nutrition

Day on a Plate (the Macro Version)

Zoey · November 16, 2017 · 1 Comment

You might not know this but I have logged almost everything I’ve eaten since February. It sounds like it would drive you absolutely bonkers, doesn’t it? But the truth is, I got used to it. And writing it down everyday I no longer really attach moral values of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to what I eat on a given day. Some days are more in line with my goals for sure, but I’m just less emotionally affected by one particular day. One of the questions I got asked when I started this blog every day in November business was what I ate and why I ate it.

So I’ve decided to do a day where I do multiple workouts because that’s probably more typical than any other kind of day!

4am: Alarm goes off. I KNOW. I’m also really used to this and I was in bed at 9pm. I have overnight oats, pretty much as soon as I get up. (27g carbs, 7g fat, 12g protein). The priority here is to top up my carb levels before my workout. I like the overnight oats because it is super quick first thing in the morning and I don’t have to prepare anything. For pre-workout carbs I find that oats sits really well in my tummy too.

4:30am I’m on my way to Crossfit now and I’m drinking a pre-workout drink. I have about a half serve of True Protein‘s pre-workout. It is basically amino acids and caffeine. The caffeine is a bonus, but the amino acids are there to help me build muscle when I get to my session. (7g protein)

5-6am: Crossfit Workout.

6:00am: Post-Workout drink. I get True Protein’s lean post-workout. The priority is to have protein immediately after the session to facilitate recovery and muscle repair. (31g protein, 3g carbs)

6:15am: Go for a run. As this is on a Crossfit day it would usually be an easy paced run.

6:45am: Bulk Nutrients BCAA recovery drink with added electrolytes. Again this is just to aid recovery and rehydration. (12g protein)

7:30am: Get home and have breakfast. Second breakfast is the best. It might be porridge from rolled oats and honey (25g carbohydrates, 3g fat, 3g protein). The aim here is to eat breakfast within 90 minutes of finishing my run. I’d follow that up with a cup of coffee. My preference is for Norco Barista Milk because it is delicious (9g carbohydrates, 6g fat, 6g protein)

10:30am: Snack of coconut loaf with butter (8g carbohydrates, 17g fat, 6g protein) and a coffee (9g carbohydrates, 6g fat, 6g protein)

12:30pm: Lunch time! Would usually have a quick stir fry of peas, mushrooms and broccoli (12g carbohydrates, 4g fat, 9g protein) with a 1/2 cup of basmati rice (20g carbohydrates, 3g protein)

2:00pm Pre-workout before weights session (7g protein)

2:15pm – 3:00pm Weights session

3:00pm Two protein balls (6g carbohydrates, 8g fat, 24g protein) and coffee (9g carbohydrates, 6g fat, 6g protein)

6:00pm: Yep, I’m an early eater! Baked potato with cauliflower, garlic and mushrooms fried up with butter. (45g carbohydrates, 4g fat, 8g protein) The priority with this is to have a carbohydrate heavy dinner so my carbohydrate levels are still going to be pretty high the next morning.

7:00pm: Frozen raspberries and peanut butter. I like something a bit sweet after dinner. (10g carbohydrates, 3g fat, 4g protein)

Totals for the day: 183 grams of carbohydrates, 65g fat, 142g protein.

Why Nutrition is So Much Harder than Running

Zoey · November 5, 2017 · 1 Comment

Why is it that so many people find it so much harder to create habits to support nutrition, than they do for running. Don’t get me wrong, there is a reason why this isn’t called why running is so much easier than nutrition. Because it’s not easy, it’s bloody hard sometimes. Particularly in the beginning when you feel like a great thundering beast being slowly crushed into the ground through a combination of gravity and dying. It’s not easy. But it’s not as hard as nutrition for most people.

Going for a run, you might have to play the mental chess game. I will go. I’m not going. I can go tomorrow. Tomorrow you will just put it off again. You can go now. If you go now, I’ll buy you coffee afterwards. You get the idea. BUT it is only one part of your day and once it’s done it’s DONE. Nutrition on the other day is 24 hours a day and it’s so much harder to maintain focus for that amount of time. Have you ever noticed how you stick to whatever your nutrition plan is and then at the end of the day the mental effort has worn you done so you have a big slice of cake? That’s called decision fatigue. You’ve made so many choices about your nutrition all day, that you literally run out of will power at the end of the day. It’s also why they have chocolate in the check out aisle at the supermarket. Because you’ve exhausted yourself making all the decisions about your shop, so that snickers bar and that bottle of coke end up in your trolley at the end.

What I’ve discovered over the last year of really working on my nutrition is that preparation is EVERYTHING. A great week in running and in nutrition is built on the back of what I do on Sunday.

