A PE teacher has shared the exact breakfast and lunch she prepares for work each day to stay in shape year-round.
Fit Gold Coast mum Belinda Norton, 43, said she swears by eating at 9.15am, 11.30am and then again at 3pm in order to stay full throughout the working day.
Belinda fills her breakfast and lunch boxes with plenty of fruit, veg, protein and wholemeal carbohydrates in order to enjoy balanced meals.
Fit mum and PE teacher Belinda Norton (pictured) has shared the exact breakfast and lunch she prepares for work each day to stay in shape year-round
Belinda fills her breakfast and lunchbox with plenty of fruit, veg, protein and wholemeal carbohydrates in order to enjoy balanced meals (pictured is how she eats at work)
‘Today’s breakfast and work lunchbox includes oats with blueberries and peanut butter on almond milk, a small almond double shot coffee and two glasses of water first thing,’ Belinda wrote on Facebook.
‘I have a jar of Fit Mama muesli and coconut yoghurt with raspberry and a second coffee at 9.15am,’ she added.
This second breakfast usually follows some form of HIIT or resistance training, where Belinda needs to refuel and replenish afterwards.
‘Lunch is at 11.30am and is a salad with tuna and chilli jam with more water,’ Belinda said.
At around 3pm, the mum also has a snack of a carrot or some rice cakes with peanut butter and a banana, along with another glass of water.
Dinner is teriyaki salmon tacos with salad.
Speaking to FEMAIL, Belinda said the most important thing with your foods you take to work is that you make sure you have some plant-based foods, some raw crunch (like carrots or mini cucumbers) and plenty of protein.
‘I like to have fresh berries for antioxidants and also plenty of raw crunch and raw nut butters,’ Belinda told Daily Mail Australia.
‘The most important thing to think about with everything is your portion size. Your fist is the ideal measuring cup, while for kids a portion is their fist size.’
Belinda also hydrates with only water or coconut water, outside of her daily coffees.
Belinda (pictured) said the most important thing with foods you take to work is you make sure you have plant-based foods, some raw crunch (like carrots or cucumbers) and protein
Belinda has made a name for herself in the fitness community for looking better in her 40s than she did in her 20s.
She did this by tweaking her exercise from solely cardio to a mixture of cardio and resistance-based work, alongside eating more healthy fats and proteins.
Belinda said she barely recognised her body after piling on 20 kilograms over two pregnancies, before she overhauled her diet and exercise regime and got in shape.
Belinda has made a name for herself in the fitness community for looking better in her 40s than she did in her 20s (pictured now)
She slowly and steadily moved from 80 kilos to her current weight of 62 kilos by tweaking her diet and exercise (pictured before and after)
While the mum said she was guilty of ‘making excuses’ around food and exercise when she first became a mother, she also said a comment from her then-husband prompted her to get her body back on track.
When he showed her a photo of a toned woman, she said she wished she could look like that and he told her no matter what she did, she never could look like that.
‘That was the sentence that lit a fire in my belly,’ Belinda told FEMAIL.
‘Doubters have always spurred me on.’
Belinda (pictured) also did this by setting up a food regime, correcting her fitness and geting consistent and goal-focused
And so, the full-time physical education teacher used her knowledge of sports and nutrition to develop a way of eating and exercising that fit into her schedule as a busy mum.
‘The steps I followed were pretty straightforward,’ the author of Fit Mama said.
‘Step 1: I set a food regime. Step 2: I corrected my fitness. Step 3: I was consistent and goal-focused. And Step 4: I included personal rewards, such as a facial or a massage – not chocolate.’
Belinda said that ‘being truthful’ with herself was hard at first, but gradually over the course of a year, her body started changing shape.
‘Within 20 weeks of eating healthily and exercising three or four times a week, people noticed differences in my skin, energy and mood,’ she said.
‘Then, the body changes came too.’
She slowly and steadily moved from 80 kilos to her current weight of 62 kilos.