What's In The Fridge Of A Fitness Trainer

I’m constantly quizzed on what I eat on a day to day basis.

How do I stay so strict with my diet? Do I just eat chicken, rice and broccoli? What do I do when I want a treat? Do I ever eat out? How do I find time to eat when I see clients until 10pm most nights?

The answer to all of these is simply about balance.

If you open the door and find nothing more than some rotten tomatoes, a few slices of processed cheese and a half-drunk bottle of beer, chances are you don’t have a good physique and don’t enjoy your food either.

Surprisingly, my fridge doesn’t just contain carton upon carton of egg whites, boring packs of vegetables and bottled water. I aim to make my diet as varied as possible and eat foods that I enjoy. As a trainer, my role is to point clients in the right direction, and part of this involves setting a good example through eating habits. I also need to have energy and vigor to cope with early starts and late finishes, meaning a healthy diet is non-negotiable.

At the same time, I can’t be seen to be overly strict as this may put clients off leading a healthy lifestyle. It’s all about balance, moderation and control.

Let’s delve deeper and take a look at what’s in my fridge, starting with the non-perishable items.

Condiments

I love making food more interesting with herbs and spices (which are kept in my larder cupboard) but am a big fan of condiments too.

I don’t keep regular ketchup, sugary sweet chili sauces, or things like jam and honey though. While I don’t completely exclude sugar from my diet, these foods are calorie bombs, and there are far tastier, lower sugar alternatives.

My condiment staples are mustard (English and American), hot sauces made with habanero peppers and naga chilies that are so hot they’ll make steam come out of your ears, low-sugar low-salt ketchup and zero-calorie syrups and spreads to use when I need a sweet fix.

Drinks

Through the day I mainly drink tap water and coffee, which obviously don’t need to be refrigerated. I am a sucker for diet drinks though. I don’t go mad, but tend to have a glass or two most days.

There seems to be a backlash against artificial sweeteners and diet drinks in particular at the moment, but as is always the case, moderation is key. Studies that show harmful effects have only been performed on rodents, injected with vast quantities of aspartame.

When you’ve got a sweet craving, you’re far better off reaching for a can of diet drink than raiding the cake tin or gorging on sweets.

I’m not a non-drinker, but only tend to have the odd drink on a rare occasion when I’m out, so you won’t find alcohol in my fridge. If you did, it would likely be a few good quality European lagers, but I have a very much “take it or leave it” approach when it comes to alcohol.

Besides a few jars of pickles, chilies and maybe some sauerkraut, drinks and condiments are pretty much the only non-perishable items on my fridge. I don’t go in for tinned and canned stuff too much, and prefer to eat fresh foods.

Perishable Foods In My Fridge 

Meat

I’m a meat-aholic. If I didn’t love veggies so much as well, I’d pretty much be a carnivore.

Forget sticking to plain old chicken breast though, I like to get through a wide variety of meat. I do eat all the typical bodybuilding and fitness professional staples – chicken, turkey and lean beef, but also include different cuts of lamb and pork, turkey thigh mince, some darker poultry, different cuts of beef or beef mince and even a few more exotic items such as kangaroo, buffalo and bison. I pick these up from farmers markets and local butchers from time to time.

I’m not overly concerned about the fat content of my meat. If I opt for lean stuff, that gives me the option to eat other higher fat foods throughout the day, whereas is I go for fattier cuts, I just reduce my intake of other high-fat foods.

Fish

I definitely eat more meat than fish, but you’ll usually find a pack or two of salmon in my fridge, along with the odd piece of cod, haddock or bream. I don’t eat that much fish as I also supplement with omega-3 fish oil. I take 3 grams every day and also keep this in the fridge so I don’t get the dreaded “fish burp” syndrome from swallowing warm capsules.

Dairy

It seems quite the in-thing to eliminate dairy products at the moment, but I’m a firm believer that unless you have a lactose intolerance or dairy allergy, there’s no need to. Dairy is a great source of protein and calcium, and a really convenient way to up your protein intake. You might find you don’t get on quite so well with some dairy items. For instance I tend to get slight sinus issues if I drink a lot of milk, so tend to avoid milk for the most part.

I do however eat fromage frais, quark, cottage cheese or Greek yoghurt on a daily basis. I tend to get around a quarter of my protein intake (around 50g) from dairy every day, but do like to vary my sources for the sake of enjoyment.

I keep regular cheese too, for when I need to boost my fat intake slightly, as well as low-fat cheese slices. They may be highly processed, but I’ll only have them once or twice a week, and they taste great on top of a homemade pizza or with a veggie omelet.

A personal favourite of mine is also low-fat mozzarella. At only 13 grams of fat, but 25 grams of protein per block, I usually opt for this over regular cheese.

Grass-fed organic butter is awesome for cooking with, too.

Eggs

I used to eat three or four eggs every day, but I got bored of this pretty quickly. I have no concerns over the cholesterol content of eggs, I just got a bit fed up of having the same breakfast all the time. Now I get through around 10 to 12 per week.

I keep liquid egg whites as well. I’ve got nothing against the yolks, but sometimes I want more fat from nuts, peanut butter or avocado, so go with a few egg whites for my protein, then add fat from somewhere else.

Fruits and Veggies

You all know the benefits of fruits and veggies, so I won’t bore you with them. But here’s what you’ll find in my fridge. This isn’t even a list of what “may” be in there, I usually have all of these in there at the same time. (I actually have two fridges, with one dedicated to fruits and veggies!)

Kale, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, cucumber, peppers, onions, carrot, courgette, mushrooms, aubergine, fennel, tomato, mixed berries, apples, beetroot, asparagus.

Randoms

On top of all of this, I also keep almond milk, to use in place of regular milk, some curry pastes, coconut milk, a jar or two of peanut, almond or cashew butter and some coconut oil.

That’s pretty much it. The above foods, along with the odd bowl of oats, handful of nuts or serving of rice, along with a protein shake keep me going day in, day out.