So this morning I made Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls (slight variation from this recipe in that I left out the coconut flour and the cranberries and I used 1/4 cup of peanut butter instead of a 1/2 cup. You can play around with protein ball recipes because they are pretty forgiving. And I figured this way I would end up with something that was relatively high in protein, low in fat and without much added carbohydrates (so I can eat my carbohydrates in more delicious ways)

Next week I get back to a bit more of a normal week. Races are cool and all, but way too much resting and eating involved! So normal week means food prep and for me, I’ve got my go to breakfast of yoghurt and berries and muesli and I’m usually good to throw together a stir fry for lunch which makes enough for my dinner but snacks are the bit I need to have on hand. I’m a grazer, so it’s unusual for me to go they long without eating, so having snacks at the ready is a good way to make sure my nutrition stays on track. Protein Balls, done ✅ Baked custard is in the oven ✅ Who else is getting ready for an awesome week?

A post shared by Zoey Dowling (@opmove) on Oct 21, 2017 at 6:31pm PDT

I also made overnight oats. For this one I added in frozen cherries instead of raspberries. You are probably noticing a trend here. I love recipes that I can play around with. So I’m sticking with what works for me, but I can change up the flavours so even though I am essentially eating the same thing, I don’t get bored of it because I’m always trying it different ways.

Made up some overnight oats last night to help me with busy mornings, which are aplenty around here! I mixed: 1 cup of rolled oats 1 cup of macadamia milk 1 cup frozen raspberries 4 tablespoons of peanut butter 2/3 cup Greek yoghurt And that made 4 servings. Had it for breakfast, and it was yum! Now I just have to wait for the coffee 😉

A post shared by Zoey Dowling (@opmove) on Oct 23, 2017 at 1:49pm PDT

And I made Chocolate Cherry Baked Custard. This is a recipe I’ve been playing around with for awhile.

I blend:

4 eggs
250g greek yoghurt
60g chocolate protein powder (you can ditch this if you like!)
1/4 cup cocoa

Then divide evenly between four ramekins and add in 1 cup of fruit of your choice (I tend to use raspberries or cherries). Sometimes if I want a smoother consistency, I’ll blend in the fruit and that works just as well.

Put your ramkeins in a water bath in the oven at about 170 degrees for 30 minutes. Because my oven is fan forced and over-enthusiastic I only need to have it at 150 degrees. The only tricky part about this recipe is not over-cooking them. It’s really easy for them to get rubbery and dry if you do, so it’s a great idea to take them out even a teensy bit before you are done.

I like them both warm and cold (really easy to reheat in the microwave if you like them warm) and tend to serve with a bit of yoghurt and fruit on top.

And really that preparation only took me maybe an hour. I was a bit longer in the kitchen today because the kids have a cupcake decorating competition on Wednesday and in the interest of my sanity I decided to make the cupcakes today so all we have to do on Tuesday is decorate them. But I ended up with 4 batches of overnight oats (1 for every day next week that I have an early start), 12 protein balls and 4 custards. And that’s a whole lot of decision making about breakfasts and snacks that I don’t have to make during the week.

The other thing that I do at the beginning of the day is I go and work out what I’m eating for that day. I know this sounds laborious. But it’s just another step that cuts out my decision making processes later in the day.

Once you are into the swing of having a food prep day it can be pretty fun, and something that you look forward to at the end of the week. It gives you a chance to try out new things and make it a priority to be looking after yourself during the week, even when you get busy. And on Monday night after you’ve just dragged yourself through the marathon that is child swimming lessons and you get home and open the fridge to find that baked custard waiting for you, it’s nice to know that someone was looking out for you.

Food preparation tips to fuel your training

Zoey · October 10, 2017 · Leave a Comment

I’m very excited to have Nicole from Planning with Kids sharing some of her great tips and strategies for planning ahead to make sure you are getting everything you need in your week and you are never stuck for something to eat when you get busy or have to grab something between a run and work or getting the kids to school.

If you’d like to get Nicole to help you with streamlining more than just your food, you can sign up for her 7 week online course, Planned and Present.

A consequence of training quite a bit, is that you need to eat quite a bit. Nutrition plays such an important role in both performance and recovery for training and racing. I am not a nutritionist and have sought advice in the last few years to help me come up with the right nutrition plan for me. To be able to execute the plan, I have become very practiced at prepping and cooking lots of food to keep me fuelled for my training.

Each weekend I undertake a weekly prep session to make sure that I eat enough of the right foods to make sure I can train the way I want to. There are weeks when for whatever the reason, I don’t get a chance to do a weekly prep session or only do a very small session. I always find I don’t eat as well when this happens and it does have an impact on my training. I might find that towards the end of my end long run for example, that I feel like the tank is empty, when usually I wouldn’t feel like that at all. The upside to experiencing this occasionally is that it reinforces to me how important my weekly prep is.

