Besides starting the day off with tasting wine for breakfast (Chianti Classico and Super Tuscans), I had a pretty healthy day! 🙂 Obviously, when I taste wines for my job, it’s done professionally and I spit in a cup.. but it’s still funny to me.

Some of you have expressed curiosity and interest in what my daily diet looks like – as a chef, I always switch it up, and am not like most bodybuilders who like to eat the same thing every day (although my husband thinks I do, he’s a more ‘advanced’ chef, lol!). So below I’ve listed what I ate today, and it’s NOT all in line with Fighter Diet.  But as I go along in my fitness journey, I’ve realized that when a girl is on the go, for ME (and I’m stating for me, not for everybody) flexibility and adaptability is more important than being anal, too rigid or extreme. I don’t do well when I don’t eat for hours – I WILL make bad choices, and more importantly, get in bad mood – so much so that it can ruin my entire day. I’m a hungry girl, as I’ve stated before – I need to eat! It doesn’t matter WHAT, I can eat salad all day long and that is fine – but I need to chew! Ok here we go:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 cup wheat bran, 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1 scoop Gaspari banana protein powder

Mid morning snack: 1 mixed berry non fat yogurt (not FD – contains too much sugar, although only 80 calories)

Lunch:  8 cups mixed greens with 1/2 cup cucumbers, 1/2 cup red bell peppers, 1 cup mushrooms and 1 cup tomatoes w/balsamic vinegar and mustard dressing. (yeah no protein here – I forgot to bring it with me!!)

Mid afternoon snack:  1 cup non fat cottage cheese sprinkled with ground cinnamon, 1/3 cup whole almonds (WAYY too much)

Dinner:  6 oz Za’atar rubbed grilled chicken, 4 cups green beans, 1 sweet potato (I normally don’t eat sweet potatoes on regular days, but did tonight)

Late night snack: 1 cup non fat Greek yogurt w/ Stevia and 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Total calories for the day: 1853  (47 g fat, 182.1 g protein, 192.3 g carbs)

I am below what I should eat, as I like to be around 2,000 calories but I also didn’t make it to the gym today – today is normally shoulder day and I am refraining from training shoulders for a couple of weeks. I had plans to go for a run but my schedule was so crazy by the time I got home I had no time and now I’d rather get a good night’s sleep so I can get up in the morning and hit the gym hard! Sleep to me is SO important these days, also because I work 7 days a week. I have to pick and choose what I feel will benefit my body the most – without going “soft” on myself, but trying to stay objective, pushing myself whilst taking care of myself. Not an easy job!

So … not an ideal day but way better than what I could have done being that I’m always in the kitchen testing out another recipe, cooking for other people, on a train, in a car, running around lugging a big bag of wine, or stuck in front of a computer. Do I sound like a whiny brat now? I hope not – but so far, this year has been a long trial and error process, and I’m going to just have to keep trying different things until I’m comfortable with my new routine.  While it may be tempting to kick back on the couch rather than hit the gym, just eat that quick sandwich instead of preparing my healthy vegetable dish with my lean protein – I will have to remember that it feels WAY better to look in the mirror and stare back at that fit lady I’ve become. Now, I might just go for that run after all.