A DAY OF EATS FROM THE NUTRITION COACHES
We’ve loved sharing a glimpse of what nutrition for our coaches looks like in the past. As our KLN team has expanded, we wanted to again share the diversity (and similarities) in our approach as we all juggle busy schedules, responsibilities, personal goals, and our love of good food.
CAITLIN
In the years that I’ve been using flexible nutrition as my fueling approach, I’ve shifted between periods of more rigidity and structured meal prep and times of extra flexibility, having some constants in place to keep me in line with my goals. In this current season of life, I’m a full-time student and nutrition coach with an awesomely busy schedule and social life and I am enjoying the fullest extent of flexibility that this lifestyle affords me. On Sunday each week, I usually prepare and shop for some of those “constants” that I pull from during the week: homemade muffins, lots of baked veggies, quick protein sources like deli meats, egg whites & pulled rotisserie chicken. Several times a week, I’m having dinner with friends or grabbing food to go, and I love the ability to know that I’m getting the nutrients I need AND have freedom to be flexible day to day, depending on what that day entails for me.
HERE’S WHAT A TYPICAL DAY LOOKS LIKE FOR ME:
5:30-6:00am WAKE UP: I’m an early riser and my first order of business is a great cup of coffee. I focus on a lot of water in the early hours, as well.
9:00 am BREAKFAST: This is the one meal that is usually the same for me, day to day. I love an egg white scramble with sauteed kale+onions+peppers. I pull from my prepped breakfast muffins (I play with the ingredients on these, but my favorite are blueberries in season) and have a great high protein start to the day.
NOON WORKOUT
1:30-2:00pm LUNCH: I’m usually very ready for lunch post-workout and create a plan based on what my dinner plans for the night might entail. My go-to options are a big bowl of some type of quick protein source (tuna, pulled chicken, deli meat) plus a ton of starches and veggies OR a quick and easy sandwich plus some chips. I focus on high protein and high carb with this meal specifically, as it’s right after my workout.
AFTERNOON SNACK: Here I usually go for a quick protein bar and some easy carbs like a banana or a fun chip.
7:00pm DINNER: I’m enjoying a lot of meals out these days and one of my favorites is Pho. A big steamy bowl of broth+chicken+noodles is a great way for me to experience freedom and flexibility with my food and is a meal with readily identifiable ingredients that I can estimate to keep me within target for the day.
BEDTIME SNACK: I always have a little something sweet at night, be it a single serve piece of chocolate or a greek yogurt with some fruit. I’ve learned a lot of go-to sweet options and play with my night snack to accommodate my daily target needs. If I feel I’m lacking a bit of protein after dinner, I can grab a greek yogurt. If carbs or fats may be a little low for the day, I can go for a banana with a little peanut butter and a drizzle of honey. Experience and time with tracking has given me the ability to know what items to have on hand at all times to keep me satisfying those targets each day.
[ DAILY TOTALS: 2300-2400 CALORIES, 140+ GRAMS PROTEIN ]
DIANA
Since my husband and I both have very busy schedules, our food routine revolves around meal prep. I do most of our meal prep at the end of the week and over the weekend so we’re ready to go at the beginning of each week. I prep everything ahead of time, including breakfast, lunch and dinner and some snacks for both of us. Having our pre-measured meals in the fridge and ready to grab is essential for helping our week run smoothly.
MY #1 MEAL PREP TIP: BATCH-PREPPING || We create our meals using batch prepared foods as a way to keep it simple and streamlined. It also allows each of us to build our own meals without having to make separate ingredients. If you’re someone who doesn’t like to be tied down to the meals that you’ve prepped for the week, batch prepping (making large containers of cooked proteins, veggies, and other sides, like rice or pasta) is the way to go! It’s a great way to prep for the week by having food already cooked, but offers you flexibility in mixing and matching to create a meal that sounds good in the moment. Our free meal prep cookbook, Everyday Macros, was designed with this exact idea in mind and is actually what most of my weekly prep looks like.
Over the years I have learned what meal prep routine works best for our busy schedules and share the details about what that looks like daily in this post here!
HERE’S WHAT A TYPICAL DAY LOOKS LIKE FOR ME:
5:30am WAKE-UP: I don’t like to eat first thing in the morning, so I use this time to get in a good amount of water. My goal each day is to have at least 1 liter down before I eat anything and at least 2 liters down by noon.
9:00am BREAKFAST: This is usually a big bowl of oatmeal and either a scramble on days that I work from home or breakfast bake and baked oatmeal on days that I’m out of the house.
