hungry for food but it’s still too early for lunch. For snacks I usually try to keep it light and protein packed. My favorite thing to eat is a protein shake. It’s quick, simple and perfect for when you’re on the go. Find my current fave recipe below.

Daily Protein Shake":

2 scoops of Ora Organic Protein Powder (buy vanilla, chocolate or vanilla chai and use my code MM10 to save)

1 scoop of Nested Naturals super greens

1 scoop of S’moo Ovary Good powder (use code MEASUREMEWHOLE at checkout)

1 scoop of Vital Proteins collagen powder

1/2 frozen banana

1/2 cup of ice

10 oz water or coconut milk

Lunch

Lunch I usually do 5oz of a lean protein (white meat chicken, fish or lean ground beef), a clean starch (long grain brown rice, sweet potato or white potato) and a green vegetable. Today I ate my sweet potato before my workout to give me some fuel.

Dinner

I’ve found that my body likes it best when I keep my evening meals light. I sleep better and digest the food more efficiently. I typically eat 5oz of lean meat on a bed of greens. Your body tends to slow down throughout the day so your metabolism and digestion are at its slowest in the evenings. By keeping your last meal light this will allow your body to process the food most efficiently and keep you from bloating.

NOTES:

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Full Day of Eating

Breakfast

Snack

Dinner