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Who: Lindsay Hunt, 32
Lives: Columbia Heights
Does: Nutrition, fitness, and mindset coach
When Lindsay Hunt was in college, she underwent thorough medical testing for her digestive issues with little helpful results. She decided to take matters into her own hands, monitoring the type of food she was consuming, her eating habits, and lifestyle. Her love of nutrition and health was born, and her stomach issues disappeared, as did her depression, anxiety, low energy, and an extra 20 pounds.
Hunt is a big believer of intuitive eating and listening to our bodies. Our cravings, hunger and fullness signals, and energy levels are all ways of our body telling us what it needs, she says. If you stay tuned into your body and how food makes you feel, you’ll be healthy.
“I believe food should be both satisfying and delicious in the moment and sustaining and energizing,” Hunt says. “We’re going to be eating every day for the rest of our lives, so why torture ourselves with on-again, off-again restrictive diets?”
Breakfast
“In the mornings, I ask my body ‘What are you in the mood for?’ My gut always tells me what it needs to start the day. Some days it asks for something more savory and substantial, like two fried eggs over avocado toast, and other times it requests a lighter and easier-to-digest breakfast, like a smoothie.”
“If I’m whipping up a smoothie, I am sure to include an extra serving of protein and fat so I feel full until my next meal. Recently, I’ve been blending up half a frozen banana, a handful of frozen cauliflower, two tablespoons of almond butter, a serving of chocolate protein powder, one tablespoon of raw cacao powder, and one tablespoon of ground flax seeds with half a cup of almond or coconut milk. I pour half of my smoothie in a mason jar, scoop in some sheep yogurt, and top it off with the remainder of my shake and sprinkle it with cacao nibs and coconut flakes. It’s super thick, so I eat with a spoon.”
Lunch
“Lunch is often a salad, as it fills me up but won’t weigh me down for the second half of my day. I have a big appetite, so I load my salad up with a ton of non-starchy vegetables to create a massive bowl of greens. Today was a combo of spinach and romaine lettuce topped with all the salad veggies I had on hand: Persian cucumbers, orange and green bell peppers, purple cabbage, red onions, and baby tomatoes. Then I added leftover wild-caught tuna fish, a scoop of curry turmeric hummus, and a handful of pumpkin seeds.”
“I whisked together two tablespoons of olive oil, one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, one teaspoon of mustard, and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper for a clean dressing. Last, but not least, a side of Simple Mills sun-dried tomato crackers to round out my meal with a crunch. No boring salads allowed in my book.”
Snack
“Between lunch and dinner time, I almost always have a snack. Through my clinical and personal experience, I’ve found enjoying an afternoon snack each day can help to keep blood sugar levels stable. This in turn reduces sugar cravings and prevents overeating later in the day. I alternate between hard boiled eggs, yogurt, veggies and hummus, or these Peanut Butter Bliss Balls* (recipe below) to keep my hunger at bay mid-day. These seem like they’d be a pain to make, but they require zero cooking and are so much healthier than most protein bars on the market.”
Dinner
“It’s my mission to cover half of my dinner plate with vegetables, but that doesn’t mean I’m having a side of boring steamed broccoli. I die for Italian food, but a big bowl of pasta tends to leave me feeling bloated and sluggish. I get my pasta fix by swapping out white flour pasta for spiralized vegetable noodles.”
“Tonight I sautéed a poblano pepper, three cloves of garlic, one-fourth of a yellow onion, and a red bell pepper with butternut squash noodles (pre-spiralized from Whole Foods). Then I added Rao’s organic tomato sauce and sliced organic chicken sausage. This meal makes my Italian food dreams come to life, and the best part is I feel really good afterwards.”
*Recipe for Peanut Butter Bliss Balls
Ingredients:
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup coconut flour
½ cup coconut butter
3 tbsp ground flax
3 tbsp chia seeds
3 tbsp hemp seeds
3 scoops Vital Proteins collagen powder
3 tsp cinnamon
Coconut flakes, pumpkin seeds, and cacao nibs for topping
Directions: Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Roll batter into small balls and then dip the balls into a mix of coconut flakes, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, and cacao nibs. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Mimi Montgomery joined Washingtonian in 2018. She’s written for The Washington Post, Garden & Gun, Outside Magazine, Washington City Paper, DCist, and PoPVille. Originally from North Carolina, she now lives in Del Ray.
