by Michael Plank
In a perfect world, we’d all cook our own food from whole, nutritious ingredients or have personal chefs. But it’s real life, and sometimes convenience wins out. Here are my favorite nutrient-dense, tasty, and convenient meals within walking distance of Underwood Park CrossFit. Context: I’m a 40-year-old, 175lb man, who’s very active. Adjust accordingly (or if you need specific help, just reach out!).
#1 Sushi Wa (1.2 miles from the gym doors)
This works best when you dine in. When you sit down, there’s a flat rate for all-you-can-eat. Although that might tempt you to eat 6 pounds of noodles, it also makes it really easy to get as much or as little of the nutrient-dense stuff as you want. Here’s my go to:
2 orders hibachi chicken or shrimp (~45g protein)
1 order hibachi vegetables (~19g carbs, ~6g fiber)
1 order steamed white rice (~45g carbs)
Estimating about 20g of fat for cooking, would have this meal end up as approximately 45g protein, 64g carbs, 20g fat, 6g fiber for 616 total calories.
#2 A Taco Situation (0.3 miles from the gym doors)
You pretty well have to get food to go, and although there are some delicious fried options, if you’ve got some specific nutrition goals, I’m a big fan of the Taco Bowl. I order it with chicken. It’s a ton of food, so half of it is usually plenty for me, but it has a sensible amount of tortilla chips, lots of lean meat, lots of black beans (fiber!), shredded cheese (not the super-processed nacho cheese), and plenty of lettuce and tomatoes.
I include sour cream, so half of an order gets me a meal that’s roughly 35g protein, 56g carbs, 24g fat, 8g fiber for 585 total calories.
#3 Mamma’s Cafe (100 feet from the gym doors)
Grilled Buffalo Chicken Salad
This is a little more fat heavy, but you can definitely decrease the amount of dressing if you want. It usually comes with 2 sides of dressing and I just use one. I like the cheese and the croutons though, which would also be easy to skip.
The way I get it (as is, with only one of the dressing cups instead of 2) boils down to roughly 48g protein, 31g carbs, 28g fat, 5g fiber for 570 total calories.
#4 Stumpy’s Pizzeria (200 feet from the gym doors)
Turkey and Provolone sub (half sandwich)
The greatest thing about Stumpy’s subs is that they make their own bread. This means that not only is it far superior to any other sandwich bread around, it also has way less weird stuff in it. Bread isn’t crazy as far as preservatives and things go, but still – fresh, small-scale bread is always more nutrient-dense.
The sandwiches are big, so although I can definitely house the whole thing, half a sandwich at one go is generally plenty for me. It’s served with lettuce, onion, tomato, mayonnaise, and Italian dressing. Which means I ballpark this sandwich at 40g protein, 70g carbs, 26g fat, 2g fiber, for 640 total calories.
These are by no means the only good options in town, but there the ones I like best. What are your favorites??