What I’m eating today!

In body-building, we all know that your abs are in the kitchen, but there is so much hype and myth out there about what “clean-eating” is, that an athlete can start to get pretty confused when it comes to determining a good diet regime to follow. At Cathy Savage Fitness, we follow a pretty relaxed approach, and most of us are on a 5 – 6 meals/day plan, eating a good variety of vegetables, fruits, high quality proteins, and grains/cereal products, dairy, and good fats. Cathy’s stance on clean eating really appealed to me from the beginning, as I used to suffer from Bulemia for 16 years, (it all began with track and field training, when I was 16!) and I refuse to go back to any kind of disordered diet for a sport. No Way!!

I get asked a lot what I eat, and whether or not I take supplements, (i.e. diuretics, fat-burners, energizers, etc.). The answer is simple: I eat delicious, high quality meals, I make sure I eat a variety of vegetables and protein sources, I don’t eat the same thing throughout the week, but mix it up, even if it’s only changing which fat I cook with, or which fruit and nut combination goes on my oatmeal. I really enjoy this part of taking care of myself.

As for supplements, absolutely NOT! My joke with Jean-Jacques Barrett, (my trainer) is that my HIIT sessions on the bike, and my weekly MAP workouts, are my fat-burners. I also feel that getting enough sleep, dealing with issues before they become stressors, and my regular yoga practice, all work synergistically to give me my higher energy levels. Though I’m 40 years old, I like to thing that I have at least as much energy, and as high a metabolism, as I did when I was 16!

Meal 1: My first of the day today was a bowl of oatmeal cooked in whole milk, with a small spoonful of butter, a drizzle of honey, some banana mashed in to help sweeten it and also boost the potassium content, and of course some wonderful walnuts to add crunch and flavor. I am currently looking for organic oatmeal to buy, and organic milk. I’m in Mumbai, so it’s new territory for me, but I know it has to be here somewhere!

Meal 2: 2 organic eggs fried in a little butter and olive oil, (I like to mix these two fats together), with a pinch of sea salt and oregano, served with a generous portion of mixed vegetables, also sauteed in the same fat, but with the addition of minced ginger and a tiny bit of honey.
I’ve been eating a lot of spicy dishes lately, and my palate was craving something a little more simple, a little more french. I would have loved some tomato in here as well with just a crumble of feta cheese, but the pantry was empty. Next time.

No, I never, ever eat egg-whites. I graduated from NGI, and we firmly believe in eating whole foods as nature intended. When you start removing things from foods, you really run the risk of malabsorption of nutrients. For instance, these egg yolks are organic, a bright orange color and high in Omega-3 Fatty Acids, an important essential fat that we can only get from our diets. In fact, most of the nutrients and all of the fat-soluble vitamins are packed into the yolk: Vitamins A, D, and K, calcium, magnesium, the B-Vitamins, and protein to name just a few. I made this dish in less than 3 minutes, the time it took to cook the egg, and just added the extra vegetables I’d already cooked for the 2 meals I was taking to work.

3. For my next 2 meals of the day, I knew that I would be at the gym working out and then teaching, and I had some chicken in the fridge that I could use, and of course at the beginning of the week I always par-boil off whatever mixed vegetables I find at the market. This makes meal-planning during my busy work week so much easier.

Here, I simply melted some butter, olive oil, sea salt and oregano in the wok, added a squeeze of lime and a drizzle of honey, and sauteed the chicken at a fairly high heat. I added some chili flakes and ginger, and then removed the chicken from the pan, added my vegetables, and the whole process took about 9 minutes. While everything was cooling I made my egg dish, grabbed the last roti and enjoyed lunch.

Later tonight, I will decide if I’m still hungry and want to eat another meal. I’ll probably have some yogurt and almonds with a generous serving of fruit, (the strawberries here are amazing!). I feel like I haven’t had much fruit today and the last meal of the day usually covers any losses.
Another thing that I have to stress is that I am always auto-regulating when it comes to my diet. If I’m not hungry, I don’t eat. If I feel like I need to eat a bit more, or feel a strong craving for something, (I’m talking whole foods here!), then I’ll adjust accordingly. It’s good to have a game plan, but as an athlete you really need to develop some intuition for your body. Some days you’re going to be under more stress depending on your workout load, your job, etc, and you have to be able to notice these differences in the moment.