Rutha Berhane: Hi guys!
Arabella: Hey guys, welcome back to another consistency code episode. Excited for this one. We're gonna be diving into our guilty guilty pleasure foods, how we actually fit them in, how we stay on track, because ultimately, as much as some of y'all may think, we are not robots and we do enjoy eating off plan, as you've heard in every single episode we're always talking about.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: Big foodies over here. but also bodybuilders at the end of the day who do need to keep some rigidity in our diet. and for most of y'all listening, I'm sure you're on some kind of fitness journey. whether that be a fat loss journey or whether you're in a muscle building phase, whatever it is, you probably also need some con consistency with your nutrition, but life is short and restriction always leads to overeating at the end of the day. And so I think it's important to talk about yeah how we can incorporate these foods and satisfy our cravings and live our life and still stay on plan. And yeah, it's funny because I feel like every single time I post like a picture of a free meal or like me going out to eat, like people are always surprised to see that. like, my gosh, like
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. Okay.
Arabella: She's eating off plan, like, you know, people just assume that we are robots all the time. yet I mean they I'm gonna call some people out here. They're also the ones who are eating off plan all the time and having like these bites and licks and tastes of stuff without tracking it and then wondering why the scale isn't moving. So yeah. Gonna
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: gonna explain how we how we enjoy those foods. And but I'm in.
Rutha Berhane: How do do it? Exactly. And I don't think from any of us we've ever called our free meals a cheat meal. I don't think I've heard that come out of your mouth, which thank God. Yeah, I...
Arabella: I hate the term cheat meal. Like I actually hate the term cheat meal. Cause what are you cheating on, babe? What are you cheating
Rutha Berhane: Exactly.
Arabella: on? It just like it's so
Rutha Berhane: is that
Arabella: derogatory and it creates this negative mindset towards certain
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: foods, like, if I eat this and suddenly call it a cheat meal, then like that food is automatically deemed bad for me. And a bad food. And I hate labeling foods. There
Rutha Berhane: suffering.
Arabella: there truly are no quote unquote good foods or quote unquote bad foods. A food is just freaking food at the end of the day. Like you could hypothetically lose weight on McDonald's every single day.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, and there's research on that, right? But there's also like
Arabella: Ya there is a guy actually did it just to prove a point.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. And there's a very negative stigma around the like sense of like cheat meals because usually exactly like what are you cheating on? Because we're trying to everything that we promote on here and we've been is like trying to make this a lifestyle. You know what I mean? So there should be no need to necessarily cheat on something that's a lifestyle change, right? So we call
Arabella: Exactly.
Rutha Berhane: them our free meals, off plan meals, because we do have a certain plan that we like to follow. majority of the time, but then when we don't and we skew away from that, that's called an off plan meal. So I think that also it gives a more relaxed sense of when we do do it and that way like we're not panicking like, my gosh, I just ate this. just, just ate this. I've texted Bella before being like, Hey, just had like a two pound cookie last night. so fire. And it's like, she never texted me like, my gosh, like, was that your cheat meal for the week? Like, you know, so you always have to. of watch the language that you use because these are just foods that bring us joy and happiness and social settings and that's literally it.
Arabella: Totally. And obviously there's a time and a place for these off plan
Rutha Berhane: Thanks
Arabella: meals, you know, when we're in prep and things do need to be dialed to the T then are we gonna be having these like treats or off plan meals without like the go ahead from our coach? No, because like we're on a strict timeline, we have that end date that like We have that show that we're working towards. and it is really important in prep that everything is super meticulous. But in the off season, like it's important to enjoy life. Like, we cannot be super robotic 365 days of the year, because that will lead to burnout. And I even felt a sense
Rutha Berhane: So, thank Okay.
Arabella: of burnout at the start of this off season, honestly. Well Maybe not the start of this off season, because the start of this offseason was like a year ago basically for me. But I'm always really, really good with my reverses post show. And I would say it was like the transition period from my reverse, like into my off season where I felt a s started to feel like a burnout sense. And I just I've sat down with myself. I'm like, okay, this is probably because I haven't taken a break from working with a coach in like
Rutha Berhane: Thank you.
Arabella: almost five years now, I have always been super, super dialed, even in my off seasons, like to the point where I would have like a weekly free meal in my plan, but I would not let myself deviate from that whatsoever. And then also looking back on it, I now realize that like I overeat during that free meal because it was like the only opportunity that I felt like I had to eat off plan throughout the whole week, which like is a negative
Rutha Berhane: Okay.
Arabella: negative mindset to have in and of itself. And I think that in the off season it's important to incorporate that bit of balance into your life. Yeah, to avoid creating that resentment towards something that you really love doing. And like Rutha has said, this is this should be a lifestyle. And that's what I always tell my clients too. I'm like, this should not feel like a diet to you. I don't want you to feel like you're dieting because ultimately the term diet also always has some sort of restriction. Whether it doesn't matter what the diet is
Rutha Berhane: Okay. Okay.
Arabella: Like anytime you refer to something as a diet, it's gonna have some sorts of some sort of restriction and that is not sustainable. And the goal is to create a lifestyle that you can stay consistent with for the rest of your life without being stressed about a vacation or a dinner out or a party or whatever a holiday, like whatever it is.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. Exactly.
Arabella: Yeah. So we thought that it would be fun to just take an episode to chat about our guilty pleasure foods, like our favorite foods, our go-to free meals, untracked meals, and how we fit them into our day to day without derailing. and yeah, just do like a little I guess you could call it master class on flexible eating.
Rutha Berhane: Some hacks, you know. Which is always a good thing.
Arabella: And meanwhile we just got to talk about foods we love. Which is our which is our entire personality. So yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. No, truly. Truly. I have all the hacks, guys, and, well, this is only a handful of them, because we have, like, textbook full Trust. Mm. Mm.
Arabella: big time. Yeah. and as y'all know too, I have been traveling a shitload this summer. I would say I've almost been traveling more than I've been home and I've been eating off plan, I will say more than I would like, just because I like eating my prepped meals because I know that they digest well for me. I know that they're gonna fuel me towards my goals, I know that I just feel my best. my body functions, it's best when I'm eating on plan. And so yes, I've been eating off plan a lot, but I've also been making smart choices while I've been eating off plan. And by the way, when we say like when we refer to something as off plan or like as an untracked meal, basically that just means we're not like meticulously tracking it in my fitness pal.
Rutha Berhane: Mm-hmm. Okay.
Arabella: Or if you're on a meal plan,
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: basically just means that it's not one of your regular scheduled meals.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: Yeah. Now I think a good starting point would actually just be to quickly discuss how we navigate going out to a restaurant to eat. So yeah, Rutha, if you were to like go out to a restaurant and wanna stay kind of on plan, but also enjoy yourself, how would you go about that?
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. So it really just depends like what you're personally doing, right? If this is like, I'm going out to a restaurant because I have numerous like events to attend, let's say, like if I know I have a friend's birthday and a dinner another day. So if it's kind of like continuous things, I am obviously going to just be making smarter decisions while in a restaurant, but you will never catch me. Like, I'm so sorry. Ordering a chicken salad and calling it a day every single time that's not happening. That's the most boring and I might as well just bring my own food then because What I'm eating chicken breast and lettuce for like what 30 bucks. That's crazy, but you
Arabella: Also that is, even though you think the salad is the healthy option, it it's probably not the low calorie option.
Rutha Berhane: It's not unless you're genuinely asking for dressing on the side of this and I feel that's just too much work and I want to also like be able to enjoy myself, right? So the menu of a restaurant is always provided to you beforehand because if you search like search it up so people do like doing that and just like kind of pre-planning like, I'm just going to get this and this but I don't usually have the I'm very type B so I don't have time to look at that. So when I get there, I just look at very familiar things that are just easy, easy made. right, nothing too complicated where it's like a chicken parm with this, this, that, and third. I like to look at things that ingredients are listed, right? So that's what I love going based off of. Exactly.
Arabella: Like a whole foods based meal, like an like an like an entree, like a protein protein heavy meal.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. I love that. Even if it's a club sandwich, like a turkey club, whatever, let's say, it says on there. And I'm like, okay, I don't care if there's garlic aioli on it, but at least I can see whatever and I can tell them, hey, can you go light on the sauce? So it's just a very, I like to go for very easy made meals from. restaurants just because it just makes more sense for me but i obviously also have times where i go and i'm like hey i'm feeling like i'm feeling a actually i've never gone an Alfredo from a restaurant i'm gonna be honest with you i can't even lie about that
Arabella: I can't tell you the last time I got an Alfredo either. I don't have attempted
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, that's
Arabella: because the Earl's chicken Alfredo is unmatched. It's unmatched.
Rutha Berhane: Is it good? Okay.
Arabella: But the thing with a creami, super saucy,
Rutha Berhane: and
Arabella: carb heavy, fat heavy dish like that is I know it's
Rutha Berhane: Never tell.
Arabella: not gonna sit well with me. So it's one
Rutha Berhane: Thank you, me either.
Arabella: of those things that like I would love to have a bite of someone else's
Rutha Berhane: This is...
Arabella: to satisfy the craving that way, but like I never want that fully to my
Rutha Berhane: It would kill me. I'm fully convinced it would kill me because the next day I'm gonna feel groggy just because of the amount of dairy to begin with. It just doesn't do well with me. But anything so dense and heavy, it just doesn't deal well. I'll do like meat sauce, but no way.
Arabella: Mm. It's just not worth it. It's not worth it.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, but that's what I do. What do you do? 100%.
Arabella: But that's a personal preference and I'm not saying that like pasta is a bad food. Like it's not. Like it's just about knowing your body and knowing what's gonna digest well for you. It's our personal preference just to not order something that we know is gonna be super heavy in carbs and super heavy in fat and packed with dairy because we know that those we know that that combination is not gonna digest well for us. So it's not that we're avoiding that because it's a it's a bad food. There is just better options that we know are gonna make us feel better, not disrupt our sleep, not disrupt our digestion, and not make us wish that we hadn't have ordered that because There's nothing worse than eating something and being like sitting in the guilt after and being like, like I regret that so much, you know?
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. Mm. And it's so I think it's just really like just heavy on the cream is crazy to me. Cause it does like for all fairness to taste good, you have to be heavy-handed with the ingredients.
Arabella: exactly. Like there's
Rutha Berhane: Or real.
Arabella: a reason that it tastes so much better at a restaurant than it does when you make it at home. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. But what do you do? Tell me.
Arabella: Yeah. So, well, first of all, before I even go out to the restaurant earlier in the day, I am aware that I'm going out to eat that that evening, right? So I'm going to set aside more. Of my fat and more of my daily carbs for that meal
Rutha Berhane: Mm.
