Friday Fuel

I have a big week ahead of me in terms of training, which means I need to pay extra attention to my nutritional needs. Here’s the meal plan for the week:

Breakfasts

Nut butter on whole wheat English muffins (I usually have toast but decided to shake things up a little this week), skim milk, a piece of fruit and green ginger tea. Nothing new here. I’ve eaten peanut butter and banana on toast with a glass of skim milk before every single long run I’ve ever been on and it has never failed me. If it ain’t broke…

Post-Workout Snacks

I’m so over protein shakes. I was loving them for awhile and then at some point I just couldn’t stomach them anymore so I’ve been trying to come up with other high protein-carb combos for after my workouts. Some of my favourites: a banana and a glass of skim milk, tuna on rye crackers or a glass of chocolate milk. Not as high in protein as a shake but I feel much better after eating these snacks than I do after drinking a protein shake.

Lunches

I’ll be mixing it up between chicken and avocado pitas and dinner leftovers. I also have a staff lunch to go to on Wednesday, so I’ll also have one restaurant meal for lunch this week.

Dinners

Can you tell where I get most of my vegetables?

On the menu this week:
Sunday – Shrimp and mango couscous
Monday - Shrimp with egg noodles, carrots and bok choy
Tuesday and Wednesday – Ratatouille Quiche (recipe to follow)
Thursday – Summer squash and white bean sautee

Snacks

In addition to my three meals and post-workout snack, I usually have two small snacks during the day. Snacks on supply this week: almonds, yogurt and frozen strawberries, carrots and eggplant hummus, Kashi bars and popcorn.

So there’s my weekly grocery shop out of the way. It struck me this morning how I’m such a creature of habit. I usually work out on Friday mornings but today ended up being a rest day. On my way to the grocery store, I started driving in the direction of the gym without even realizing it. You know you’re a gym rat when…