Lucy Davis describes herself as “one of the realest people on social media”, and we can see why. From favourite running shoes to stress-induced flaky scalp, basically no subject is off the table.
As a hybrid athlete focusing on running and strength training, nutrition is one of, if not the most important, things in Lucy’s life. So, in a recent video, she shared an insight into her approach to nutrition with a full day of eating and training. Here’s what it looked like.
Lucy knows her body extremely well, something’s she’s gained from years of exercise and paying attention to how her body responds to certain foods. Now, she no longer starts her day with coffee. As much as she loves a caffeinated morning pick-me-up, she’s learned that it can affect her heart rate. So instead, she now starts her morning with a peppermint tea.
“Before my runs it was affecting my heart rate super significantly. My heart rate was really high on an easy heart rate run. I was like, it’s got to be the caffeine because I feel fine. And it was, because then my heart rate dropped by like 6 or 7 beats, and that’s really good.”With a 14km “easy” run first thing on the agenda, Lucy opted to postpone breakfast until after she was finished. She doesn’t necessarily like to train “fasted”, but unless she’s doing a high-intensity run or super-long-distance run, she won’t eat beforehand. It’s simply what works for her.
“I don’t practise intermittent fasting, I just don’t eat before a lot of my training sessions. I pretty much just eat straight after. I have different criteria when I’ll eat before a run.“If I’ve got a hard moderate-fast run where I think I’ll need a little more energy because I’m exerting so much because I’m going so much faster, I might have like half a bagel. If I’m doing a hard half marathon, I’ll have a full bagel with peanut butter. If I’m doing any run over 25k, I’ll also have a bagel and maybe a banana.“That’s kind of just how I do it when I’m doing a training session, I won’t really eat anything. It kind of depends on the session and how I feel. It’s just something that I’ve always done. I need quite a lot of food, it’s just that I’m not hungry in the morning.”At 10:30am, on return from her (rainy) morning run, Lucy was ready for breakfast. First, supplements.
“The first one is glucosamine HCL, basically joints. Then we have retinol and biotin, that’s for hair, skin, and nails. And then I have iron and folic acid, and 5-HTP. They are the supplements I take with my breakfast. They are my go-tos.”Breakfast is typically the same every day for Lucy. Granola, chia seeds, slices of fresh fruit, cinnamon, oat milk, and her favourite biscuit spread, as a treat.
“I absolutely love having a balanced diet. There’s no bad food and good food, it’s just food. Everything in moderation. I enjoy healthy food and feeling good in myself, but I also have a lot of non-nutritionally dense food. You have to find balance to have a positive and strong relationship with food. You have to find a healthy balance.”Later on, after a productive meeting with her coach, it was time for lunch. With just 15 minutes before her next meeting, Lucy did a quick sweep of the cupboards. Rice, tuna, cheese, avocado … soy sauce? To be fair, it didn’t look that bad.
In the late afternoon, Lucy went for a walk and did some shopping, picking up dinner while she was out. Then, once at home and in her dressing gown, she ended her day of eating how she started it — with granola.
A quick note — Lucy doesn’t track her calories, but after years of experience, she has a good intuitive understanding of how much she needs to eat. She listens to her body — if she’s hungry, she’ll eat.
Take home message
After years of training, Lucy knows the best way is your own way.
“I just do it my way. There’s no specific way you need to do things. Just do whatever you do and suits your body. I just do what I do and eat what I eat.”“Don’t stress about it. Do what is optimal and the best thing for you personally.”READ THESE NEXT:
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