Arabella: and mainly just focus on getting my protein in and my meals leading up to that meal out because I know that okay, that meal out is probably gonna be a little bit lower in protein and a little bit denser in carbs and fats. So I'll just adjust my meals earlier in the day so that they are lower carb. lower fat. other than my pre and post workout meals, I'll always keep those the same 'cause it's always super, super important to be fueling your body around your workouts and not taking away from your training performance in your workouts. But other than that, I'll probably save like two to three of my like of the regular meals I would have that day or snacks or whatever for that meal out. and then yeah, eat like my pre and post workout meal and then like I said, save some extra Carbs and fats. I also will always look up the menu ahead of time just because I get excited about the options on the menu. And then that way I can also think about what I wanna have and what I'm craving that day. So maybe I actually am craving a steak and I wanna order a steak. Well, then yeah, I'm probably gonna save like forty grams of protein, for fifty grams of protein ish for that meal because typically the steaks of restaurants are pretty decently sized, which we love. And then depending on like the side options, I'll adjust my carbs and fats in my meals for like that day leading up to the dinner out. And then typically at a restaurant, I mean I don't do this very often, but if I am like in a dieting phase specifically where calories are a little bit lower, I will always ask for my food not to be cooked in any oil or butter. So say I'm ordering a steak, I'll just Or like a grilled chicken or something, just ask for it not to be cooked in any extra oil or butter. That way you're saving a ton of calories just through like the cooking oils. and then sauces on the side or light sauce. And then say I'm getting like a club sandwich or like a burger or something, ask for no bacon or cheese to save a ton of calories from those heavy fat items. it's always
Rutha Berhane: The bacon. Always take that bacon off, sorry. I will always say take the bacon fully off.
Arabella: Because yeah, that bacon is girls not giving you any protein, very minimal protein and just straight fat. And I know it's so greasy and again, it's not gonna I know greasy foods do not digest well for me, so that's just a call that I will make for myself. To avoid that, and same as Rutha, I'll always order like a whole foods based, like entree kind of option. So whether that be like A steak, a salmon, a sandwich that you you know, you you know exactly what you're getting. Everything is listed there for you, like Rutha said. even like a burger, you know you're getting like the beef patty, the bun, the lettuce, the tomato, whatever other trace calorie toppings you're getting on there. Ask for the sauce on the side because the calories always come from the sauces. You know, when you take a bite of a burger and
Rutha Berhane: Let's so hidden.
Arabella: Like no sauce dripping out. Like that's probably like could
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: be easily three hundred calories just in sauce. So
Rutha Berhane: Hundred percent.
Arabella: as for the sauce on the side, avoid
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: appies because appies are typically deep fried.
Rutha Berhane: Calamari
Arabella: Packed with sauces. Yep. Packed with sodium. And we just don't
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: need them. I know you're hungry. I know they sound good. You just don't need We never need appies.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly.
Arabella: If you're getting an entree, like we just we don't need them. like a tuna tataki or something is probably gonna be your best option, or like an edamame or something that's like whole food protein based, like that. Like, what else? Like scallops or like a shrimp cocktail or something like that. But otherwise just skip the Abyss and skip the dessert. I know we love desserts, but you can go without those calories, go home, have your ninja creami and call it a night.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: You will thank yourself the next morning. But yeah, that's typically how I go about ordering at restaurants. Like I said, that's typically when I'm in like a cutting phase or when I'm trying to be a little bit stricter. But Don't get me wrong, I'm still going out for dinners and ordering just whatever the heck I'm craving and whatever I want in my off season from time to time. But it's all about moderation balance, right? Like I'm not doing that multiple times a week, every single week, because that's when the calories really do start to catch up to you. And macros, hitting your macros really does determine how
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: you look and how you feel. Like that's why I tell people don't even worry about tracking your calories. I do not care what calories. you're at day to day, what matters is your macros 'cause that's gonna determine how you look, how you feel, how you recover, your training performance. So yeah, if you're going out and having a super carb fat
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: heavy meal every single night, you're probably not gonna feel your best.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. And then on that topic of wanting something and you can go without it, when we say like, like skip the dessert and you can go without it so that it can make you feel better next day or like whatever, and even for the week, you know, because like Bella said, calories do end up accumulating and catching up to you just just because you're having something on Monday and then Not again until Friday or Thursday. If they're combined to be over a thousand calories, that's added to your weekly total in your macros. So at the end of the day, might as well just have it back to back because it doesn't matter that you spaced it out. But we do have the I will always say bodybuilders have the best swaps. And swaps
Arabella: Right. Mm-hmm.
Rutha Berhane: hacks for anything. And I don't care what anybody says because, and it's not the nasty. Microwave protein powder BS because we understand that in a prep the hunger is so intense and like you're missing out on so much for that like little period of time because you are in such a restricted phase that you have to make do without deviating from your plan. So the one thing that I will always swear by is general please, as somebody who's an ice cream addict, a sweet treat addict, I have one every single day, don't care.
Arabella: Thank you.
Rutha Berhane: is And Ninja Creami. And we've all heard of it. Ninja Creami. There's like a bunch of other ones that are slushy makers, like whatever. Bella has basically all of them. She's a connoisseur. And
Arabella: I okay, no, I have the ninja creami, the ninja swirl, the one that does like the soft serve ice cream too. I don't have the I
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: wish I had the slushy, my gosh, but yeah. How did we survive
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, so this one
Arabella: without the ninja creami before?
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, this one's a really big one and a good one just because it can help people who are not bodybuilders at all even just make a healthy decision, just like a swap of a regular Coke for a diet soda. It's dependent so a ninja creami is always gonna be dependent on how you make it so that it tastes good. And that's what gives you the opportunity to make healthier choices just because, you know, a Tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream is gonna run you about what 1800 calories, is it? Or a little more. Wait, way more, right? Hey,
Arabella: No, I yeah, I think
Rutha Berhane: more. For sure more. But you can make your ninja creami tub taste just as good for a fraction of the calories, like four or five hundred, even if you that's like putting shit in it too, right? So 100%.
Arabella: And it's low sugar, so it's not gonna like bike your blood sugar right before you go to bed, assuming you're not like piling it with a bunch of sugar mix ins. But yeah, like it's really about finding these alternatives to satisfy your cravings so that you can stay on track without blowing your calories and macros out of the water and out of the park every day. And yeah, these hacks are truly game changers. So for For our fellow ice cream lovers connoisseurs. It's funny.
Rutha Berhane: Lovers.
Arabella: I literally had ice cream every single night growing up and like I'm still addicted. I'm still a fiend. Like Yeah, I can go for
Rutha Berhane: It's still a thing, right? And with these
Arabella: ice cream like no matter how full I am, like all the time.
Rutha Berhane: Okay.
Arabella: like last night we got sushi. I was so full off sushi, I'm like, nope, still having my ninja creami. You always have one for a sweet treat. Yeah. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: You always have room for a sweet treat, right? And that's why Yeah. That's why these are so good. Because you can always incorporate protein in it too. And that's what like gives it such an edge because it's again like you're truly like the creator of it. So you can make these diet friendly and also like not diet friendly, but also just way better than a two thousand plus ice like ice cream pint. And these ninja creamies are Large, right? So you'll see creamies being involved in a lot of people's plans just because it's a good nightcap and it's still healthy and it doesn't spike your insulin levels. so it's all in all really good. And I think it's the best thing to happen to the fitness world in years, actually. I will go that far. It's such it's such a good purchase.
Arabella: It's revolutionary, yeah. And before you tell me that you don't wanna buy it, think about how much you're spending in
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. Yeah.
Arabella: sweet treats every single night. Yeah. Like
Rutha Berhane: Guiltyest though over here. Guilty. Mm-hmm.
Arabella: me too. But yeah, this a hundred and fifty dollar ninja creami is gonna last you forever and change your life. So if you have one, I know I always get asked. Always, always, always what is my ninja creami recipe? 'Cause I'm posting this baby on my story all the time.
Rutha Berhane: They look so good. Yours look way better when you like make them than I do. Like and I feel they taste better too because you just like think about it more and I just I'm I like inside of me I'm just I just want ice cream. So like when I make them they look like shit and sometimes taste a little bit off. But yours I've I've asked for hers a few times too, because they genuinely look like you just buy them and have them.
Arabella: I've got it down to a science. So
Rutha Berhane: Mm.
Arabella: typically for my base, I'll do half fair life, 2%, half almond milk. If I'm in it in prep or like in a cutting phase where macros are a bit lower, I'll just do full almond milk for my base. But it does make it a little bit creamier and thicker if you use fair life milk or just like a milk with a little bit of fat in it, like 2%.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: so typically like 150 Fairlife, 150 almond milk, and then 30 to 40 grams of protein powder, depending on how much protein I need. I will say Limitless Pharma protein powder. I had it in my creami last night. my gosh. Their flavors are just like next level. And then maple waffle HD protein powder is one of my favorites in the Ninja Creami. However, she's been sold out for a while now, which is so sad. But yeah, honestly, use whatever protein powder floats your boat, but some will work better than others, is what I've learned. And then Typically if I'm doing only almond milk, I will add like a little bit of sugar free pudding mix or a pinch of xantham gum just to help thicken it. But that can also be a little iffy on your gut and your digestion for a lot of people. So that's why I prefer just to use like a two percent milk that will help thicken it so that then you don't need that extra thickening agent.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: Add a bit of salt. Pinch of salt to bring out the flavor even more, and you should be salting every single meal, anyways. Give her a stir. I use like one of those milk frother things from Amazon. Stick it in the freezer for like 12 hours minimum. Typically, I'll just make it the night before. Then it freezes all day, overnight, and all day. Take it out, let it thaw for like 10 minutes or so, run it under hot water. The run the sides under hot water for a minute if you feel like it's still super frozen. Also, if you're spinning it, if you're taking it out of the freezer and spinning it right away, that is why we keep seeing these ninja creamies bloat the F up. Because you're spinning your ice cream from like rock solid. It is so much harder on the machine. So let it thaw or run the sides under hot water. Spin on light ice cream and then add another 20-30 mils of almond milk. Re-spin. Scrape down the sides of the pint so that then it's mixing in like the frozen sides, because otherwise you're gonna end up with a lot of like ice clumps around the sides and on the bottom. Scoop out a little bit in the middle, add whatever mix-ins you want. Typically, I just do granola if I'm feeling extra fancy, like I'll do an Oreo or like I love breaking up like cookies or something, like crumbling up cookies or like a granola bar and like doing that as the mix-in. You can get so creative, like whatever you're. Whatever your heart desires, like I said, just be mindful of your sugar intake before bed 'cause it can disrupt your sleep a little bit. Hit the mix in and do whatever toppings you
Rutha Berhane: You could
Arabella: want. Some berries, kiwi before bed is always good. A little bit of cool whip, whatever floats your boat.
