Whatever your training or fitness goal, your workouts need to be complemented with the right nutrition. But, we all know that diet inspiration can be hard to find at times. So, with this in mind, we talk to Reflex Ambassador and Fitness Coach Jonny Stephens to get his typical day-to-day diet plus some of his go-to recipes. Here's his day on a plate:
First thing
I’m not the biggest fan of eating in the morning, especially the days when I'm in the gym for 5.30am, so I play with a variation of intermittent fasting. I will have a black coffee or a cup of tea before I head in, but I won’t eat anything until the morning finish at about 11am.11am
Because it's important to get a good whack of protein into the first meal of the day, to break my fast, I'll always have a double serving of Instant Whey Pro and a selection of fruit. This works really well for me, it will keep me ticking over until lunch time, it's high protein and really low in fat and sugars so I can have two larger meals at lunch and dinner and still put myself in a small calorie deficit or at maintenance calories.Lunch
For lunch check out this summer steak salad, which is a tasty little number. It's full of colour and spice yet well balanced, low in calories and high in protein.
All the ingredients in here make this dish a great nutritional powerhouse. A rule I’ve been trying to live by is always having at least three different colours on my plate. The greens, reds and oranges guarantee a whole host of vitamins and minerals. The oil-based drizzle on the salad, the avocado and a lean cut of steak provide a great balanced fat profile. And, of course with 38g of protein, it is smashing your leucine threshold and is a nice big step towards your daily protein intake goal. For those trying to trim up for summer, piling on lots of low calorie dense foods like salad leaves and pepper, teamed with the citrus zest and chilli flakes is guaranteed to banish any hunger that might be lurking.Calories - 550, Protein - 38g, Carbs - 32g, Fat - 30
Here's what you need on your shopping list:
- Flat iron rump steak
- Sweet potato
- Mixed salad leaves
- Avocado
- Lime
- Roasted red pepper
- Chilli flakes
- Garlic
- Paprika
- Cumin
Dinner
Dinner is one of my favourite meals of the day so it is always my biggest meal of the day.
This Tandoori Chicken, Rice and Slaw is a popular one for me. I love the flavour of the higher fat chicken thigh, but if you’re trying to save a few calories youcan easily swap the thighs out for chicken breast.
Also you can cut the rice out and just wilt the rainbow chard if you want to go lower carb.
If you look at the ingredients you can see all the different colours that can be found in this dish, promising vitamins and minerals. And, the spices are an easy way of adding flavour without adding loads of calories to your plate.
Calories - 638, Protein - 38g, Carbs - 63g, Fat - 26g
The shopping list:
- Chicken thigh
- Brown rice
- Rainbow chard
- Red cabbage
- Apple
- Coconut yoghurt
- Lemon
- Tandoori spice
The story behind the diet...
As many of you know my mindset and training has had to shift slightly. Having being quite ill and inactive for six months, elite sport, chasing personal records and smashing it in the gym has had to be put on hold…
The focus for me now is moving well, getting better and eating and exercising for my physical and mental health.
This has been a fabulous journey (so far) and has led me to explore more lower calorie, high flavour and fun recipes. If I do say so myself, I’m a bit of a dab hand in the kitchen these days!
To get more recipes head over to our blog. Want to keep up to date with Jonny? You can follow him on Instagram.
4 min read time
