Amanda Billing

As seen in the award winning Sunday Star Times Escape section.

2009 winner - Health Section Qantas Media Awards.

8.am : Woken up by the Third Assistant Director asking me to come into work early.
Stumble out of bed and throw together “Nicola’s” manuka honey-toasted muesli, All Bran, pears and milk. Eat it while I:

Turn off crockpot and mash the contents – leek and potato soup – and leave to cool.

Prep a salad for lunch made from spinach, smoked chicken and last night’s roast veges (golden kumara, yams, onion and carrot) and mix up a protein shake for snack later on (Horleys Sculpt Vanilla Crème flavour – tastes WAY better than any of the others I’ve tried.)

Sit down for a sec, finish cereal and congratulate myself on finally going to the supermarket last night after having put it off for weeks. So much good food in the house!

1030h
Still full from brekkie so when Jan The Queen of Unit comes around with double chocolate muffins and little bacon and egg sandwiches for Morning Tea I only grab one of the latter…I have more of a savoury tooth these days.

1100h
Order a double-shot flat white from Rock Salt Café downstairs. Until recently I only drank single shots but I’ve decided to live a little lately…finish gossiping with the gals behind the counter, take a slurp and cross my fingers that Sarah Potts doesn’t behave like a caffeine-crazed loony in the next scene.

1300h
Eat salad. Oh, and a biscuit too. What happened to that protein shake, Amanda? Um…

1545h
Afternoon Tea with a girlfriend at Agnes Curran. Not in the mood for another coffee so get a delicious Velvetberry Teza (iced tea) and one of AC’s famous chocolate lamingtons with clotted cream and raspberry jam. Okay, so maybe I do still have a sweet tooth.

1730h
Home to put soup in containers and freeze for a rainy day (and for the soon-to-be parents in my life – I have found that turning up randomly with an instant dinner goes down very well with sleep-deprived mothers and fathers). Have a cup of it myself (needs salt – there goes my savoury tooth again) and head off to an appointment.

1900h
Appointment finished and now I have the usual Tuesday Night Issue of only half an hour to buy dinner and eat it before gospel choir practice – Yup, tonight’s Jubilation night. Um, did I mention that I’m in a 30+ piece a cappella gospel choir and that we’re doing a four-gig tour in October-November to release our long-awaited album called “Shout and Never Get Tired”? I did? Just then? Cool. You should check out www.jubilation.co.nz to find out which gig(s) you want to go to.

Anyway, I choose Subway (meatball with double swiss) from the Grey Lynn shops because it’s pretty good as far as fast food is concerned and the staff there rock. Walk into rehearsal licking my fingers, only to find the whole choir in a production line, putting hundreds of CDs in wee cardboard cases. Wipe hands on jeans and contemplate album cover art. “Good things take time”, right? It looks seriously cool.

Jacquie says

Do we have the lamington or the protein shake?  Seriously, only an idiot would forgo one of AC’s famous lamingtons for a protein shake. Now that doesn’t mean I’m going crazy and recommending we all eat cake in the afternoon. In the overall context of Amanda’s day, week, year or whatever it’s hardly an area of criticism from me. There’s much to like about Amanda’s routine. One of the keys to weight management is to eat regularly over the day. This helps your body burn more calories, which in turn helps to avoid weight gain, hunger and problems with digestion.  Not only does Amanda fill up with a good high fibre breakfast, she also manages to make her main meals from scratch and preps her lunch before she leaves the house. Yes, there are better choices to be made at Subway, but in the grand scheme of things one bad choice isn’t going to undo a weeks worth of good eating.

Each week a nutritionist from Real Nutrition looks over a celebrity's diet. For award winning health articles and a really good read - check out the Sunday Star Times each Sunday.