Rutha Berhane: not the cool whip, please. I have I have PTSD with cool whip myself, so that's yeah.
Arabella: You'll see it. It's so low calorie though.
Rutha Berhane: I know, but it like triggers something in me. Like cool whip is a little too good. Like I have to stay away from things that are a little too good.
Arabella: she has no self control with a tub of cool.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. None. None. I have no self-control, period. So and I'm not afraid to say that. So if anybody wants
Arabella: Turn it nothing.
Rutha Berhane: to shame me guys, zone even because I share it every day. I don't care. Cause again, if it was like up to me, because I tell my friends this all the time, if it was up to me, I think I'd be like 300 pounds. I'm gonna be honest with you. Sorry. I'll be big as hell.
Arabella: yeah, that's why we lift weights so that we can eat more. That's why we do our ten thousand steps every day.
Rutha Berhane: That's a raw truth.
Arabella: Guys, it's about working smarter, not harder.
Rutha Berhane: Always. Well we're we're also working a little hard here, but unfortunately. But at the end of the day, it is smarter. It is smarter.
Arabella: That's true. That's true. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: But yeah, and then we have our go-to go to. I know we're both lovers of this. We personally haven't gone out to get it together, which we should. soon.
Arabella: I'm just waiting for you.
Rutha Berhane: Soon is sushi. Sushi sushi.
Arabella: Sushi, we love her because you can keep it pretty clean or you
Rutha Berhane: Love. Mm-hmm.
Arabella: can out. And
Rutha Berhane: What's your go to sushi order when it comes to rolls?
Arabella: Okay, typically I'll get a roll with protein two rolls with protein, so I'll do like either a chicken teriyaki or beef teriyaki roll. And then one with fish. So either honest I was gonna say tuna or salmon, but I never get salmon. Always tuna avocado. Tuna avocado roll. Chicken or beef teriyaki roll. Yam tempora roll. I love her so much, but I
Rutha Berhane: Really?
Arabella: Honestly, most of the time do try to avoid anything deep fried, but on occasion
Rutha Berhane: It has cream cheese, hey?
Arabella: what?
Rutha Berhane: Is that the one with cream cheese in it?
Arabella: No, no, no, no. I never get any. I don't like cream cheese in my sushi.
Rutha Berhane: the K. Sorry, I'm thinking about the Philadelphia roll because it has yam in it too. Sweet potato, like whatever. So never mind. Yeah. Yeah.
Arabella: Yes. We're thinking about putting those. Yeah. No. Yam tempura roll or a yam avocado roll is also really good, but
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: if I'm getting two va tuna avocado roll, then we don't need two avocado rolls. And a California roll. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, my I'm a little basic where's my
Arabella: And a side if I if I'm feeling extra fancy, a little side of spicy mayo too.
Rutha Berhane: I haven't tried that one yet. A sight of it. Okay, you gave me an idea.
Arabella: Mm. But just be mindful the calories in that baby do add up really quickly. And always, always, always ask for low sodium soy sauce. You will thank yourself. Always
Rutha Berhane: yes. And some will lie to you, talking about we don't have it. Yes, they do. Cause I I did ask and they're we don't have that. I was girl, I see it in the table next to me. Give me that one. Cause they're two different color like lids usually usually like one's red and one's green.
Arabella: Yeah, exactly.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. So that's a really big hack, I will say. I'm very much basic with mine. It's usually dynamite in California. And then I always do a mango roll, which is
Arabella: I love it.
Rutha Berhane: I'm gonna honest with you, I love it, but some places make it with mango puree at the top, which is just pure sugar at the end of the day. So I only opt for like one roll of it. Usually it's like five or six pieces and they're like tiny, so it's like what, like whatever. But the soy sauce is where I always tell people cool it or go on the low sodium option because sodium plays such a big roll that people don't really like to understand that, especially because the day-to-day person, even on a fitness. Journey is not tracking their sodium intake. So once you're not doing that and you're sometimes just under consuming sodium to begin with, and you go get sushi and you're just consuming so much soy sauce the next day you're gonna wake up puffy, like whatever, and you're gonna correlate it. Yeah.
Arabella: You're gonna feel like a water buffalo after that. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: So correlating that with the free meal is gonna happen, and then you're gonna say, I'm never gonna go to get sushi again because it makes me feel like this, like whatever. So that's a big one that I tell people to be careful. Yeah.
Arabella: More so just your choices rather than the sushi itself. Totally. Totally. I do love a dynamite roll too, but again, I just try to typically avoid the deep fried stuff. But I'm definitely a simple sushi girl
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, that's the right that's tip for I think.
Arabella: rather than like those fancy rolls. You know how every restaurant has like their their plain simple rolls and then they have their fancy rolls that are always more expensive. Specialty. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. They're specialty rolls, yeah. Yeah.
Arabella: We're always crazy combos.
Rutha Berhane: Some of those are diabolical 'cause those sometimes they'll fry the whole roll.
Arabella: Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: And then cut it until the whole roll is fried. And I'm just like, absolutely not. Like that, I knowingly cannot consume that. Yeah.
Arabella: Yeah. And packed with so many different sauces. Yeah. The mango rolls I do love as well though, but I agree with you. I don't love the puree that they sometimes put on top.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. That one's a little bit sus. But we do see a lot of people automatically do assume that as much as we love sushi, that they automatically assume that sushi's super healthy or some have the complete opposite outlook at it, where they don't think of sushi as a free or cheat meal. and it can go both ways, right? But it really at the end of the day, like we said, depends on what you're choosing and what you're consuming because at the end of the day any food can be a bad or good consumption you know what I mean so it at the end of the day it comes down to you but tracking roles is very easy when it comes to roles that are not deep fried or this and that and I always tell people like my taste buds are not graduated to adult yet so I cannot eat sashimi but for people who can I think that is the best option when it comes to sushi where they can get the salmon on top of there because you're getting a shit ton of protein from your sashimi. Okay. That's a big thing.
Arabella: You're so funny. My my taste buds haven't graduated to adults. You I fear
Rutha Berhane: I'm such a bitch. Like I literally could not put that in my mouth.
Arabella: you just have not had good sushimi.
Rutha Berhane: No, it's just I can't like the texture, Bella. Like it's disgusting. It's disgusting.
Arabella: You have not had good sushimi. When you have
Rutha Berhane: How do you eat that?
Arabella: when you have good sushimi, like really fresh fish, it melts in your mouth.
Rutha Berhane: That's the worst part. Why is something melting in my mouth and it's raw? Pause. Sorry.
Arabella: Yeah. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Sorry, it was just too much at once. I know.
Arabella: Why is something?
Rutha Berhane: Dead ass though, like like that's awful. I don't want something melting in my mouth and it's raw something. Like that's nasty. And I had I've I've tried some and it's just like
Arabella: What about chocolate melting in your mouth?
Rutha Berhane: that's different. First of all, it's going from solid to not. Wait. Don't compare those.
Arabella: When something melts in your mouth it's good. Like when somebody is talking
Rutha Berhane: But K
Arabella: about a giving a food review and they're like, it melts in your mouth, like that means it's really good.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, no, I'm not to no, but quite literally sashimi sometimes dissolves in your mouth if it's like high quality, like whatever, but steak also melts in your mouth if it's like tender or whatever. But you're cooking it.
Arabella: Yeah, you want fake and milk in your mouth. You don't want it to be smoothy ass fake.
Rutha Berhane: It's seared. At least it's seared, if it's like ev even like blue rare, it's seared.
Arabella: Hey, what about post Tsushimi, where they like bring out that gun thing and like blast it?
Rutha Berhane: okay. I'll think about that one. I've had seared sushi, like where only the top portion of the salmon's like seared, but there's such
Arabella: Yeah, that's what I mean. You know, when they bring that gun to the table and they like
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, but if the sashimi's too thick, then I don't believe in that. Because if i if if it's the you know what? Why am I explaining myself to you here? I don't like it. I paused.
Arabella: I fear Manitoba Sushimi is just not up to par.
Rutha Berhane: Cause Calgary Sashimi is hey.
Arabella: Yeah, Calgary has good sushi. It's not Vancouver sushi. But also mind you I did not grow up on Calgary sushi.
Rutha Berhane: You've been everywhere so you should know. Is Houston or Dallas sushi better?
Arabella: Houston sushi is really good 'cause it's right by the ocean, yeah.
Rutha Berhane: You eat raw tuna, don't you? On your sushi.
Arabella: in a tuna roll, is it cooked? I don't think
Rutha Berhane: Is it? I don't know. I've never had
Arabella: so.
Rutha Berhane: Okay. See that's like the sashimi that's like tuna. Cause sashimi just means what? raw?
Arabella: Sushi sushi means just raw fish, yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Okay, so raw tuna as as well. There's salmon tuna and like eel or whatever.
Arabella: So so you probably don't like beef carpaccio or like tuna tataki or anything like that then, hey?
Rutha Berhane: You like you like beef tartare, don't you?
Arabella: No, I don't like beef tartar. Because I don't like the
Rutha Berhane: Why is that? Doesn't it melt in your mouth?
Arabella: texture thing.
Rutha Berhane: But it melts in your mouth?
Arabella: Yeah. Rutha does not like sushimi, but sushimi is one of the cleanest options you can order. It's just straight protein. So that's definitely always an option I recommend to anyone who wants to enjoy themselves, but also wants to be able to track or somewhat stay on track. It's very easy to track, you know, three, four, five pieces of sushimi, whatever you're having, and it's just straight protein. And then if you're pairing that with the low sodium soy sauce, keeping your sodium intake to a minimum, that is probably the best option you can get. and even if you like order a side of rice to have with that sushimi, then you can just roughly track the amount of rice that you're having, and that way you're still going out to the restaurant, you're still enjoying yourself partaking in the meal, but you're not stressed about over consuming calories.
Rutha Berhane: Mm-hmm. Word. Word.
Arabella: And another great option at sushi restaurants, honestly, Japanese is like one of the best or easiest meals to stay on track with if you are expecting to eat out. Like going
Rutha Berhane: Like the job
Arabella: to a Japanese restaurant because sushimi Edamame is what I was gonna say. Really great. High protein well, Edamame is like I would say medium protein. I wouldn't call it like high protein, but The protein does add up if you're like just sitting there snacking on edamame
Rutha Berhane: Mm.
Arabella: and then miso soup as well, it's gonna fill you up for basically no calories.
Rutha Berhane: Another good one is cream barbecue.