Having been at this food prep game for a number of years now, I have learnt ways to make it as easy and as efficient as possible for myself:

1. Determine what to cook

I don’t plan out every single meal and snack I have across the week, but I make sure I have a pretty good idea of how it will go:

Breakfasts – I have a few different smoothies that I will have for breakfast, like this Choc Coconut Smoothie or something similar with big handfuls of greens and protein powder instead of eggs. Weekly prep wise I make sure I cut up and flash freeze plenty of bananas so I have plenty to make my breakfasts.
Lunch – my lunches and dinners are interchangeable. They contain a starchy carb, veggies, protein and a some fat. Think left over taco meat, sweet potato, avocado and broccoli. I will look at my week ahead and work out what starchy carbs I will need for my lunches and what veggies I want to have with them.
Dinners – I create weekly menu plans for the family dinners and I use this as the base for my dinners too. I try to eat what the family eats as much as possible but I do need to make some substitutions and additions to cater for my food preferences and the quantity of food I eat. For example when the family has Spaghetti Bolognese., I will sub out the spaghetti and have the meat with either rice or sweet potato and veggies.
Sweet treats – I do have a bit of a sweet tooth, so most weeks I will make something that I can have as a dessert or sweet treat. I often like to experiment with these and copy raw treats I have had out and about, so will write up a list of ingredients I will need to make it.
Condiments – I do eat a lot of veggies now but I am not one of those people that love veggies. I don’t jump with excitement at the thought of a plate of broccoli! To help me with my veggie intake I make a number of my own condiments like dukkah, garlic aioli, fresh salsa, kimchi, etc. Dukkah seriously makes everything taste better! I will look at what condiments I have on hand and generally make at least one each weekend.

2.Work out when to cook it

With five kids who have sporting and social activities, a husband who plays weekend sport and trains himself, to fit my long run in and food prep I need to plan out in advance when I will cook so it actually happnens. By Thursday I tend to know all the details for the commitments we have on the weekend and I can determine when I will have time for prepping food. By looking at this in advance it means that I can then make sure I have been shopping so I have all the ingredients on hand when I start to cook.

As I have cooked most of the items before, I have a rough idea of how long each recipe will take me. Food prep however tends to take longer than you think at it is always completed amongst the usual activities of family life – making kids something to eat, talking with the kids, helping with homework, resolving disputes etc, so you need to always allow for more time than you think you need!

There is a bit of art to working out what to cook when, so you can minimize the time in the kitchen and the amount of clean up you have to do:

Making recipes in bulk – I also incorporate weekly prep for the kids’ school lunches on the weekend, so planning out the meals I cook means that I can get a lot of bang for my buck from one meal cooked in bulk. For example I might cook up 2kg of taco meat (using my own seasoning) and this will be for:
- Dinner that night
- The protein element for my lunches
- Taco parcels for the kids’ lunches
I try to make at least two things each time I cook to save on set up, pack up and clean up time. Each time I cook, I have to wipe benches, stack dishwasher etc, afterwards so it makes sense to limit the number of times I have to do this.
I take into account things like cooking time or setting time, so I can make other things while that is happening. For example with kimchi, I need to leave the salted cabbage for a couple of hours, so will prepare that first off and when I have cakes/muffins etc for the kids’ lunches in the oven baking, I will wash and prep veggies to eat through out the week.
If I am using the food processor for a few things, I will work out if there is a recipe I should make first so I don’t have to wash it in between uses. For example if I am going to be making my own chicken mince (throwing chicken breasts into the food processor!), I will do that after I have used the food processor for grating veggies. I am happy to have grated veggie scraps in my chicken mince, but once raw chicken has been in the food processor it has to be washed.

3. Storing the food

How much food I have to store varies each week. I generally don’t put anything in the freezer and find that most food lasts until Friday if I store it well. I use glass containers with lids where possible. You can find some good advice on food storage times here, but you need to make your own decision on how long you store your food for.

For things like cut veggies sticks (carrot, capsicum, celery etc), I have found using glass jars with lids with a few drops of water at the bottom keep them fresh for 3 – 4 days. We have a comparatively small fridge, so I always do a clean out each weekend of anything old (if there is anything left) to make room for the new and start all over again.

Nicole Avery is a Melbourne mum to five beautiful kids aged 8 to 18, who loves running, CrossFit, tea and spreadsheets. She has run 5 marathons, the most recent being the Great Wall of China Marathon with her husband to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. Nicole is the creator of the Planned & Present e-course, a 7 week online course designed for mums to help them streamline the known repetitive tasks of family life, so there is more time for the fun bits of life – like running!

Podcast: Episode 36 – Why I’m Not Still Eating a Vegan Diet, But I am Seeing a Nutrition Coach

Zoey · March 16, 2017 · Leave a Comment

I ate a predominantly vegan diet for a few months, but this is what has happened since then

This week we talk about:

Why I changed my diet after three months
The main changes I’ve made since working with a nutrition coach
Balancing body composition and body positivity
Keeping focused on performance goals
Journalling for making positive changes
Trying this on to see how it fits you

Head over to iTunes to listen (and subscribe!)

You can listen and download episodes in Itunes here.

Podcast: Episode 25 – Supplements. What do you really need?

OperationMove · October 5, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Should you be taking supplements? And what should you be taking?

This week we talk about supplements. Is it necessary? Are you getting enough in your food? And what things should you be paying attention to. So we have a chat about: