- Katrin Davidsdottir is a
CrossFit athlete and onetime 'fittest woman on Earth.' - She shared her daily
diet with Insider, which involves the same breakfast and lunch every day. - Davidsdottir trains twice a day, five days a week, and aims for 8-9 hours of sleep every night.
Katrin Davidsdottir wants to reclaim her title as "Fittest Woman on Earth."
The Icelandic athlete won the CrossFit Games in 2015 and 2016, but Tia-Clair Toomey has held the crown ever since - with Davidsdottir finishing second in 2020.
As the 2021 games draw near, Davidsdottir is dialing in her
Davidsdottir eats the same breakfast and lunch every day
Describing herself as "very much a routine person," Davidsdottir eats the same breakfast and lunch every day but is more flexible with her dinners - which always include a carb source, vegetables, and usually chicken or fish but occasionally red meat.
"I'm not a huge fan of red meat, but I'm trying to get more of it into my diet because I'm low on iron," she told Insider.
Breakfast:
- Cinnamon and raisin bagel with butter, cream cheese, honey, and a fried egg
- Oat milk latte
- Green protein smoothie made from powdered greens, turmeric, ginger, lemon, cinnamon, protein powder, kale, mango, and raspberries
During training:
- Carbohydrate powder shaken into water
Lunch:
- Chopped cabbage, peppers, and apples sautéed in coconut oil before adding in egg whites, cinnamon, and salt, all topped with cranberries and sunflower seeds
- Oatmeal
- Coconut mocha iced coffee
Dinner:
- Salmon or chicken served with sweet potatoes or rice and a salad
Before bed:
- Steamed light oat milk with vanilla and a scoop of Beam CBD Dream powder.
"It gets so frothy and creamy, and I look forward to it every night," Davidsdottir said of her nighttime beverage. "That's when I start winding down, just sit on the couch, get off my phone, and watch something."
Davidsdottir's current diet is a far cry from how she used to eat during her early years in CrossFit when she followed a paleo diet and cut out carbs. After working with a nutritionist, however, she said she developed a healthier relationship with food.
Davidsdottir trains twice a day, five times a week
Davidsdottir is now about to ramp up her training in preparation for this summer's CrossFit Games, but a normal week involves training twice a day Monday through Friday and resting on the weekends.
She arrives at the gym at around 8.30 A.M. and starts the day warming up and stretching.
Currently training with a team of athletes, Davidsdottir's first
"It's interval work like running, rowing, biking, very monostructural, followed by something that I'm focusing on," she said.
At the moment, that focus is muscle-ups, which are like a pull-up but one step further, requiring you to pull your hips up to meet your hands on the bar (or rings) and then straighten your arms.
"I'm finally getting places with my muscle-ups," Davidsdottir said, "I've been working so hard on them for six years."
Then it's a half hour team meeting, and at 11 A.M, Davidsdottir goes home for lunch.
At around 1.15 P.M., Davidsdottir heads back to the gym and trains until 4.30 P.M. or 5 P.M, and this session is what Davidsdottir calls "more traditional CrossFit."
"We do some lifts, we do some strength work, followed by a metcon, and then we always end the day with some kind of accessory work," she said.
A metcon (short for metabolic conditioning) is a high intensity workout such as an EMOM ("every minute on the minute"), where you perform a certain number of reps of an exercise every minute for a set time period.
Accessory work means isolation exercises to complement compound movements (big lifts like deadlifts and squats), for example lunges or bicep curls.
Davidsdottir has started prioritizing recovery
When she was younger, Davidsdottir found herself swept up in the mentality that doing more was better, but she's learned to slow down and reap the benefits of rest.
"Back when I was in school, there was something cool about being so 'go, go, go,' only getting four hours' sleep because I was studying so much, and I had to be at the gym at 6 A.M," she said. "I thought it meant I was so busy and must be working so hard, but I didn't realize how important sleep is."
For the past few years, Davidsdottir has been focusing on recovery, putting more time into her warm-ups and cool-downs, and aiming for nine hours of sleep.
"It's life-changing to me how important sleep is for my body to recover and my mind to be calm," she said. "It really lays the foundation to me making better decisions throughout the day."