Arabella: Yes. Mine
Rutha Berhane: The ones where you're making you're grilling yourself. Sorry. Sorry, yes. Let
Arabella: Yes. But
Rutha Berhane: me just make that clear.
Arabella: I will I will say with cream barbecue, all of their meats come in a marinade, right? So
Rutha Berhane: Mm, not all. It depends
Arabella: I would say majority.
Rutha Berhane: it depends what you choose. A a lot of them will, but like you can have options of like literally like plain like chicken breast and this and that and then you get the sauces like with it to like the marinate or like whatever.
Arabella: Okay.
Rutha Berhane: So those ones are the ones I'm talking about. Not the pre marinated ones, yeah.
Arabella: But yeah, just avoid the premarinated ones because the sodium
Rutha Berhane: That's full sugar sauces.
Arabella: full sugar sauces, so higher calorie, high sodium. So even though you may think you're just consuming protein, you are not, and you're gonna feel like a water buffalo the next day after that too. But otherwise, yeah, cream barbecue is just like a sugary
Rutha Berhane: Bag of milk, perhaps?
Arabella: protein. Every time I go for a cream barbecue, I swear I walk away eating like three hundred grams of protein in one sitting.
Rutha Berhane: It's so worth the money, guys. So
Arabella: Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: worth the money. I don't care if it's 50, 60 bucks, you can out you can out-eat the price. Mm-hmm.
Arabella: Well, just go for all you can eat. Yes. Totally. And it's so fun too. It's like a fun group experience, you know?
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. I kind of forget that the group's there. When I see like so much protein like on a thing, like pff don't even talk to me for like a good hour. Sorry.
Arabella: Rutha is just locked in. Locked in.
Rutha Berhane: You have to understand that you can really like out eat the price. When that's locked in, you're on a mission, right? Especially when it comes to chicken. Cause that's a topic for another time. But yeah, especially chicken, you can yeah, that's easy work.
Arabella: Totally. Yeah. I going back to sushi, one more thing I will say about sushi. if you are in prep or on a strict cut, there is one I don't wouldn't call it a trick, one approach tactic that I have used before and it is somewhat more restricting, but what you can do is just order super simple rolls like A cucumber roll, a tuna roll, salmon roll, avocado roll, something that only has like one part to it, and then you bring a little mini little food scale and you deconstruct it, and then you just weigh out whatever the component of the sushi roll is and weigh out the rice in that one piece of sushi and then multiply that by how many pieces of sushi are in the roll, so like Always six or eight, and then track it. That way, that's gonna be like the easiest way to be a hundred percent on point with tracking sushi. Otherwise, just search up like a California roll or like a tuna roll or whatever you're ordering in my fitness pal. Is it gonna be bang on? No, but at least then you're close enough, you're still being somewhat intentional with the meal that you're ordering and not just completely free-fralling it. But again, there's a time and a place for that. Definitely not saying to do that all the time. Time and a place. Yeah. I've
Rutha Berhane: Not all the time, no, like that's crazy work, but
Arabella: only done that one time and it was when I was like in a stricter cutting phase. So yeah.
Rutha Berhane: When you have like macros on prep too though, that's like a very good thing you can work with 'cause at the end of the day it's
Arabella: Exactly.
Rutha Berhane: basically raw ingredients of rice and cucumber and like let's like raw tuna or like salmon. So you're really not deviating because you can make that at home. So yeah.
Arabella: Exactly. Exactly. So it's just a nice way to be able to still go out to the sushi restaurant, like enjoy a night out with friends or date night or whatever and still stay fully on plan and not have to bring your meal prep to the restaurant. Now moving on to our last one of the episode. Of course, we have many, many guilty pleasure foods, but these are just some common ones that we picked out that we have on a daily basis. So our favorite,
Rutha Berhane: Our favorite. Our favorite, some could say.
Arabella: you guys see this on my Instagram every single day too. A fully loaded yogurt bowl. This is probably the best way to satisfy your sweet treat cravings, aside from the ninja creami.
Rutha Berhane: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Arabella: It's high protein. You can get creative with it. Like you can put basically whatever you're craving into this yogurt bowl, make it super, super fun. Literally romanticize it. Like I will always do obviously Greek yogurt based, so like 200 grams of Greek yogurt or Skyr yogurt works as well. And then fruit. I love putting like every single fruit in there, like berries, pineapple, banana, obviously
Rutha Berhane: Blueberries. Sorry.
Arabella: So what?
Rutha Berhane: Blueberries.
Arabella: yeah, I said berries. We love blueberries, raspberries,
Rutha Berhane: And love. I just want to emphasize.
Arabella: like all of the above peaches, kiwis, obviously
Rutha Berhane: Mm.
Arabella: whatever fits your macros,
Rutha Berhane: Isn't it?
Arabella: and then a little sweet treat of some sort, so granola granola or A recent discovery I've made is those Nature Valley granola bars, the crunchy ass ones that like break everywhere. Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: the dust ones where you open them and it's everywhere. I like those. Yeah.
Arabella: Those actually have better macros, like you get more volume than
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: a bag of granola. So since they're already crumbled up, I'm like, okay, may as well put this on my yogurt bowl because they taste phenomenal. Like that is probably some of the best granola I've ever had. So I don't know why they don't just put that into a bag at this point. Like, why are we still trying with these bars?
Rutha Berhane: page. That's a business idea right there for ya.
Arabella: Nature Valley has their granola, like bags of granola too though, but it's just it's not the same. It's not the same, so Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. Loaded bowls are the best, especially when it comes to having them pre workout. And you can obviously play around and make them pre workout friendly. Just the only reason I say pre workout friendly is we do know that you don't want to consume too many fats pre workout so that you're not like things are not sitting as heavy because you are consuming a lot of carbs in your pre meal, unless you're in prep sometimes it can get pretty gnarly, but for a pre-workout, we've heard of the famous because they're all bowls, right? But we've always heard of the bloat bowls that came from a influencer/slash bodybuilder on TikTok. Mud bowls.
Arabella: Hey, hey, hey, you're stealing my mud bowls. I I coin the mud bowl.
Rutha Berhane: I was not good. The mud bowl I was gonna leave for you. Way drip or rice crispy cereal with like honey and like toppings on there with a certain amount of fats in there and just not too many. Cause in my
Arabella: Yes.
Rutha Berhane: yogurt bowls, I do consume more fats in those because I have it before bed, if like anything, because I'm somebody that needs to sleep post eating a fatty meal because that's where I find that I sleep better. But for pre-workout, less fat, more carbs. Yeah.
Arabella: Yes. Definitely conk you out for the night because they slow down digestion. But yeah, we want to avoid heavy fats pre and post workout because you obviously don't want to slow down the digestion pre and post workout. But honestly, have your yogurt bowl like before bed or as meal one and then have Rutha mentioned the bloat bowl or I like to call them mud bowls pre workout. So cream of rice. with whey drip and fruit and dark chocolate or peanut butter or almond butter. It's literally dessert in a bowl. And if you're not on the cream of rice train yet, you need to be ASAP and if you tell me you don't like
Rutha Berhane: So guys.
Arabella: it, you're probably just cooking it wrong. So give her another go. Like there's so many fun flavors you can get. Literally between all of the cream of rice brands these days, like there's every flavor under the sun at this point, I swear. And
Rutha Berhane: And there's some nasty ones too. Let me tell you that. Yuck.
Arabella: There's some bad ones. Elev8 Elev8 shameless plug, code Bella the best cream of rice on the market.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: cookies and cream is my top flavor. It has Oreo pieces in it. So if you're craving Oreos, that is an amazing way to satisfy your cravings. But yeah. The whole point of this is that like these foods that you think are like treat foods or cheat foods or bad foods, they aren't. It's just about making these foods fit into your macros for the day. And say you're craving a cookie. Okay, well, how about you have a cookie in your yogurt bowl instead of granola? So just make that substitution because I'm sure a lot of the time you'd rather have a cookie than granola. It's just more fun. So make that swap, track it, and then move on with your day. You're satisfied the craving, you're not restricting yourself, and you're actually enjoying your meals. I would say the biggest issue is when you force yourself to eat these meals that you don't actually enjoy, that you don't love, and then you just end up wanting something different and then you go eat it anyways. Versus if you had just satisfied that craving and ate something you actually enjoyed in the first place, then you wouldn't be constantly stuck in this like restrict overeat cycle.
Rutha Berhane: Hundred percent. Hundred percent. Not everything has to be boring and just irritating as hell to eat unless you're in a phase where that needs to be happening. because I don't know how you're gonna make asparagus and beef taste good after a certain point if you have no seasonings. But when you're in a point in your journey where you just can play around with things, take the opportunity to do so because it's not worth it to kind of be miserable year round in the hopes that a goal will happen. Because regardless of how you're approaching things in a fun way or a very strict and unenjoyable way, the results will still happen. So why not take the enjoyable route?
Arabella: Totally, because that is the sustainable route. That's what's gonna allow you to make progress and sustain that progress and continue making progress. And also live your life because life is short and it's too short to be saying no to your favorite foods all the time.
Rutha Berhane: Way too short. You'll always hear a yes come out of my my mouth. I actually need to start saying no. Because if somebody text Hey, frozen yogurt, yeah. Actually I can sense it. Yep. Yeah, yeah. All you can eat only. All you can eat only, guys.
Arabella: Yeah. Ice cream yep. Sushi? Yep. Yeah. You don't yeah. No, you don't have to ask me. even if I have zero dollars in my bank account. Yep.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. I'm going. I'm going. For sushi, girl, don't even I'm actually Jeff Bezos that day. For sushi, that's fine. But yeah. those
Arabella: Yes. Always, always, always, but yeah.
Rutha Berhane: are some of our favorite hacks and also like things that we do year round. Like we do these things on a daily basis because we find it enjoyable. It's not a hassle for us and it helps us reach our goal regardless.
Arabella: Mm-hmm. Yes, exactly. And that is the most important thing at the end of the day. So remember, incorporating these fun foods, like having a little bit more flexibility in your diet is not a weakness. It's what makes your diet actually sustainable and these foods you love are not the enemy.
Rutha Berhane: Hundred percent, hundred percent.
Arabella: I mean
Rutha Berhane: And please do let us know down the comments, whatever it is, your guilty pleasure foods or certain things that you do that aren't as popular or are popular that help you hit your goals the same way, but are such a fun way to put a twist into your day to day meals so that it's not boring and plain and the same every single day.
Arabella: Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: We wanna hear your guilty pleasure foods and hopefully you got some value and tips and tricks out of this episode and we will chat to y'all next week.
Rutha Berhane: Have a beautiful day.
Arabella: Bye.
