Protein Challenge Week 2

Today is a review day in the 30 day Protein Challenge I'm doing. I thought I'd just type it out on my blog. I didn't do as good of a job of taking detailed notes this week since I've been super busy with track meets and practice, but I still think it's pretty accurate.



This week I was focusing on trying to eat more protein at breakfast and lunch, and on days when I knew would be long days, i.e. track meet days. On meet days, I am literally on my feet from the moment we get off the team bus until we board it again at the end of the meet. I spend my time walking from event to event coaching kids and often helping run specific events, setting up/taking down hurdles, or judging a relay exchange. They're long days and I need a lot of extra protein to fuel to the finish.

In this past week, I had two meets. In looking at my food journal, I had different protein approaches to each meet. The first meet, my approach was to graze all day on high protein snacks, then I had a fast food sandwich wrap with the team after the meet. My total protein that day was 132 grams. (Remember that goal for a normal diet is 75-90 grams). On the other meet day, I tried eating a more high protein breakfast and then snacked only when I was hungry throughout the day. I had about 35 grams at breakfast and it carried me through most of the way to lunch, when I had about 20 grams. On this day, I felt like I ate high protein and high carb throughout the day, so I ordered a chicken salad at fast food with the team after the meet. On this day, I ended up with 72 grams of protein.

Comparing the two, both approaches seemed to work well, but I felt better at the end of the day on the second meet and I think it had to do with being more conscious of balancing protein with veggies. I still had enough protein to power myself through the day, but I was also getting all of the other yummy goodness that fruits and veggies have to offer.

My other observation after reading through my notes is that I get better, more balanced meals on days I work at school than I do on days I am at home all day. On school days, I eat breakfast and lunch at school and I love it. There are many healthy options available at both meals at school and best of all, I don't have to prepare it.

This week, I'm trying to be better at prepping food ahead of time so that I can have more protein value in meals I do eat at home or on the go. In my previous post, I wrote all about making salad in a jar and I'm really looking forward to seeing how that translates to my energy level and overall healthy eating when I dig into those this week. Jeff had his first one yesterday, really liked it, and is thinking it's a great idea to do again in the future. I've got another track meet this afternoon so I packed a salad in a jar for my post-meet dinner. No fast food for this girl today! I'm really looking forward to digging in!

This photo is from www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com
My mason jar salads look pretty good but a steak salad would be awesome, too!

To read my previous posts about the protein challenge, click below:
30 Day Protein Challenge
Protein Challenge Week 1

Stay tuned in another week to read about how the protein challenge continues!