Before Rosey Edeh, 44, became a reporter for ET Canada, the former college track star represented Canada in three Olympic Games. Now her athleticism helps her race between movie premieres and airports.
My goal
"To always keep my level of endurance and strength high; I used to run 400-metre hurdles and now I love running 5K and 10K races for charity."
My workout
"I copy my old coach's workouts, but I don't worry about speed. I have a Nautilus combination system at home where you turn the keys to have anywhere from five to 50 pounds in your hands, so I do two to three exercises per body part, two days a week. And I do a lot of circuit training, so I might do lunges with some weights, stop, and give legs a break and do bench press or even push-ups, and then go back to lunges, and then back to push-ups. For core, I do crunches with a five-kilo medicine ball. Realizing cross training gives my body a break, six years ago I added the elliptical machine or the recumbent bike to my cardio workouts, which are about 40 minutes, five days a week."
My lifestyle
"Sometimes my workout isn't always in the morning because I may have an early shoot and have to be on the road at 7 in the morning, so then I do it when I get back. When I travel for junkets, as I just did to London for the new Harry Potter movie, I use the hotel gym. When you're tired, [the convenience of a hotel gym]helps the time go by. I don't feel like, 'Uh, I just got off this eight-hour flight, now I gotta workout.' "
My motivation
"People older than me who are focused, live healthy lifestyles and look great for their age. And I still get motivated by athletes of the winter and summer Olympics."
My anthem
"Janelle Monae's Locked Inside."
My challenge
"Eating properly. For example, in the mornings I have a green tea, a can of salmon and a banana. In the afternoons, I get distracted with last-minute packing so I may not have a meal, but I snack on nuts. In the evening, when I take a flight, I have fish on the plane - I don't eat red meat or chicken. Or sometimes I drink Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer in water. But sometimes I miss dinner. Just before seeing Harry Potter, I had to get on the bus to screen the movie, and when I got to the theatre, there was nothing to eat, then I saw a Starbucks and got a soy hot chocolate no whip, extra hot, and they had irresistible shortbread cookies, so baby, baby, I just had to go to town."
The critique
Pack portable protein
Alexis Williams, sports dietitian with Transition Health, often hears athletes' dining dilemmas and recommends Ms. Edeh pack protein-rich meals that travel. "Beans, legumes, edamame and dry-roasted soy nuts would help Rosey get more protein; she could enhance her intake of iron by consuming combinations of pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dried apricots and dates; take bags of raw vegetables; and make whole-grain wraps with nut butter or canned fish."
Divide meals into thirds
Ms. Williams, who also holds an International Olympic Committee diploma in sports nutrition, suggests Ms. Edeh train her mind to eat at regular intervals, and offers a diet formula to better control blood sugar, maintain a high metabolism and achieve fitness goals. "An easy way for active people to meet nutritional needs is having three meals a day and dividing nutrients: one-third carbs/starch, one-third veggies and one-third protein."
Special to The Globe and Mail