CrossFit South Bend

This video is the first in a series of videos discussing what CFSB coaches eat. In this video we sit down with Coach Andrew to discuss what he eats on a regular basis.

Andrew just graduated from Notre Dame, he’s getting married this summer, and he’s starting a new career. He’s also an all around bad-ass in the gym, and he’s got a super cool coach edition shirt with a sword on the back, which is pretty awesome.

In this video we talk about:
-what Andrew typically eats
-what he grew up eating
-his favorite off-plan items
-how he navigates social situations
-how to eat healthy while in school

Andrew, it’s been a pleasure having you here at the gym, and we wish you all the best in the future!

Robby:             Hey guys. Robby here from Crossfit South Bend. Today I’m here with Andrew and we are going to be talking about Andrew and food. And this is actually going to be the first in a coach series about how coaches deal with nutrition and eating and all the rest of this stuff. By the way, rocking the Andrew signature series shirt.

Andrew:           Shameless plug.

Robby:             It’s got a sword on the back. How many shirts do you know with a sword on the back? Cop it, if you don’t have it yet.

Alright, so what are we going to talk about today? So, first thing I want to talk about is, what was food like for you growing up?

Andrew:           Food for me growing up, I’m thinking my mom did most of the cooking around the house and she cooked pretty well ’cause she actually had celiac disease so she was gluten free for the most part. But that does not mean that when I came home in middle school I didn’t throw, like, eight chicken breasts from Tyson in the oven everyday. So there was definitely that mixture of pretty healthy when she was cooking but then, you know, there was plenty of the friend foods and Chick-fil-A all the time.

Robby:             Okay. So what’s food like for you now? So you’re a college student about to graduate, give us a typical breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Andrew:           Yeah, and this is something I’m kind of working through. This school year is actually the first that I was preparing my meals and kind of figuring that out for myself. So right now my typical breakfast looks like is, I’ll just cook some eggs and I’ll have some toast with some jelly on it, get some carbs in there. And that’s typically about it and then a [inaudible 00:02:00] and coffee. If I’m pressed for time I’ll do, like, some kind of shake just with Greek yogurt, protein and then throw some fruit in there. But that’s typically all I’m working with in the morning, and I kind of have to force myself sometimes.

Robby:             Okay. How about lunch and dinner?

Andrew:           Lunch and dinner, shamelessly, it is chicken and rice all day every day and I’m about as sick of that right now as I possibly could be. But I do a lot of crock pot chicken. I’m the terrible cook as you can probably tell from me saying this. But lots of shredded chicken, rice and trying to figure out how to do some other stuff.

Robby:             Okay, so we have a lot of college students here, you know, you’ve been through the ringer living on campus and being off campus. Talk about some stuff you’ve run into, some things you’ve learned. Like, is it even possible to eat some of the things in the dining halls and things like that?

Andrew:           I think a lot of it is the social pressures around it, and just what is the norm? Now, us crossfitters, we’re probably not fitting into the norm most anyway, but when you’re around people it’s a lot of alcohol and a lot of bad eating. It’s late night pizza. It’s just the norm. So that’s what the biggest challenge is for me, is kind of drawing that line, saying, “I have to do things differently so I don’t fall into that.”

But it certainly is possible. And if you’re eating dining hall, you eat like cattle. It’s like anything you need just go and it’s fuel and none of it tastes good. So I just had the healthy stuff. And obviously they’re not always cooking it in the healthiest ways, but you can still get your rice, your chicken, your veggies, and it’s actually quite easy in the dining hall setting.

Once you move off, as I did, and kind of go off the meal plan, got a little bit tougher because I’m starting to prepare. And so that’s kind of what I mentioned working through is, you know, preparing with my Tupperware and having my shredded chicken and having my rice and, you know, my broccoli whenever I can. But it just takes a little more preparation once you get away from that meal plan kind of setup.

Robby:             Okay. So tell us a bit about nutritional off-roading. So of your favorite, you know, what are your top three favorite, like, I don’t care about health, I don’t care about [crosstalk 00:04:11] I just want to have a Caracas milkshake or what have you.

Andrew:           So no matter how tough of that I’m following, I can’t say no to Chick-fil-A. Like, that is my thing. And I’ve just recently been able to make the switch to grilled sandwiches and that is a huge thing for me. So if there’s an excuse to eat Chick-fil-A, I’m there and it just goes down well with sweet tea. And it’s just a bomb. And so that’s like, just, let it go. Do that. And then if I can, you know, stay away from the Chick-fil-A and then if I’m going, like, the candy route I’m all about any kind of sour Gummies. And that’s just, like … That’s tough. That is temptation, that is temptation.

Robby:             Have you ever had the, not that I’ve ever had them before, ever had the chocolate cookies at Chick-fil-A?

Andrew:           Oh, they’re incredible. They come in bags of six.

Robby:             Yes. That’s a mistake. How about any, like, food holidays? Special, you know, things with your family these days? Anything like Thanksgiving, anything that your Mom cooks or anything like that, that you really enjoy?

Andrew:           Favorite thing about going home is having the nice grill they kind of work on. So I do a lot of grilled meats. Chicken thighs are, like, my favorite thing ever. So I eat a lot of grilled chicken thighs and do any kind of veggies with those. But probably my favorite thing that my mom makes whenever I go home is, like, these zucchini boats that she does. So she hollows out the zucchini, puts it in a food processor with cauliflower and ground beef or turkey, mixes it all up in there, throws it back into the zucchini and then bakes it. And it’s my favorite thing. So on a good day we’ve got that going and I’ll eat on that, you know, whenever I’m home. So that, like, that’s a good day.

Robby:             That sounds pretty awesome. So one of things we want to do with this series is try to help give people advice about how to deal with different struggles that they’ve been through with food and, you know, especially in your case with college. If you were talking to someone, I don’t know, maybe coming in fall, 2018 to Notre Dame. And, you know, it’s obviously not going to be completely going to be [inaudible 00:06:23]. It’s not even going to be close to that for the most part. But just, like, little things you could do, or they could do to kind of help keep them healthy. What advice would you give to, like, an incoming freshman to stay healthy?

Andrew:           Most times just plan. Plan out your meals and know that there’re going to be times when you want to go get pizza with your best friends, like, and I would encourage you, go do that, that’s an experience. But it’s just planning that. And if you can have a good meal, have a good meal. So it’s just kind of taking those opportunities when, you know, if it’s not a big deal, like, there’s no reason for you not to be eating what you should. So it’s just making sure you put parameters around that, so that you’re not just kind of saying, you know, “C’est la vie” at all times.

And that’s something that I work on, too, is just making sure. It’s, like, okay, well, if I’m going to go get pizza on Wednesday night, that means I better be crisp the rest of the week. And that’s sometimes a struggle.

Robby:             Gotcha. I think that’s good advice. And that’s one of the things we talk about in our nutrition coaching program is, like, you know, not every day is a special occasion.

Andrew:           Yes.

Robby:             Yeah, so it’s just kind of finding those ones that are legit special occasions and then enjoying yourself. Alright, guys, so first in the series here of nutrition coaching videos. Just want to give you guys a sense of what the coaches do here. Again, it’s got a sword on the back. If you don’t have the shirt yet, go get it.

Andrew, thank you so much for joining us today. Appreciate it.

Andrew:           Thank you, Robby.

Robby:             Guys, thanks so much for tuning in. See you next time.