Arabella: Hey guys, welcome back to another consistency code episode. Excited for this one. We're gonna be diving into our guilty guilty pleasure foods, how we actually fit them in, how we stay on track, because ultimately, as much as some of y'all may think, we are not robots and we do enjoy eating off plan, as you've heard in every single episode we're always talking about.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: Big foodies over here. but also bodybuilders at the end of the day who do need to keep some rigidity in our diet. and for most of y'all listening, I'm sure you're on some kind of fitness journey. whether that be a fat loss journey or whether you're in a muscle building phase, whatever it is, you probably also need some con consistency with your nutrition, but life is short and restriction always leads to overeating at the end of the day. And so I think it's important to talk about yeah how we can incorporate these foods and satisfy our cravings and live our life and still stay on plan. And yeah, it's funny because I feel like every single time I post like a picture of a free meal or like me going out to eat, like people are always surprised to see that. like, my gosh, like
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. Okay.
Arabella: She's eating off plan, like, you know, people just assume that we are robots all the time. yet I mean they I'm gonna call some people out here. They're also the ones who are eating off plan all the time and having like these bites and licks and tastes of stuff without tracking it and then wondering why the scale isn't moving. So yeah. Gonna
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: gonna explain how we how we enjoy those foods. And but I'm in.
Rutha Berhane: How do do it? Exactly. And I don't think from any of us we've ever called our free meals a cheat meal. I don't think I've heard that come out of your mouth, which thank God. Yeah, I...
Arabella: I hate the term cheat meal. Like I actually hate the term cheat meal. Cause what are you cheating on, babe? What are you cheating
Rutha Berhane: Exactly.
Arabella: on? It just like it's so
Rutha Berhane: is that
Arabella: derogatory and it creates this negative mindset towards certain
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: foods, like, if I eat this and suddenly call it a cheat meal, then like that food is automatically deemed bad for me. And a bad food. And I hate labeling foods. There
Rutha Berhane: suffering.
Arabella: there truly are no quote unquote good foods or quote unquote bad foods. A food is just freaking food at the end of the day. Like you could hypothetically lose weight on McDonald's every single day.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, and there's research on that, right? But there's also like
Arabella: Ya there is a guy actually did it just to prove a point.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. And there's a very negative stigma around the like sense of like cheat meals because usually exactly like what are you cheating on? Because we're trying to everything that we promote on here and we've been is like trying to make this a lifestyle. You know what I mean? So there should be no need to necessarily cheat on something that's a lifestyle change, right? So we call
Arabella: Exactly.
Rutha Berhane: them our free meals, off plan meals, because we do have a certain plan that we like to follow. majority of the time, but then when we don't and we skew away from that, that's called an off plan meal. So I think that also it gives a more relaxed sense of when we do do it and that way like we're not panicking like, my gosh, I just ate this. just, just ate this. I've texted Bella before being like, Hey, just had like a two pound cookie last night. so fire. And it's like, she never texted me like, my gosh, like, was that your cheat meal for the week? Like, you know, so you always have to. of watch the language that you use because these are just foods that bring us joy and happiness and social settings and that's literally it.
Arabella: Totally. And obviously there's a time and a place for these off plan
Rutha Berhane: Thanks
Arabella: meals, you know, when we're in prep and things do need to be dialed to the T then are we gonna be having these like treats or off plan meals without like the go ahead from our coach? No, because like we're on a strict timeline, we have that end date that like We have that show that we're working towards. and it is really important in prep that everything is super meticulous. But in the off season, like it's important to enjoy life. Like, we cannot be super robotic 365 days of the year, because that will lead to burnout. And I even felt a sense
Rutha Berhane: So, thank Okay.
Arabella: of burnout at the start of this off season, honestly. Well Maybe not the start of this off season, because the start of this offseason was like a year ago basically for me. But I'm always really, really good with my reverses post show. And I would say it was like the transition period from my reverse, like into my off season where I felt a s started to feel like a burnout sense. And I just I've sat down with myself. I'm like, okay, this is probably because I haven't taken a break from working with a coach in like
Rutha Berhane: Thank you.
Arabella: almost five years now, I have always been super, super dialed, even in my off seasons, like to the point where I would have like a weekly free meal in my plan, but I would not let myself deviate from that whatsoever. And then also looking back on it, I now realize that like I overeat during that free meal because it was like the only opportunity that I felt like I had to eat off plan throughout the whole week, which like is a negative
Rutha Berhane: Okay.
Arabella: negative mindset to have in and of itself. And I think that in the off season it's important to incorporate that bit of balance into your life. Yeah, to avoid creating that resentment towards something that you really love doing. And like Rutha has said, this is this should be a lifestyle. And that's what I always tell my clients too. I'm like, this should not feel like a diet to you. I don't want you to feel like you're dieting because ultimately the term diet also always has some sort of restriction. Whether it doesn't matter what the diet is
Rutha Berhane: Okay. Okay.
Arabella: Like anytime you refer to something as a diet, it's gonna have some sorts of some sort of restriction and that is not sustainable. And the goal is to create a lifestyle that you can stay consistent with for the rest of your life without being stressed about a vacation or a dinner out or a party or whatever a holiday, like whatever it is.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. Exactly.
Arabella: Yeah. So we thought that it would be fun to just take an episode to chat about our guilty pleasure foods, like our favorite foods, our go-to free meals, untracked meals, and how we fit them into our day to day without derailing. and yeah, just do like a little I guess you could call it master class on flexible eating.
Rutha Berhane: Some hacks, you know. Which is always a good thing.
Arabella: And meanwhile we just got to talk about foods we love. Which is our which is our entire personality. So yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. No, truly. Truly. I have all the hacks, guys, and, well, this is only a handful of them, because we have, like, textbook full Trust. Mm. Mm.
Arabella: big time. Yeah. and as y'all know too, I have been traveling a shitload this summer. I would say I've almost been traveling more than I've been home and I've been eating off plan, I will say more than I would like, just because I like eating my prepped meals because I know that they digest well for me. I know that they're gonna fuel me towards my goals, I know that I just feel my best. my body functions, it's best when I'm eating on plan. And so yes, I've been eating off plan a lot, but I've also been making smart choices while I've been eating off plan. And by the way, when we say like when we refer to something as off plan or like as an untracked meal, basically that just means we're not like meticulously tracking it in my fitness pal.
Rutha Berhane: Mm-hmm. Okay.
Arabella: Or if you're on a meal plan,
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: basically just means that it's not one of your regular scheduled meals.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: Yeah. Now I think a good starting point would actually just be to quickly discuss how we navigate going out to a restaurant to eat. So yeah, Rutha, if you were to like go out to a restaurant and wanna stay kind of on plan, but also enjoy yourself, how would you go about that?
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. So it really just depends like what you're personally doing, right? If this is like, I'm going out to a restaurant because I have numerous like events to attend, let's say, like if I know I have a friend's birthday and a dinner another day. So if it's kind of like continuous things, I am obviously going to just be making smarter decisions while in a restaurant, but you will never catch me. Like, I'm so sorry. Ordering a chicken salad and calling it a day every single time that's not happening. That's the most boring and I might as well just bring my own food then because What I'm eating chicken breast and lettuce for like what 30 bucks. That's crazy, but you
Arabella: Also that is, even though you think the salad is the healthy option, it it's probably not the low calorie option.
Rutha Berhane: It's not unless you're genuinely asking for dressing on the side of this and I feel that's just too much work and I want to also like be able to enjoy myself, right? So the menu of a restaurant is always provided to you beforehand because if you search like search it up so people do like doing that and just like kind of pre-planning like, I'm just going to get this and this but I don't usually have the I'm very type B so I don't have time to look at that. So when I get there, I just look at very familiar things that are just easy, easy made. right, nothing too complicated where it's like a chicken parm with this, this, that, and third. I like to look at things that ingredients are listed, right? So that's what I love going based off of. Exactly.
Arabella: Like a whole foods based meal, like an like an like an entree, like a protein protein heavy meal.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. I love that. Even if it's a club sandwich, like a turkey club, whatever, let's say, it says on there. And I'm like, okay, I don't care if there's garlic aioli on it, but at least I can see whatever and I can tell them, hey, can you go light on the sauce? So it's just a very, I like to go for very easy made meals from. restaurants just because it just makes more sense for me but i obviously also have times where i go and i'm like hey i'm feeling like i'm feeling a actually i've never gone an Alfredo from a restaurant i'm gonna be honest with you i can't even lie about that
Arabella: I can't tell you the last time I got an Alfredo either. I don't have attempted
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, that's
Arabella: because the Earl's chicken Alfredo is unmatched. It's unmatched.
Rutha Berhane: Is it good? Okay.
Arabella: But the thing with a creami, super saucy,
Rutha Berhane: and
Arabella: carb heavy, fat heavy dish like that is I know it's
Rutha Berhane: Never tell.
Arabella: not gonna sit well with me. So it's one
Rutha Berhane: Thank you, me either.
Arabella: of those things that like I would love to have a bite of someone else's
Rutha Berhane: This is...
Arabella: to satisfy the craving that way, but like I never want that fully to my
Rutha Berhane: It would kill me. I'm fully convinced it would kill me because the next day I'm gonna feel groggy just because of the amount of dairy to begin with. It just doesn't do well with me. But anything so dense and heavy, it just doesn't deal well. I'll do like meat sauce, but no way.
Arabella: Mm. It's just not worth it. It's not worth it.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, but that's what I do. What do you do? 100%.
Arabella: But that's a personal preference and I'm not saying that like pasta is a bad food. Like it's not. Like it's just about knowing your body and knowing what's gonna digest well for you. It's our personal preference just to not order something that we know is gonna be super heavy in carbs and super heavy in fat and packed with dairy because we know that those we know that that combination is not gonna digest well for us. So it's not that we're avoiding that because it's a it's a bad food. There is just better options that we know are gonna make us feel better, not disrupt our sleep, not disrupt our digestion, and not make us wish that we hadn't have ordered that because There's nothing worse than eating something and being like sitting in the guilt after and being like, like I regret that so much, you know?
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. Mm. And it's so I think it's just really like just heavy on the cream is crazy to me. Cause it does like for all fairness to taste good, you have to be heavy-handed with the ingredients.
Arabella: exactly. Like there's
Rutha Berhane: Or real.
Arabella: a reason that it tastes so much better at a restaurant than it does when you make it at home. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. But what do you do? Tell me.
Arabella: Yeah. So, well, first of all, before I even go out to the restaurant earlier in the day, I am aware that I'm going out to eat that that evening, right? So I'm going to set aside more. Of my fat and more of my daily carbs for that meal
Rutha Berhane: Mm.