MORNING SNACK: There is no rhyme or reason to what this snack is, but it’s really whatever I’m feeling that day. Some go-to’s: rice cake with deli turkey and mustard; apple and peanut butter or other fruit; jerky with fruit; raw veggies with hummus
1:30ish LUNCH: A typical lunch is a big bowl of some sort using the ingredients that I prepped over the weekend. Y’all know my go to is BBQ Turkey Hash, or on days where I want something more like a salad, I’ll throw together some fresh spinach (or whatever green I have), shredded chicken, sliced apple, hard boiled egg and honey mustard.
AFTERNOON SNACK: This is typically a protein shake and sometimes an oat bar (like Clif Bar or Nature Valley crunchy bars) whether I’m working out in the afternoon or coaching at the gym.
8:00pm DINNER: Due to our busy schedules, dinner is usually pretty late into the evening, so having everything prepped is essential. Dinner for us looks like protein, rice, potatoes and some roasted green veggies. I typically reheat using a pan on the stove or the air-fryer to give a fresh made taste. If I’m hungry for a snack after dinner, it’s usually a small piece of chocolate or a PB&J rice cake to end the night with something sweet.
[ DAILY TOTALS: 2200-2400 CALORIES, 140+ GRAMS PROTEIN ]
KATE
The work from home + small business owning life means there is little routine across my week and each day looks a bit different given my work load and tasks. That being said, I’m an avid planner and do my best to plan around the constants in my life:
I hate drinking plain water
I’m at my computer all day and try to get movement in twice a day. Usually that looks like a noon workout and a walk or time at the park in the evening.
I’m not a big meat eater
For those reasons, I usually spend the morning chugging water, plan my bigger meals around my lunchtime workout, and pre-plan my day as much as possible so I know that I will hit my protein goal. I really don’t enjoy cooking and find rigid meal prep stressful, so spending less time in the kitchen preparing food is always a big goal for me as well.
MY #1 TRACKING TIP: PRE-LOGGING || Take 5 minutes to sit down and plan out your day in the morning so you have a rough idea of what you’ll be eating later. Log your potential meals and snacks in MFP so that you have an idea of what you’ll be eating each day. This will not only give your meals and snacks some structure, but it will also help you avoid reaching the end of the day with too much or too little food left. You’ll still have the flexibility to adapt your plan to changes if a treat or an unexpected meal comes up, but you at least have a loose idea of what the day will look like to keep you from playing macro tetris at the end of the day (aka goodbye to the nights of having 50g protein left and no carbs or fats to spare).
HERE’S WHAT A TYPICAL DAY LOOKS LIKE FOR ME:
5:00am WAKE-UP: I reserve the morning for focusing on fluid intake. Mornings are full of a lot of plain water, 30 oz. of water with Crystal Light Energy, and tea.
BREAKFAST/PRE-WORKOUT MEAL: I’m a huge fan of egg whites in my oatmeal. I use a pack of Quaker maple and brown sugar oatmeal, egg whites, PB Fit (powdered peanut butter) and chia seeds. This combo easily gets me 25-30g of protein right off the bat.
12pm WORKOUT
2:00ish LUNCH: This meal is usually an amalgam of pre-cooked foods we batch prepped for the week. This usually means grilled chicken and veggies, baked squash, pre-made protein pasta salad, and ready to eat carbs like rice and sourdough bread.
A typical lunch is a big bowl of pre-cooked and fresh foods: spring mix, cooked kabocha or delicata squash, cottage cheese, and roasted veggies topped with Bolthouse ranch or honey bbq dressing with a side of high protein pasta salad (I batch prep this recipe weekly and swap out the risoni for Banza pasta if needed) and chips (Pop Corners are my favorite!). Sometimes it also looks like a big turkey sandwich with a side of chips, pasta salad, and veggies.
4:00ish SNACK: I’m a sucker for crunchy snacks and for peanut butter so this is often 2 PB&J rice cakes and maybe some chopped veggies before I head out on a walk or to the park. If I’m in need of more protein, this may be some greek yogurt with berries.
7:00pm DINNER: My goal for dinner is ease. Most common dinners in our house are taco salads (ground turkey, frozen fajita veggies, rice, and all the toppings needed to hit macro targets - cheese, avocado, salsa, etc.); frozen Trader Joe’s meals like the shiitake chicken and fried rice or cauliflower fried rice; a sandwich with chips and pasta salad if that didn’t make the cut for lunch.
AFTER DINNER SNACK: I’ve never been one for protein bars but I’m absolutely obsessed with Built Bars. I save one for an after dinner treat (my favorite is the Coconut Almond flavor, frozen) to close the gap on protein and also end the night with something sweet.
