Happy Wednesday! It’s a super gloomy, rainy one over here, which would explain why this is coming out so late in the day.
I slept so well last night. SO peaceful, that I slept straight through my alarm… and then an extra two hours. I guess that is one of the perks of being able to work at home and at nights, but geez I hate that.
I feel so unproductive when I wake up late, knowing I have a good amount of things to knock off of my to-do list during the day. Thanks a lot, pitter pattering stormy weather outside my window, you make me sleep like a little baby!
Let’s be real though, when was the last time I published a blog post before 10 a.m.? I used to be great at posting first thing in the morning! Then I moved and started dancing again. These days, I make blogging my middle of the day escape, and I am so happy that you guys still make time to give it a look every now and then. Hooray for loyal readers!
Since I missed a good portion of my work day, I have a lot to get started on so let’s whip through today’s WIAW!
If you are new to the blog, I started taking part in What I Ate Wednesdays, hosted by Jenn. If you frequent healthy living blogs, that is the meat (<- I’m so punny) behind a lot of the subjects we post about. So, I hopped on board and plan to share a day of my eating habits with you each week.
I have mentioned before that I plan to share a variety of days with you, and today’s is all about game days. I am a professional dancer for the NBA, and our schedule is a bit out of the 9-5 norm, to say the least.
I often get asked what my typical game day eating habits look like, and today is the day I am letting you in on it!
WIAW #6: Detroit Pistons Game Day
I try to eat pretty clean leading up to game days. I do my best to cut out breads and pastas the night before and the day of to avoid extra bloating.
The outfits we wear are not very forgiving, and after five years of wearing them I have learned what makes me feel the best moving around in a two piece sparkly uniform.
Breakfast
On game days, I start my day off with a protein filled breakfast.
The coffee is a given, but the focus of breakfast centers around some type of meat (or veggie-meat) and egg white scramble. Sunday’s eggs included spinach and Al Fresco Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage.
I had some slices left over from making spaghetti sauce a few nights prior, and they tasted great thrown right into breakfast.
Knowing I need some carbohydrates, I toasted a whole wheat bagel thin and smeared it in peanut butter. All of that lasts me well into lunch!
Lunch
I am able to eat lunch at home on most game days. My focus for this meal is to load up my plate with any and all types of vegetables I can get my hands on.
You may not be able to see everything, but the massive salad pile you see above includes:
• fresh romaine and spinach mix
• sliced tomatoes
• sliced cucumbers
• sliced mushrooms
• sliced avocado
• broccoli slaw mix (found in the salad section of your grocery store)
• sunflower seeds
• Atheno’s Tomato & Basil feta cheese
• little bit of salt and pepper
• Newman’s Own Lite Raspberry & Walnut dressing
Faceplant.
Pre-Game
More times than not, I have a few errands to run or last minute things to pick up before the game. Before I head over to the arena, I usually treat myself with a skinny coffee or hot tea and a small snack.
Yup, I admit it. I am a two-coffees-a-day girl on game days. Having to smile, perform and be energetic until 10 p.m. makes me okay with it.
This time I ordered my new favorite latte: a skinny hazlenut machiatto, but I keep forgetting to ask them to leave off the whip cream.
To me “skinny” should imply that. Oh well.
On the side, I saw a small bag of Starbucks Simply Nuts & Fruit Mix and tried it for the first time.
Not bad. That little package and coffee filled me right up!
During Game
My afternoon coffee run usually holds me pretty into halftime, or even until after the game.
Every now and then I will make myself a big salad out of the employee meals they provide, but that’s really it. Since I had a huge salad for lunch, I decided to go for the fruit and a protein bar instead.
During halftime, I re-charge with either a banana, an apple, or huge handful of grapes. I open my protein bar right before tip-off and nibble on it throughout the entire game.
My all time favorite protein bar to bring with me is the Zone Perfect Chocolate Mint Bar. It will take something serious to replace it. I am obsessed!
Post-Game
Scott and I usually go out to dinner with a few co-workers after the games. By this time, it is around 10:30 p.m. and we are both incredibly hungry.
This is usually a meal where I do not feel bad about adding cheese, including a tortilla, or splitting a pizza with him. We both worked off a ton of calories and deserve it!
One of our favorites to order post-game is chicken fajitas.
Pictured is the leftovers I had for lunch the next day. Two fajitias with rice, chicken, cheese and veggies usually fill me up and I have the same amount left to save for the next day.
Occasionally, I will skip the tortillas all together and ask for extra lettuce if I am not very hungry.
It just depends on the day! By the time we get home, I forget about dessert and am just ready to shower and get to some rest.
And there you have what kind of eating makes up my game days. More than you thought, isn’t it? 😉
• If you liked this WIAW post, head on over to Peas & Crayons to check out plenty others, or even link your own!
• Also, you can always find my latest What I Ate Wednesday posts by exploring the “WIAW” tag on the right hand sidebar.

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