Arabella: and mainly just focus on getting my protein in and my meals leading up to that meal out because I know that okay, that meal out is probably gonna be a little bit lower in protein and a little bit denser in carbs and fats. So I'll just adjust my meals earlier in the day so that they are lower carb. lower fat. other than my pre and post workout meals, I'll always keep those the same 'cause it's always super, super important to be fueling your body around your workouts and not taking away from your training performance in your workouts. But other than that, I'll probably save like two to three of my like of the regular meals I would have that day or snacks or whatever for that meal out. and then yeah, eat like my pre and post workout meal and then like I said, save some extra Carbs and fats. I also will always look up the menu ahead of time just because I get excited about the options on the menu. And then that way I can also think about what I wanna have and what I'm craving that day. So maybe I actually am craving a steak and I wanna order a steak. Well, then yeah, I'm probably gonna save like forty grams of protein, for fifty grams of protein ish for that meal because typically the steaks of restaurants are pretty decently sized, which we love. And then depending on like the side options, I'll adjust my carbs and fats in my meals for like that day leading up to the dinner out. And then typically at a restaurant, I mean I don't do this very often, but if I am like in a dieting phase specifically where calories are a little bit lower, I will always ask for my food not to be cooked in any oil or butter. So say I'm ordering a steak, I'll just Or like a grilled chicken or something, just ask for it not to be cooked in any extra oil or butter. That way you're saving a ton of calories just through like the cooking oils. and then sauces on the side or light sauce. And then say I'm getting like a club sandwich or like a burger or something, ask for no bacon or cheese to save a ton of calories from those heavy fat items. it's always
Rutha Berhane: The bacon. Always take that bacon off, sorry. I will always say take the bacon fully off.
Arabella: Because yeah, that bacon is girls not giving you any protein, very minimal protein and just straight fat. And I know it's so greasy and again, it's not gonna I know greasy foods do not digest well for me, so that's just a call that I will make for myself. To avoid that, and same as Rutha, I'll always order like a whole foods based, like entree kind of option. So whether that be like A steak, a salmon, a sandwich that you you know, you you know exactly what you're getting. Everything is listed there for you, like Rutha said. even like a burger, you know you're getting like the beef patty, the bun, the lettuce, the tomato, whatever other trace calorie toppings you're getting on there. Ask for the sauce on the side because the calories always come from the sauces. You know, when you take a bite of a burger and
Rutha Berhane: Let's so hidden.
Arabella: Like no sauce dripping out. Like that's probably like could
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: be easily three hundred calories just in sauce. So
Rutha Berhane: Hundred percent.
Arabella: as for the sauce on the side, avoid
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: appies because appies are typically deep fried.
Rutha Berhane: Calamari
Arabella: Packed with sauces. Yep. Packed with sodium. And we just don't
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: need them. I know you're hungry. I know they sound good. You just don't need We never need appies.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly.
Arabella: If you're getting an entree, like we just we don't need them. like a tuna tataki or something is probably gonna be your best option, or like an edamame or something that's like whole food protein based, like that. Like, what else? Like scallops or like a shrimp cocktail or something like that. But otherwise just skip the Abyss and skip the dessert. I know we love desserts, but you can go without those calories, go home, have your ninja creami and call it a night.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: You will thank yourself the next morning. But yeah, that's typically how I go about ordering at restaurants. Like I said, that's typically when I'm in like a cutting phase or when I'm trying to be a little bit stricter. But Don't get me wrong, I'm still going out for dinners and ordering just whatever the heck I'm craving and whatever I want in my off season from time to time. But it's all about moderation balance, right? Like I'm not doing that multiple times a week, every single week, because that's when the calories really do start to catch up to you. And macros, hitting your macros really does determine how
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: you look and how you feel. Like that's why I tell people don't even worry about tracking your calories. I do not care what calories. you're at day to day, what matters is your macros 'cause that's gonna determine how you look, how you feel, how you recover, your training performance. So yeah, if you're going out and having a super carb fat
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: heavy meal every single night, you're probably not gonna feel your best.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. And then on that topic of wanting something and you can go without it, when we say like, like skip the dessert and you can go without it so that it can make you feel better next day or like whatever, and even for the week, you know, because like Bella said, calories do end up accumulating and catching up to you just just because you're having something on Monday and then Not again until Friday or Thursday. If they're combined to be over a thousand calories, that's added to your weekly total in your macros. So at the end of the day, might as well just have it back to back because it doesn't matter that you spaced it out. But we do have the I will always say bodybuilders have the best swaps. And swaps
Arabella: Right. Mm-hmm.
Rutha Berhane: hacks for anything. And I don't care what anybody says because, and it's not the nasty. Microwave protein powder BS because we understand that in a prep the hunger is so intense and like you're missing out on so much for that like little period of time because you are in such a restricted phase that you have to make do without deviating from your plan. So the one thing that I will always swear by is general please, as somebody who's an ice cream addict, a sweet treat addict, I have one every single day, don't care.
Arabella: Thank you.
Rutha Berhane: is And Ninja Creami. And we've all heard of it. Ninja Creami. There's like a bunch of other ones that are slushy makers, like whatever. Bella has basically all of them. She's a connoisseur. And
Arabella: I okay, no, I have the ninja creami, the ninja swirl, the one that does like the soft serve ice cream too. I don't have the I
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: wish I had the slushy, my gosh, but yeah. How did we survive
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, so this one
Arabella: without the ninja creami before?
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, this one's a really big one and a good one just because it can help people who are not bodybuilders at all even just make a healthy decision, just like a swap of a regular Coke for a diet soda. It's dependent so a ninja creami is always gonna be dependent on how you make it so that it tastes good. And that's what gives you the opportunity to make healthier choices just because, you know, a Tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream is gonna run you about what 1800 calories, is it? Or a little more. Wait, way more, right? Hey,
Arabella: No, I yeah, I think
Rutha Berhane: more. For sure more. But you can make your ninja creami tub taste just as good for a fraction of the calories, like four or five hundred, even if you that's like putting shit in it too, right? So 100%.
Arabella: And it's low sugar, so it's not gonna like bike your blood sugar right before you go to bed, assuming you're not like piling it with a bunch of sugar mix ins. But yeah, like it's really about finding these alternatives to satisfy your cravings so that you can stay on track without blowing your calories and macros out of the water and out of the park every day. And yeah, these hacks are truly game changers. So for For our fellow ice cream lovers connoisseurs. It's funny.
Rutha Berhane: Lovers.
Arabella: I literally had ice cream every single night growing up and like I'm still addicted. I'm still a fiend. Like Yeah, I can go for
Rutha Berhane: It's still a thing, right? And with these
Arabella: ice cream like no matter how full I am, like all the time.
Rutha Berhane: Okay.
Arabella: like last night we got sushi. I was so full off sushi, I'm like, nope, still having my ninja creami. You always have one for a sweet treat. Yeah. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: You always have room for a sweet treat, right? And that's why Yeah. That's why these are so good. Because you can always incorporate protein in it too. And that's what like gives it such an edge because it's again like you're truly like the creator of it. So you can make these diet friendly and also like not diet friendly, but also just way better than a two thousand plus ice like ice cream pint. And these ninja creamies are Large, right? So you'll see creamies being involved in a lot of people's plans just because it's a good nightcap and it's still healthy and it doesn't spike your insulin levels. so it's all in all really good. And I think it's the best thing to happen to the fitness world in years, actually. I will go that far. It's such it's such a good purchase.
Arabella: It's revolutionary, yeah. And before you tell me that you don't wanna buy it, think about how much you're spending in
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. Yeah.
Arabella: sweet treats every single night. Yeah. Like
Rutha Berhane: Guiltyest though over here. Guilty. Mm-hmm.
Arabella: me too. But yeah, this a hundred and fifty dollar ninja creami is gonna last you forever and change your life. So if you have one, I know I always get asked. Always, always, always what is my ninja creami recipe? 'Cause I'm posting this baby on my story all the time.
Rutha Berhane: They look so good. Yours look way better when you like make them than I do. Like and I feel they taste better too because you just like think about it more and I just I'm I like inside of me I'm just I just want ice cream. So like when I make them they look like shit and sometimes taste a little bit off. But yours I've I've asked for hers a few times too, because they genuinely look like you just buy them and have them.
Arabella: I've got it down to a science. So
Rutha Berhane: Mm.
Arabella: typically for my base, I'll do half fair life, 2%, half almond milk. If I'm in it in prep or like in a cutting phase where macros are a bit lower, I'll just do full almond milk for my base. But it does make it a little bit creamier and thicker if you use fair life milk or just like a milk with a little bit of fat in it, like 2%.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: so typically like 150 Fairlife, 150 almond milk, and then 30 to 40 grams of protein powder, depending on how much protein I need. I will say Limitless Pharma protein powder. I had it in my creami last night. my gosh. Their flavors are just like next level. And then maple waffle HD protein powder is one of my favorites in the Ninja Creami. However, she's been sold out for a while now, which is so sad. But yeah, honestly, use whatever protein powder floats your boat, but some will work better than others, is what I've learned. And then Typically if I'm doing only almond milk, I will add like a little bit of sugar free pudding mix or a pinch of xantham gum just to help thicken it. But that can also be a little iffy on your gut and your digestion for a lot of people. So that's why I prefer just to use like a two percent milk that will help thicken it so that then you don't need that extra thickening agent.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: Add a bit of salt. Pinch of salt to bring out the flavor even more, and you should be salting every single meal, anyways. Give her a stir. I use like one of those milk frother things from Amazon. Stick it in the freezer for like 12 hours minimum. Typically, I'll just make it the night before. Then it freezes all day, overnight, and all day. Take it out, let it thaw for like 10 minutes or so, run it under hot water. The run the sides under hot water for a minute if you feel like it's still super frozen. Also, if you're spinning it, if you're taking it out of the freezer and spinning it right away, that is why we keep seeing these ninja creamies bloat the F up. Because you're spinning your ice cream from like rock solid. It is so much harder on the machine. So let it thaw or run the sides under hot water. Spin on light ice cream and then add another 20-30 mils of almond milk. Re-spin. Scrape down the sides of the pint so that then it's mixing in like the frozen sides, because otherwise you're gonna end up with a lot of like ice clumps around the sides and on the bottom. Scoop out a little bit in the middle, add whatever mix-ins you want. Typically, I just do granola if I'm feeling extra fancy, like I'll do an Oreo or like I love breaking up like cookies or something, like crumbling up cookies or like a granola bar and like doing that as the mix-in. You can get so creative, like whatever you're. Whatever your heart desires, like I said, just be mindful of your sugar intake before bed 'cause it can disrupt your sleep a little bit. Hit the mix in and do whatever toppings you
Rutha Berhane: You could
Arabella: want. Some berries, kiwi before bed is always good. A little bit of cool whip, whatever floats your boat.
