The diet of a champion! Former Olympic athlete Shawn Johnson detailed everything she ate during her competitive gymnastics career as well as old food superstitions, tasty new indulgences and more.
The 28-year-old, who helped the American team win the silver medal in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, revealed a bevy of tidbits about her diet in a recent Delish video.
“I would wake up every morning and I would eat, like, six egg whites with cottage cheese and smoked salmon,” she said with a laugh when recalling the eating regimen she maintained during training. “A snack of mine would be a chocolate protein shake with raspberries and I would add a raspberry grains powder to it, which was really good.”
When it came to lunch, the Iowa native would stick to “lettuce-wrapped sandwiches” or a lettuce bowl with turkey or grilled chicken and homemade vegetable slaw.
“For dinner I used to eat a lot of, like, grilled salmon, roasted veggies that I still eat — like sweet potatoes, green beans and a lot of red peppers because I needed a lot of magnesium back then,” she added. “I would also eat a lot of red meat on and off because I was anemic.”
Back when she was a gymnast, the Dancing With the Stars season 8 winner noted that her diet didn’t really change much throughout the year. As she put it, “The thing with gymnastics is we don’t have an off-season. Ever. For like 20 years.”
“I would try to have some cheat meals throughout the day, or throughout the week, but there was really no off-season,” she continued. “My favorite indulgence back when I was training was ice cream. It’s all I wanted. I wanted ice cream, pancakes, waffles and french toast. That’s what I wanted and it still is.”
These days, however, Johnson, who welcomed daughter Drew with husband Andrew East in October 2019, has added a new guilty pleasure to her repertoire. “A new favorite indulgence is definitely wine,” she dished.
The Apprentice alum, who also won three personal medals in Beijing, also loves to relax and order in food with East, 28. Their most extravagant takeout meal? An “elaborate” sushi platter with wine that cost “a couple hundred dollars.”
Scroll down to learn more about Johnson’s evolving diet!