Posted on June 20, 2018 by Emily Forbes

I had one of my clients ask me last week what would be a naughty meal/food I would eat if I could eat anything. It was actually hard for me to answer. Eating well is my lifestyle. It’s something I actually enjoy. I like stuff that’s good for me, it makes me feel good. If I’ve eaten too much rubbish, I feel rubbish. I only eat take away if I go to someone’s house. I rarely eat out. On the odd occasion I do go out I only have dessert if they serve panna cotta (which is not very often). My weakness like most people’s is carbs. A naughty treat would maybe be a chocolate brownie but this would be once or twice a month. Here’s a one day food diary of what my habitual diet looks like.

  • Breakfast (my favourite meal of the day): Porridge. Every. Single. Day. I don’t get tired of it. It’s usually carrot cake porridge. But sometimes I do porridge with peanut butter, banana and maple syrup. And sometimes it’s overnight oats with berries and vanilla protein powder. And coffee with milk (often it’s decaf. I don’t feel like I “need” coffee, I like the taste).
  • Mid-morning: Another coffee (it’s Monday and I was on a training course all weekend, I felt like I needed this one) and a piece of protein/energy square that I made (oats, quinoa, chia seeds, dried figs, gogi berries, coconut, almonds and almond butter and maple syrup. This will be another blog post once I have perfected the recipe)
  • Lunch: Green protein smoothie (spinach, celery, pineapple, blueberries, vanilla protein powder, maca powder, spirulina and flaxseeds) and a peach.
  • Tea: kale salad, lentils, homemade hummus, spinach and pine nut falafel balls (I bought these but I’m going to try a recreate them). Protein shake.
  • Protein shake post training and apple.

My work pattern is obviously quite erratic with very early mornings and late evenings. I have to make sure I prep my meals in advance, I also don’t have a freezer so it does take planning. If I haven’t prepped then my tea is often cottage cheese and protein granola (not ideal). But if I do need something quick to eat I always base it around veg and protein where I can, a piece of fish I can chuck in the oven with some microwave veg, never a ready meal. Even when I was travelling in Australia and I was mega broke, I “invested” in some spices so that I could make healthy and cheap veg and bean curries.

If I do make an unhealthy food choice it doesn’t bother me because I know that my diet is habitually good. This is what is going to have the biggest impact over time. This is essentially the point where I would like all my clients to get to. I want the healthy choice to be the easy choice.