Rutha Berhane: not the cool whip, please. I have I have PTSD with cool whip myself, so that's yeah.
Arabella: You'll see it. It's so low calorie though.
Rutha Berhane: I know, but it like triggers something in me. Like cool whip is a little too good. Like I have to stay away from things that are a little too good.
Arabella: she has no self control with a tub of cool.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. None. None. I have no self-control, period. So and I'm not afraid to say that. So if anybody wants
Arabella: Turn it nothing.
Rutha Berhane: to shame me guys, zone even because I share it every day. I don't care. Cause again, if it was like up to me, because I tell my friends this all the time, if it was up to me, I think I'd be like 300 pounds. I'm gonna be honest with you. Sorry. I'll be big as hell.
Arabella: yeah, that's why we lift weights so that we can eat more. That's why we do our ten thousand steps every day.
Rutha Berhane: That's a raw truth.
Arabella: Guys, it's about working smarter, not harder.
Rutha Berhane: Always. Well we're we're also working a little hard here, but unfortunately. But at the end of the day, it is smarter. It is smarter.
Arabella: That's true. That's true. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: But yeah, and then we have our go-to go to. I know we're both lovers of this. We personally haven't gone out to get it together, which we should. soon.
Arabella: I'm just waiting for you.
Rutha Berhane: Soon is sushi. Sushi sushi.
Arabella: Sushi, we love her because you can keep it pretty clean or you
Rutha Berhane: Love. Mm-hmm.
Arabella: can out. And
Rutha Berhane: What's your go to sushi order when it comes to rolls?
Arabella: Okay, typically I'll get a roll with protein two rolls with protein, so I'll do like either a chicken teriyaki or beef teriyaki roll. And then one with fish. So either honest I was gonna say tuna or salmon, but I never get salmon. Always tuna avocado. Tuna avocado roll. Chicken or beef teriyaki roll. Yam tempora roll. I love her so much, but I
Rutha Berhane: Really?
Arabella: Honestly, most of the time do try to avoid anything deep fried, but on occasion
Rutha Berhane: It has cream cheese, hey?
Arabella: what?
Rutha Berhane: Is that the one with cream cheese in it?
Arabella: No, no, no, no. I never get any. I don't like cream cheese in my sushi.
Rutha Berhane: the K. Sorry, I'm thinking about the Philadelphia roll because it has yam in it too. Sweet potato, like whatever. So never mind. Yeah. Yeah.
Arabella: Yes. We're thinking about putting those. Yeah. No. Yam tempura roll or a yam avocado roll is also really good, but
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: if I'm getting two va tuna avocado roll, then we don't need two avocado rolls. And a California roll. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, my I'm a little basic where's my
Arabella: And a side if I if I'm feeling extra fancy, a little side of spicy mayo too.
Rutha Berhane: I haven't tried that one yet. A sight of it. Okay, you gave me an idea.
Arabella: Mm. But just be mindful the calories in that baby do add up really quickly. And always, always, always ask for low sodium soy sauce. You will thank yourself. Always
Rutha Berhane: yes. And some will lie to you, talking about we don't have it. Yes, they do. Cause I I did ask and they're we don't have that. I was girl, I see it in the table next to me. Give me that one. Cause they're two different color like lids usually usually like one's red and one's green.
Arabella: Yeah, exactly.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. So that's a really big hack, I will say. I'm very much basic with mine. It's usually dynamite in California. And then I always do a mango roll, which is
Arabella: I love it.
Rutha Berhane: I'm gonna honest with you, I love it, but some places make it with mango puree at the top, which is just pure sugar at the end of the day. So I only opt for like one roll of it. Usually it's like five or six pieces and they're like tiny, so it's like what, like whatever. But the soy sauce is where I always tell people cool it or go on the low sodium option because sodium plays such a big roll that people don't really like to understand that, especially because the day-to-day person, even on a fitness. Journey is not tracking their sodium intake. So once you're not doing that and you're sometimes just under consuming sodium to begin with, and you go get sushi and you're just consuming so much soy sauce the next day you're gonna wake up puffy, like whatever, and you're gonna correlate it. Yeah.
Arabella: You're gonna feel like a water buffalo after that. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: So correlating that with the free meal is gonna happen, and then you're gonna say, I'm never gonna go to get sushi again because it makes me feel like this, like whatever. So that's a big one that I tell people to be careful. Yeah.
Arabella: More so just your choices rather than the sushi itself. Totally. Totally. I do love a dynamite roll too, but again, I just try to typically avoid the deep fried stuff. But I'm definitely a simple sushi girl
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, that's the right that's tip for I think.
Arabella: rather than like those fancy rolls. You know how every restaurant has like their their plain simple rolls and then they have their fancy rolls that are always more expensive. Specialty. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. They're specialty rolls, yeah. Yeah.
Arabella: We're always crazy combos.
Rutha Berhane: Some of those are diabolical 'cause those sometimes they'll fry the whole roll.
Arabella: Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: And then cut it until the whole roll is fried. And I'm just like, absolutely not. Like that, I knowingly cannot consume that. Yeah.
Arabella: Yeah. And packed with so many different sauces. Yeah. The mango rolls I do love as well though, but I agree with you. I don't love the puree that they sometimes put on top.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. That one's a little bit sus. But we do see a lot of people automatically do assume that as much as we love sushi, that they automatically assume that sushi's super healthy or some have the complete opposite outlook at it, where they don't think of sushi as a free or cheat meal. and it can go both ways, right? But it really at the end of the day, like we said, depends on what you're choosing and what you're consuming because at the end of the day any food can be a bad or good consumption you know what I mean so it at the end of the day it comes down to you but tracking roles is very easy when it comes to roles that are not deep fried or this and that and I always tell people like my taste buds are not graduated to adult yet so I cannot eat sashimi but for people who can I think that is the best option when it comes to sushi where they can get the salmon on top of there because you're getting a shit ton of protein from your sashimi. Okay. That's a big thing.
Arabella: You're so funny. My my taste buds haven't graduated to adults. You I fear
Rutha Berhane: I'm such a bitch. Like I literally could not put that in my mouth.
Arabella: you just have not had good sushimi.
Rutha Berhane: No, it's just I can't like the texture, Bella. Like it's disgusting. It's disgusting.
Arabella: You have not had good sushimi. When you have
Rutha Berhane: How do you eat that?
Arabella: when you have good sushimi, like really fresh fish, it melts in your mouth.
Rutha Berhane: That's the worst part. Why is something melting in my mouth and it's raw? Pause. Sorry.
Arabella: Yeah. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Sorry, it was just too much at once. I know.
Arabella: Why is something?
Rutha Berhane: Dead ass though, like like that's awful. I don't want something melting in my mouth and it's raw something. Like that's nasty. And I had I've I've tried some and it's just like
Arabella: What about chocolate melting in your mouth?
Rutha Berhane: that's different. First of all, it's going from solid to not. Wait. Don't compare those.
Arabella: When something melts in your mouth it's good. Like when somebody is talking
Rutha Berhane: But K
Arabella: about a giving a food review and they're like, it melts in your mouth, like that means it's really good.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, no, I'm not to no, but quite literally sashimi sometimes dissolves in your mouth if it's like high quality, like whatever, but steak also melts in your mouth if it's like tender or whatever. But you're cooking it.
Arabella: Yeah, you want fake and milk in your mouth. You don't want it to be smoothy ass fake.
Rutha Berhane: It's seared. At least it's seared, if it's like ev even like blue rare, it's seared.
Arabella: Hey, what about post Tsushimi, where they like bring out that gun thing and like blast it?
Rutha Berhane: okay. I'll think about that one. I've had seared sushi, like where only the top portion of the salmon's like seared, but there's such
Arabella: Yeah, that's what I mean. You know, when they bring that gun to the table and they like
Rutha Berhane: Yeah, but if the sashimi's too thick, then I don't believe in that. Because if i if if it's the you know what? Why am I explaining myself to you here? I don't like it. I paused.
Arabella: I fear Manitoba Sushimi is just not up to par.
Rutha Berhane: Cause Calgary Sashimi is hey.
Arabella: Yeah, Calgary has good sushi. It's not Vancouver sushi. But also mind you I did not grow up on Calgary sushi.
Rutha Berhane: You've been everywhere so you should know. Is Houston or Dallas sushi better?
Arabella: Houston sushi is really good 'cause it's right by the ocean, yeah.
Rutha Berhane: You eat raw tuna, don't you? On your sushi.
Arabella: in a tuna roll, is it cooked? I don't think
Rutha Berhane: Is it? I don't know. I've never had
Arabella: so.
Rutha Berhane: Okay. See that's like the sashimi that's like tuna. Cause sashimi just means what? raw?
Arabella: Sushi sushi means just raw fish, yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Okay, so raw tuna as as well. There's salmon tuna and like eel or whatever.
Arabella: So so you probably don't like beef carpaccio or like tuna tataki or anything like that then, hey?
Rutha Berhane: You like you like beef tartare, don't you?
Arabella: No, I don't like beef tartar. Because I don't like the
Rutha Berhane: Why is that? Doesn't it melt in your mouth?
Arabella: texture thing.
Rutha Berhane: But it melts in your mouth?
Arabella: Yeah. Rutha does not like sushimi, but sushimi is one of the cleanest options you can order. It's just straight protein. So that's definitely always an option I recommend to anyone who wants to enjoy themselves, but also wants to be able to track or somewhat stay on track. It's very easy to track, you know, three, four, five pieces of sushimi, whatever you're having, and it's just straight protein. And then if you're pairing that with the low sodium soy sauce, keeping your sodium intake to a minimum, that is probably the best option you can get. and even if you like order a side of rice to have with that sushimi, then you can just roughly track the amount of rice that you're having, and that way you're still going out to the restaurant, you're still enjoying yourself partaking in the meal, but you're not stressed about over consuming calories.
Rutha Berhane: Mm-hmm. Word. Word.
Arabella: And another great option at sushi restaurants, honestly, Japanese is like one of the best or easiest meals to stay on track with if you are expecting to eat out. Like going
Rutha Berhane: Like the job
Arabella: to a Japanese restaurant because sushimi Edamame is what I was gonna say. Really great. High protein well, Edamame is like I would say medium protein. I wouldn't call it like high protein, but The protein does add up if you're like just sitting there snacking on edamame
Rutha Berhane: Mm.
Arabella: and then miso soup as well, it's gonna fill you up for basically no calories.
Rutha Berhane: Another good one is cream barbecue.