PRO TIP: SUPPLEMENTS AND EXTRAS || I have a section in my MFP labeled supplements, and this is where I track the small, seemingly negligible items throughout the day. Usually that includes gum, fish oil, vitamins, crystal light, stevia, BCAAs, or other small additions. While these things are all small, they can add up over the day. I don’t stress about tracking them at all. I keep them in this “supplements” section and when I’m pre-logging for the day, I swipe right to add the previous day’s log. This automatically adds all of these supplements, which often contribute about 50-100 cals to my day.
[ DAILY TOTALS: 2200-2300 CALORIES, 130+ GRAMS PROTEIN ]
TEISA
Being a mom of 3, a student, working from home and supporting the husband while he completes his doctorate degree (we are almost done, hallelujah!) I constantly feel like I am on the go. With all these responsibilities in mind I try my best to figure out how I can spend less time in the kitchen. Sundays are my designated day that I like to batch prep a few things that we can grab and go throughout the week and ultimately saves me time. Some of these items look like breakfast bowls (homemade egg bites, rice or roasted potatoes and turkey sausage or canadian bacon), high protein overnight oats, banana oatmeal muffins and butterscotch bars because, well, flexible nutrition.
MY #1 TRACKING TIP: EAT WHAT YOU LOVE || Our menu for the day doesn’t have to involve a lot of what we don’t like. It can actually be fun and enjoyable! I take the time to pre-log my food and plan for the next day. I always make sure to include things that I love or focus my day around a meal that is important to me. In my case dinner and dessert are my big workarounds. We eat dinner together as a family and it is something that the entire family can eat. Dessert is a very sacred time for me to enjoy at the end of the day after the kids are down for bed. I find that when I am incorporating food items that I enjoy it makes it much more enjoyable and when it is enjoyable it makes loads easier to stick to.
HERE’S WHAT A TYPICAL DAY LOOKS LIKE FOR ME:
6:00am WAKE-UP: I am not the best at drinking water throughout the day and so I try my best to get most of that done first thing in the morning. I try and aim for around 40 oz of water before my workout after I drop the kids off at school.
7:30am MORNING SNACK: Mornings are very busy; helping the kids get ready for school, completing their morning jobs and breakfast. Due to the busyness and my preference of working out on a semi-empty stomach I usually have a banana and peanut butter or a slice of Cinnamon Swirl Toast with Honey Pecan Cream Cheese or half of an Everything Bagel and Veggie Cream Cheese Spread.
9:00am WORKOUT
11:00am BRUNCH/POST-WORKOUT MEAL: I love breakfast foods and this meal consists of one of the breakfast options I prepped on Sunday (overnight oats or my breakfast bowl) along with a glass of Fairlife milk and 1 (sometimes 2) oatmeal muffins.
1:00ish LUNCH: This meal is normally leftovers pre-portioned the night before. I always double my dinner recipe to purposefully have leftovers. This makes it easy when I pre-log for the next day and it saves major time because it is already packed and just needs warming up. If there are no leftovers then I usually have a sandwich. A good ol’ sandwich is my favorite with some Pop Corner’s chips or Epic Pork Rinds. In my sandwiches, I use Light Mayo (low on fat), thick deli meat slices, a slice of cheese and some raw veggies like red onion, lettuce and banana peppers.
4:00ish SNACK: Snacks mostly involve something to satisfy my sweet tooth. I love Light Greek Yogurt with some fruit, mini chocolate chips, crumbled Biscoff cookies (or pretzels) topped with whipped cream. If I am in need of more volume and protein then my Yogurt Jello Bowl is it!
Yogurt Jello Bowl:
Light Greek Yogurt single serve cups (Great Value, Light n’ Fit or Two Good)
Cottage Cheese (0% if I am on a cut and 2% normally)
Sugar Free Jello Cup (3.5 oz)
Fruit: I like raspberries or strawberries
Topped with mini twist pretzels or crumbled biscoff cookies and whipped cream
Nutrition information: 24P | 3F | 21C per bowl
Sometimes if I need some help with protein that day I will add a scoop of collagen which would take us to 33g of protein. It is helpful for me to be full and satisfied at this time so I am not tempted to nibble at dinner while I am cooking and focused while I multitask between helping kids with homework.
7:00pm DINNER: Cooking a well balanced meal that everyone can enjoy is a challenge. I stick to the essentials which are protein, rice or pasta and plenty of veggies. This allows us to have a balanced meal and gives me the option of adding more volume with all those veggies if I need to. A go to dinner is spaghetti. Instead of ground beef, I like to use ground chicken, a lower carb pasta sauce like La Victoria, pasta and sauteed zucchini. I always make sure to have pasta but I add on lots of the sauteed zucchini to add volume with the meat sauce.
