One of my most toxic traits (aside from requiring a crockery amnesty every few days from the plate graveyard in my bedroom) is getting bored waaaaaay too easily. At the gym (or – these days – in the garden), I struggle to make it past two sets, getting gel nails is hell because I can’t multi-task (read: play) with my phone for a solid 45 mins, and dad pretty much refuses to commit to a film with me because I inevitably go off to do something else half way through.
Having said that, what I lack in discipline / boredom threshold, I make up for in love for routine and structure. Having struggled in the past with food issues, I tend to stick with what I know to avoid any anxiety around loss of control. For a while I relied on MyFitnessPal to track my macros, but I could feel myself becoming addicted to what I saw as the ‘reward’ of under-eating (the food diary won’t complete for the day if you consume / record too few calories. My brain twisted this to be a daily badge of honour). So I decided to go it alone.
What makes me most comfortable is knowing that I am sticking to the macros that I need to support my training. My rough 45/30/25 split (Protein | Fat | Carbs, based on %) was worked out for me by my trainer Kirsty a few years ago, and whilst my goals and training patterns have changed since then, I find that it’s roughly accurate enough with a few tweaks every so often. Something I’ve struggled with in the past is hitting my protein goals on-the-go. The obvious solution to upping protein is foods like eggs, tuna, lean meat etc etc, but that’s a tricky one if you’re out of the house most of the day. And whilst protein bars and shakes (I really rate Barebells) are great, I’m a bit fickle about committing to a life of sweet v savoury snack, so have been hunting down high-protein alternatives to the more traditional chocolate-coated ones.
These lot are MEGA.
Noisy Bean Chips – High protein and super crunchy. I’ve found in the past that bean-based snacks can be a little bland, but these ones have double the flavour of most other brands (8% flavouring rather than 4).
Halo Eats – This one requires a bit of fore-thought as it’s recipes but my God is it worth it. The zero waste crackers are an amazing hack for using up leftovers or the pulp from juicing that you’d usually through away, and are packed with protein-rich seeds.
Karma Bites – Light, crunchy, coated in flavour little puffs of brilliance. Somewhere between popcorn and crackers – similar texture to rice puffs.
Cosmic Molecule Bone Broth – Slightly harder to implement on the go if pre-planning isn’t your thang, but I make a flask of this before a busy day and take it with you)