Arabella: Yes. Mine
Rutha Berhane: The ones where you're making you're grilling yourself. Sorry. Sorry, yes. Let
Arabella: Yes. But
Rutha Berhane: me just make that clear.
Arabella: I will I will say with cream barbecue, all of their meats come in a marinade, right? So
Rutha Berhane: Mm, not all. It depends
Arabella: I would say majority.
Rutha Berhane: it depends what you choose. A a lot of them will, but like you can have options of like literally like plain like chicken breast and this and that and then you get the sauces like with it to like the marinate or like whatever.
Arabella: Okay.
Rutha Berhane: So those ones are the ones I'm talking about. Not the pre marinated ones, yeah.
Arabella: But yeah, just avoid the premarinated ones because the sodium
Rutha Berhane: That's full sugar sauces.
Arabella: full sugar sauces, so higher calorie, high sodium. So even though you may think you're just consuming protein, you are not, and you're gonna feel like a water buffalo the next day after that too. But otherwise, yeah, cream barbecue is just like a sugary
Rutha Berhane: Bag of milk, perhaps?
Arabella: protein. Every time I go for a cream barbecue, I swear I walk away eating like three hundred grams of protein in one sitting.
Rutha Berhane: It's so worth the money, guys. So
Arabella: Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: worth the money. I don't care if it's 50, 60 bucks, you can out you can out-eat the price. Mm-hmm.
Arabella: Well, just go for all you can eat. Yes. Totally. And it's so fun too. It's like a fun group experience, you know?
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. I kind of forget that the group's there. When I see like so much protein like on a thing, like pff don't even talk to me for like a good hour. Sorry.
Arabella: Rutha is just locked in. Locked in.
Rutha Berhane: You have to understand that you can really like out eat the price. When that's locked in, you're on a mission, right? Especially when it comes to chicken. Cause that's a topic for another time. But yeah, especially chicken, you can yeah, that's easy work.
Arabella: Totally. Yeah. I going back to sushi, one more thing I will say about sushi. if you are in prep or on a strict cut, there is one I don't wouldn't call it a trick, one approach tactic that I have used before and it is somewhat more restricting, but what you can do is just order super simple rolls like A cucumber roll, a tuna roll, salmon roll, avocado roll, something that only has like one part to it, and then you bring a little mini little food scale and you deconstruct it, and then you just weigh out whatever the component of the sushi roll is and weigh out the rice in that one piece of sushi and then multiply that by how many pieces of sushi are in the roll, so like Always six or eight, and then track it. That way, that's gonna be like the easiest way to be a hundred percent on point with tracking sushi. Otherwise, just search up like a California roll or like a tuna roll or whatever you're ordering in my fitness pal. Is it gonna be bang on? No, but at least then you're close enough, you're still being somewhat intentional with the meal that you're ordering and not just completely free-fralling it. But again, there's a time and a place for that. Definitely not saying to do that all the time. Time and a place. Yeah. I've
Rutha Berhane: Not all the time, no, like that's crazy work, but
Arabella: only done that one time and it was when I was like in a stricter cutting phase. So yeah.
Rutha Berhane: When you have like macros on prep too though, that's like a very good thing you can work with 'cause at the end of the day it's
Arabella: Exactly.
Rutha Berhane: basically raw ingredients of rice and cucumber and like let's like raw tuna or like salmon. So you're really not deviating because you can make that at home. So yeah.
Arabella: Exactly. Exactly. So it's just a nice way to be able to still go out to the sushi restaurant, like enjoy a night out with friends or date night or whatever and still stay fully on plan and not have to bring your meal prep to the restaurant. Now moving on to our last one of the episode. Of course, we have many, many guilty pleasure foods, but these are just some common ones that we picked out that we have on a daily basis. So our favorite,
Rutha Berhane: Our favorite. Our favorite, some could say.
Arabella: you guys see this on my Instagram every single day too. A fully loaded yogurt bowl. This is probably the best way to satisfy your sweet treat cravings, aside from the ninja creami.
Rutha Berhane: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Arabella: It's high protein. You can get creative with it. Like you can put basically whatever you're craving into this yogurt bowl, make it super, super fun. Literally romanticize it. Like I will always do obviously Greek yogurt based, so like 200 grams of Greek yogurt or Skyr yogurt works as well. And then fruit. I love putting like every single fruit in there, like berries, pineapple, banana, obviously
Rutha Berhane: Blueberries. Sorry.
Arabella: So what?
Rutha Berhane: Blueberries.
Arabella: yeah, I said berries. We love blueberries, raspberries,
Rutha Berhane: And love. I just want to emphasize.
Arabella: like all of the above peaches, kiwis, obviously
Rutha Berhane: Mm.
Arabella: whatever fits your macros,
Rutha Berhane: Isn't it?
Arabella: and then a little sweet treat of some sort, so granola granola or A recent discovery I've made is those Nature Valley granola bars, the crunchy ass ones that like break everywhere. Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: the dust ones where you open them and it's everywhere. I like those. Yeah.
Arabella: Those actually have better macros, like you get more volume than
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: a bag of granola. So since they're already crumbled up, I'm like, okay, may as well put this on my yogurt bowl because they taste phenomenal. Like that is probably some of the best granola I've ever had. So I don't know why they don't just put that into a bag at this point. Like, why are we still trying with these bars?
Rutha Berhane: page. That's a business idea right there for ya.
Arabella: Nature Valley has their granola, like bags of granola too though, but it's just it's not the same. It's not the same, so Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah. Loaded bowls are the best, especially when it comes to having them pre workout. And you can obviously play around and make them pre workout friendly. Just the only reason I say pre workout friendly is we do know that you don't want to consume too many fats pre workout so that you're not like things are not sitting as heavy because you are consuming a lot of carbs in your pre meal, unless you're in prep sometimes it can get pretty gnarly, but for a pre-workout, we've heard of the famous because they're all bowls, right? But we've always heard of the bloat bowls that came from a influencer/slash bodybuilder on TikTok. Mud bowls.
Arabella: Hey, hey, hey, you're stealing my mud bowls. I I coin the mud bowl.
Rutha Berhane: I was not good. The mud bowl I was gonna leave for you. Way drip or rice crispy cereal with like honey and like toppings on there with a certain amount of fats in there and just not too many. Cause in my
Arabella: Yes.
Rutha Berhane: yogurt bowls, I do consume more fats in those because I have it before bed, if like anything, because I'm somebody that needs to sleep post eating a fatty meal because that's where I find that I sleep better. But for pre-workout, less fat, more carbs. Yeah.
Arabella: Yes. Definitely conk you out for the night because they slow down digestion. But yeah, we want to avoid heavy fats pre and post workout because you obviously don't want to slow down the digestion pre and post workout. But honestly, have your yogurt bowl like before bed or as meal one and then have Rutha mentioned the bloat bowl or I like to call them mud bowls pre workout. So cream of rice. with whey drip and fruit and dark chocolate or peanut butter or almond butter. It's literally dessert in a bowl. And if you're not on the cream of rice train yet, you need to be ASAP and if you tell me you don't like
Rutha Berhane: So guys.
Arabella: it, you're probably just cooking it wrong. So give her another go. Like there's so many fun flavors you can get. Literally between all of the cream of rice brands these days, like there's every flavor under the sun at this point, I swear. And
Rutha Berhane: And there's some nasty ones too. Let me tell you that. Yuck.
Arabella: There's some bad ones. Elev8 Elev8 shameless plug, code Bella the best cream of rice on the market.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: cookies and cream is my top flavor. It has Oreo pieces in it. So if you're craving Oreos, that is an amazing way to satisfy your cravings. But yeah. The whole point of this is that like these foods that you think are like treat foods or cheat foods or bad foods, they aren't. It's just about making these foods fit into your macros for the day. And say you're craving a cookie. Okay, well, how about you have a cookie in your yogurt bowl instead of granola? So just make that substitution because I'm sure a lot of the time you'd rather have a cookie than granola. It's just more fun. So make that swap, track it, and then move on with your day. You're satisfied the craving, you're not restricting yourself, and you're actually enjoying your meals. I would say the biggest issue is when you force yourself to eat these meals that you don't actually enjoy, that you don't love, and then you just end up wanting something different and then you go eat it anyways. Versus if you had just satisfied that craving and ate something you actually enjoyed in the first place, then you wouldn't be constantly stuck in this like restrict overeat cycle.
Rutha Berhane: Hundred percent. Hundred percent. Not everything has to be boring and just irritating as hell to eat unless you're in a phase where that needs to be happening. because I don't know how you're gonna make asparagus and beef taste good after a certain point if you have no seasonings. But when you're in a point in your journey where you just can play around with things, take the opportunity to do so because it's not worth it to kind of be miserable year round in the hopes that a goal will happen. Because regardless of how you're approaching things in a fun way or a very strict and unenjoyable way, the results will still happen. So why not take the enjoyable route?
Arabella: Totally, because that is the sustainable route. That's what's gonna allow you to make progress and sustain that progress and continue making progress. And also live your life because life is short and it's too short to be saying no to your favorite foods all the time.
Rutha Berhane: Way too short. You'll always hear a yes come out of my my mouth. I actually need to start saying no. Because if somebody text Hey, frozen yogurt, yeah. Actually I can sense it. Yep. Yeah, yeah. All you can eat only. All you can eat only, guys.
Arabella: Yeah. Ice cream yep. Sushi? Yep. Yeah. You don't yeah. No, you don't have to ask me. even if I have zero dollars in my bank account. Yep.
Rutha Berhane: Exactly. I'm going. I'm going. For sushi, girl, don't even I'm actually Jeff Bezos that day. For sushi, that's fine. But yeah. those
Arabella: Yes. Always, always, always, but yeah.
Rutha Berhane: are some of our favorite hacks and also like things that we do year round. Like we do these things on a daily basis because we find it enjoyable. It's not a hassle for us and it helps us reach our goal regardless.
Arabella: Mm-hmm. Yes, exactly. And that is the most important thing at the end of the day. So remember, incorporating these fun foods, like having a little bit more flexibility in your diet is not a weakness. It's what makes your diet actually sustainable and these foods you love are not the enemy.
Rutha Berhane: Hundred percent, hundred percent.
Arabella: I mean
Rutha Berhane: And please do let us know down the comments, whatever it is, your guilty pleasure foods or certain things that you do that aren't as popular or are popular that help you hit your goals the same way, but are such a fun way to put a twist into your day to day meals so that it's not boring and plain and the same every single day.
Arabella: Yeah.
Rutha Berhane: Yeah.
Arabella: We wanna hear your guilty pleasure foods and hopefully you got some value and tips and tricks out of this episode and we will chat to y'all next week.
Rutha Berhane: Have a beautiful day.
Arabella: Bye.