AFTER DINNER SNACK: It doesn’t matter if I am in a cut or in maintenance, I always make sure to have a dessert after dinner. Remember how I mentioned I pre-log dinner? Well, next on the pre-logging agenda is my dessert for after the kids go to bed. I love the Coconut Almond Built Bar with some Fairlife Milk, a Yasso Frozen Yogurt Bar or a Jojo’s Chocolate Bar also with a glass of Fairlife Milk.
PRO TIP: DOUBLE YOUR DINNER RECIPE || I don’t love meal prep but I do love that it allows me to be consistent and takes the added stress from having to figure out what I need to eat. I often double my dinner recipe to purposefully have leftovers. These leftovers can serve as lunches for my husband and I the next day or they can serve as dinner the next night, lessening my time in the kitchen and taking the brain work out of figuring out what is for dinner the next night.
[ DAILY TOTALS: 1900-2100 CALORIES, 150+ GRAMS PROTEIN ]
WHITNEY
Like it has been for most people, 2020 has been the weirdest year of my life. Adjusting to working from home full time and trying to stay active without all my favorite workout buddies has been a big curveball. The one thing that hasn’t changed: my Sunday batch prep routine. Having protein sources that are prepared and easily accessible has been instrumental in being able to hit my protein minimum, even when stress levels are high.
MY #1 TIP ||: Even when you aren’t tracking regularly, set some minimums! When I’m doing less consistent tracking, I try to check in a couple of times a month to make sure I’m getting the minimum amount of protein I need to maintain lean mass (about 0.75g per lb of body weight). In practice, this minimum looks like making sure I have a decent amount of a protein source at every meal. The other thing I set a minimum on is activity. I haven’t really been on my fitness A game in months, but I am really good at getting up and walking around the block several times a day. I also make sure I’m averaging at least 8,000 steps/day each week, with a stretch goal of averaging 10,000 steps a day.
HERE’S WHAT A TYPICAL DAY LOOKS LIKE FOR ME
5:30am (on days I work out) PRE-WORKOUT SNACK: I hate working out on an empty stomach and usually eat a piece of Dave’s Killer Thin Sliced toast with 1TB Peanut Butter OR a packet of BetterOats with + 2 scoops collagen protein as my husband drives us to the gym. Also, coffee and water.
6:00am WORKOUT
8:00am BREAKFAST: I eat basically the same breakfast every day for months at a time, and I’m a big believer in veggies for breakfast. It really makes me feel like I have my life together, even if I don’t. Usually this looks like:
2 slices turkey bacon + sauteed shredded kale + Trader Joe’s Mushroom & Co seasoning + a squeeze of lemon juice, 2 poached eggs, Dave’s Killer Thin Sliced Toast, coffee + 2% milk.
12:30pm LUNCH: Lunch is whatever I have prepped for the week in the fridge, and is always some combo of Protein Source + Veggie + Carb. This week: salad greens + veggies + chicken breast + Trader Joe’s Kefir Cucumber salad dressing and an apple.
5:00pm SNACK: My appetite has been a bit lower than usual lately, and I started making a daily smoothie as a way to get some extra protein in. It’s honestly the highlight of my day, foodwise. If you’re eating a deficit and are having problems with hunger, this may not be a great option since it is an entire meal’s worth of calories. If you’re someone who struggles to get all your food in: drinking some of them may help. I make mine with Greek Yogurt + frozen strawberries/raspberries + 2 scoops collagen protein (or 1 scoop whey) + 1 serving PB2 + 1 TB peanut butter. The key is to use enough frozen fruit to make it thick enough to eat with a spoon, rather than being a drinkable consistency.
7:30pm DINNER: Eating dinner may or may not happen depending on my appetite for the day. I usually hit my protein minimum after my smoothie, so dinner is kind of a bonus opportunity to get in some extra protein and veggies. This week: chicken thigh or flank steak + roasted sweet potatoes.
PRO TIP: YOUR FOOD SHOULD TASTE GOOD || No matter if you’re eating at a deficit or battling with appetite problems, your food should still be enjoyable. Some of the things I keep on hand at all times to make sure I’m enjoying what I eat are:
Fresh citrus. A squeeze of lemon juice can go a long way in elevating a meal.
Good spice blends like the TJs Mushroom & Co mentioned above.
Marinades. Sometimes I make my own, but more often than not, I use packaged marinades to make sure all my prepped protein sources taste good. My current favorite is this Sumac Marinade.
A variety of salad dressings so I don’t feel like I’m eating the exact same lunch every day.
[ DAILY TOTALS: 1600-2100 CALORIES, 125+ GRAMS PROTEIN ]
While our approaches are different, we all share a love for fueling ourselves well and ensuring that our fueling matches our flexible lifestyles. This is the same flexibility that we share with our clients. If you’re looking to take the next step with your nutrition, learn more about our 1:1 Flexible Nutrition Coaching or apply to work with us!