My Day On A Plate

I often get questions from members of the Sweat Community asking me what I eat each day.

I think it’s SO important to share that I don’t follow any kind of specific diet — for me, it’s all about taking a balanced approach to food that is realistic in the long-term. 

I like to eat Mediterranean-style and lots of Greek food — that means a wide variety of vegetables and fruits as snacks, and a good mix of vegetables, protein and carbohydrates for my meals. 

I LOVE food! I believe it should bring people together and I eat wholesome dishes that give me enough energy to perform at my best.

Eating to fuel my body

As a trainer, it’s SO important that I have enough fuel to get me through each day and my workouts — and that's how I encourage my clients and women in the Sweat Community to think about food too!

That means my meals are an important part of my day! I want to make sure I’m getting all the nutrition I need to train, and I don’t believe in restricting myself from any kind of foods, because it’s not a realistic approach to eating. From my experience with training women, I’ve also observed that if you cut out a certain kind of food or food group, you actually end up craving it all the time!

If I want to eat something like cake, chocolate or biscuits, I will, but not every day. I actually don’t crave sweets that often because I don’t restrict myself to only eating certain foods. It’s all about BALANCE!

Breakfast

If I’m eating breakfast at home, I’ll often have a lot of vegetables with two pieces of toast. 

If they are in season, I eat tomatoes, capsicum (bell pepper) and cucumbers from Yiayia and Papou's garden, and if I feel like it, I might add some avocado. I drizzle olive oil over the vegetables, along with some fresh basil, dried oregano, and salt and pepper. 

I eat my toast with olive oil (yes, that’s even more olive oil — what can I say, I’m Greek!) as I prefer it to butter. I’m lactose sensitive (I used to have lactose intolerance as a kid) so I try to limit my dairy intake where I can, and in the case of butter, I actually just don’t like the taste. I’ll also have a Turkish coffee with breakfast at home. 

If I’m eating breakfast at my local cafe, I’ll usually order scrambled eggs with chilli with a side of chilli kale — I love spicy foods! Or I might get sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes and avocado. I’ll eat either dish with toast, as I wake up hungry. I often want to eat before I do anything else.

I usually have a piccolo latte (it’s a small version of a cafe latte) with lactose-free milk when I’m out for breakfast.

Lunch

At lunchtime, I like to keep it really simple!

If I’m at home, I’ll often make a quick tuna salad. All you need is canned tuna, brown rice, fresh basil, cucumber, tomato, capsicum (pepper) and red onion. My dressing is just olive oil, dried oregano, balsamic vinegar, salt and cracked pepper. It’s a healthy lunch you can make in under 5 minutes — just chop up the vegetables and basil and put them in your bowl, add tuna and dressing and you’re good to go!

If you want to get more creative, there are plenty of ways you can mix things up. You could try adding pasta instead of brown rice or try different proteins — you can add salmon, prawns (shrimp), chicken or cheese for new flavours.

Other favourite lunches are rice paper rolls (they’re also called summer rolls or cold rolls), sushi, a crunchy salad roll with some kind of protein. If I visit Yiayia and Papou, I might eat a favourite Greek dish like stuffed capsicum (pepper).

My general approach is that I’ll eat some kind of protein with rice or pasta and salad or vegetables.

Dinner

My dinners vary a LOT!

Most nights I have dinner with Arna, my parents, my sister Leah and her partner Mitch, and sometimes my aunt and uncle as well. 

When we eat together as a family, we have a lot of share dishes on the table, and we each eat a selection of the dishes we like! 

Usually, there are pasta dishes, salads, roasted vegetables and meat including skewers, baked chicken schnitzel, or gyros (yiros or kebab). 

My aunt is Thai, so we also have Thai dishes with our family dinners, which I LOVE. She’s originally from northern Thailand and the curries and noodle dishes she makes are spicy and SO good!

My basic principle for dinner is to always include protein, carbohydrates, and LOTS of vegetables. 

Snacks

My main meals are my primary concern for nutrition and as an energy source. 

If I feel that I have enough energy on a particular day, then I won’t always eat a snack. However, I think it’s important that you listen to your body, so if I’m hungry, I eat! 

There are so many easy healthy snacks you can eat throughout the day. I’ll often have fresh fruit from Yiayia and Papou’s garden — which always tastes amazing — and I might add some Greek yoghurt and a drizzle of honey and some cinnamon on top. 

If I want a savoury snack, I’ll have raw vegetable sticks and my favourite dip, tzatziki — it’s made with Greek yoghurt and it’s SO easy to make at home. 

Greek yoghurt is low in lactose, so it’s dairy that I can really enjoy.

Food should bring people together

My philosophy on food is really simple. 

I believe in having a healthy balanced diet, the food you eat should make you feel good, it shouldn’t feel like a chore to make it or eat it, and you should eat the foods you enjoy.

Don’t cut out whole food groups because that’s not sustainable in the long term, and you’ll most likely end up with intense food cravings!

I also believe food should bring your whole family together. You shouldn’t have to cook separate meals for everybody — there should be dishes that everyone can enjoy and share!

What are your favourite healthy meals? Share them in the comments below!