Carrie Underwood Swears by These 7 Healthy Eating Tricks
Carrie Underwood has admitted that her genes play no part in her toned physique. Find out how she eats to both satisfy her hunger and maintain her hot bod.
Overview
To say Carrie Underwood has been busy since she won Season 4 of "American Idol" would be a massive understatement. Since 2005, she's released five albums, headlined five tours and won seven Grammy awards. Still, the 35-year-old country singer makes time to work out like a pro and live a healthy lifestyle. She even has her own fitness line and never misses an opportunity to talk about her diet. And while we can't tell you exactly how to become a country music superstar, read on to find out how you can eat like one.
1. Eat Veggies Morning, Noon and Night
Carrie Underwood follows a strictly vegetarian diet, allowing for some egg whites and cheese once in a while. In an interview with LIVESTRONG.COM, Underwood revealed exactly what she eats in a day. "For breakfast, I love to make myself a tofu scramble with chopped peppers, onions, some salsa and toast," she said. At lunch, she gets a boost of energy from a protein-packed sandwich: "I use vegetarian meat and avocado to fill me up." She noshes on healthy snacks along the way (more on that later), and then ends her day with, you guessed it, more vegetables. "I'm always roasting vegetables, making sweet potatoes, veggie burgers or spaghetti squash," she said. Healthy and delicious!
2. Know Your Food Source
While Underwood eats a mostly-vegan diet, she admits that she'll occasionally break it when she comes face-to-face with birthday cake. Even those of us who choose to eat animal products can learn from her reasoning for going vegan. "My veganism is based on a concern about where my food is coming from," she told Self. "In my perfect world, I'd have webcams wherever food is processed so I'd know how clean it is."
That may sound extreme, but Underwood is onto something. "If I could raise my own cows and chickens and produce my own eggs and cheese, it would be awesome," she explained to Self. "The food would taste better because the animals would be happy." Still skeptical? Animal husbandry research has proven that stress-free animals produce tastier meat.
Read more: 21 Foods to Buy Organic (Even If You're on a Budget!)
3. Track Your Meals
In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Underwood admitted that she can chow down like a champ. "I've kept a food journal forever, since I'm a bottomless pit, and I can out-eat everyone I know," she confessed. Relate much? "Once I recognized that about myself, I started tracking my diet, which helps me make better choices and pay attention to what I'm eating," she explained. And since this is the 21st century, Underwood has ditched the pen and paper. "Now I do [calorie tracking] with the LIVESTRONG.COM MyPlate app, which is great with nutrition info for restaurant meals," she told Self.
The MyPlate app helps determine and track how many calories you need to eat in a day to achieve your goal weight — whether you'd like to maintain, gain or lose pounds — all while on the go. There are also useful graphs to help visualize your macronutrient intake.
Read more: 9 Recipes That Are Way Better With an Egg on Top
4. Stock Up on Good-for-You Frozen Foods
Underwood likes to start her mornings with fruit, oatmeal or healthy cereal (sans milk, oddly enough). As mentioned, she'll often make herself a protein-packed tofu scramble with chopped onions and peppers. But on mornings when she's short on time — which, let's face it, is probably pretty often with a 3-year-old son in the mix — she'll munch on a microwaveable breakfast burrito. "I like the ones from Amy's, and I recently tried a new vegan chorizo one I liked," she told Cosmopolitan.
Read more: These Are the Best and Worst Frozen Foods
5. Cook Your Meals at Home
Sure, takeout can be fast and convenient, but Underwood would rather stick to home-cooked meals — and for good reason. "We hardly ever [get] takeout or eat out because I don't like to," she told Cosmopolitan. "It's not that I'm an amazing chef — I stick to the basics like roasted veggies and stir-fries — but I like knowing what's in my food, and it's hard to tell when someone else makes it for you."
Science backs up her claim: A study by the International Association for the Study of Obesity found that eating out was associated with higher calorie and fat consumption and lower micronutrient intake. When you cook your meals, you control what goes into them as well as the portion size, setting you up for success. What's more, a 2018 study found that eating out exposes diners to hormone-disrupting chemicals known as phthalates.
Read more: 13 Meal-Prep Hacks to Save Time in the Kitchen
6. Do Healthy Snack Prep
Celebrity snack demands can get ridiculous, but not for Underwood. She packs her own to keep herself in check. "I do not eat catering," she told UsMagazine.com.
"I have a refrigerator on the bus, and when we're in a decent town that has a decent grocery store, I just go and stock up. My off days on the road are spent doing laundry and buying groceries." Some of her favorite go-to snacks? English muffins with peanut butter, No Cow Bars and green smoothies.
Read more: The Impossible Burger Can Change the Planet
7. Decrease Sodium Intake
You'll probably be relieved to learn that Underwood doesn't have that unbelievably flat tummy 24/7. Instead, she uses a secret technique to slim down just before appearances and photo shoots. "If I'm looking to trim down, I'll definitely cut sodium. I feel like that's one thing that's really overlooked in a lot of people's diets," she told Glamour. "If you have something coming up this weekend that's really important, you'd be amazed how much flatter your stomach will be and how you can lean out by cutting sodium."
We've all heard that too much sodium causes bloating, but is that really true? It turns out that our bodies need small amounts of sodium every day for proper cell functioning, nutrient absorption and water retention. But, yes, too much sodium can cause you to retain extra water, resulting in temporary weight gain. To avoid bloating, keep your sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams (or one teaspoon of salt) a day.
Read more: 8 Facts That Will Make You Rethink Salt's Bad Rap
What Do YOU Think?
Are you going to try any of Underwood's healthy eating habits? How do you make sure you're eating healthy and nutritious food? Share in the comments section!