Day in the life and eating like a trainer

Let’s play a game: I’m going to paint a scene for you, and you tell me if I’m describing a middle-schooler or an adult.

In the wee hours of the morning, you’ll find this person walking on the sidewalk … carrying a bright-blue sports-team lunchbox packed with food and little snacks … wearing a white backpack full of paper, books and an extra shirt … dressed in sneakers, a zip-up hoodie and a uniform t-shirt … talking on the phone using headphones … and upon arriving at planned location, the person puts his/her backpack in a locker, changes his/her sneakers and takes his/her books on-the-go to start the day.

What do you think? Teenager arriving at school or an adult?

Well, as you might have guessed. It’s me. And that’s lucky-locker number 73, with my backpack straps hanging out.

As I was walking home yesterday, I caught a glimpse of myself in a store window and then looked down at my sneakered feet. I had my empty lunchbox hanging on my shoulder, full of used Tupperware containers, and I thought about the load of paperwork, the clipboard and tablet in my backpack for work. Truly, I’m like a middle schooler who just hopped off the schoolbus.

I need a lot of stuff right now for my long days at the gym, full of programming for clients, meeting with clients, doing fitness and health assessments on potential clients and fitting in a workout of my own. I’m definitely on my feet all day, climbing the four-stories of the swanky new Equinox going from floor-to-floor. It’s tiring, but it’s fun. I’m learning a ton and spending so much time working one-on-one with people, who are all really excited and motivated to start a new fitness program.

Eating like a personal trainer

To get through a day like this, you need the proper fuel. As I mentioned, this weekend I spent some time doing food preparation, or “food prep.”

If you’re not familiar with food prep, basically it means you take time on the weekend to cook loads of food, store it in the fridge, and then section out little-by-little for your meals during the week. Food prep helps you avoid buying too much food on-the-go from restaurants when you’re hungry and ensures that you have healthy options available at all times. For trainers who have only a little bit of time to eat during the day and for other health-nuts who want to know what’s in all of their meals when they’re not at home, food prep is very important. It’s time you carve out over the weekend to save yourself time during the week.

My food prep for this week included the following:

• Roasted sweet potatoes (cooked in the oven with a little coconut oil)
• Steamed spinach (cooked on the stove with a little coconut oil)
• Shredded chicken (cooked in the crockpot with broth and garlic salt)
• Quinoa (cooked on the stove)
• Hard-boiled eggs
• Overnight oats

I’ve been able to enjoy both breakfast and dinner at home. And here’s a look at the sustenance I’ve been bringing to get me through the day.

In addition to the cooked food, I also take cottage cheese, raw almonds and a fuji apple for snacks.

My food spread is colorful, it contains all the food groups, and it gets eaten up each day.

It takes some effort to plan out and get your food ready, but like most things, once it’s done, you’re sure happy you took the time to do it.

Because I’ve detailed my eats for Tuesday, I’m linking up with Jenn from Peas and Crayons for a feature called “What I Ate Wednesday.” Let me know if you like these types of food posts, and I’ll do more in the future.

Questions of the day

Do you do food prep? If so, what do you make? What’s do you normally have for lunch?