Undefeated UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey doesn't just mosey into the Octagon and kick some ass. She trains like crazy — usually twice a day — and follows The Dolce Diet, an approach to eating that incorporates whole, nutrient-rich ingredients thought to maintain muscle mass and promote muscle recovery.
"It's not really so much for tastes as it is for, like, sustenance," Ronda told Cosmopolitan.com in an exclusive interview during her UFC 193 media tour. "I'm just happy to have a full stomach … It's not a bad thing to feel full and feel satisfied — you're supposed to."
That said, Ronda's diet is still pretty regimented: When offered a Starbucks Frappucino — a drink she's said her 14-year-old self used to buy with prize money she won from fighting random people — she only took a few sips before backing off, blaming her strict fighter diet.
Of course, there's no saying whether she would have housed the entire thing had her name been spelled correctly on the cup. (She takes it pretty personally when people — ahem, Justin Bieber and Floyd Mayweather — act like they don't know who she is.)
"I don't count calories at all. I have no idea how many [I ate] today," Ronda says. "I don't crave anything. There's not anything nutritionally missing [from my diet]."
Technically, that's true — unless you consider "Frappucino" a food group. Here's exactly what the fighter eats when training, along with drinking two gallons of water throughout the day.
[youtube ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8FtCEyvrus&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
Breakfast
"Even when I'm not in training camp, I have a chia bowl every morning and make a coffee to drink on the way to the gym," Ronda says.
Chia Bowl: In her bowl, she puts 2 tablespoons chia seeds, 2 tablespoons hemp seeds, 2 tablespoons oats, agave nectar, 1 tablespoon almond butter, ¼ cup raisins, and cinnamon.
Coffee: She makes her coffee using a French press, adds grass-fed butter, raw coconut oil, and stevia, then blends it up before topping it with cinnamon.
Lunch
"I don't poison myself. That's the extent of my cooking," Ronda says. "It's not exactly the safest thing when I'm in the kitchen. For some reason, people look at me weird when I'm holding a knife. I'm like, listen, I used to be a bartender, OK? I've cut slippery lemons all my life; I'm not going to chop anything off.
"But it's like how you drive worse when you're being watched — that's how I am when I have a big, giant knife in my hand," Ronda says. "I just look less coordinated with it because somebody is watching."
Egg Scramble on Bread: For this, Ronda scrambles 2 eggs with red peppers, tomatoes, spinach, avocado, mushrooms, and turkey bacon. She puts the scramble on Ezekiel bread with grass-fed butter.
Dinner
"Sometimes my roommate and best friend, Marina, will cook me a whole bunch of this chili — maybe it's just so she won't hear me like lament like, 'No! I burned everything!'
"She puts the chili in these little glass Tupperwares, and I'll put it in the toaster oven when I get home [from training]."
Turkey Chili: Marina uses 6 ounces ground turkey, red bell peppers, green bell peppers, avocado, hemp seeds, ¼ cup beans, cayenne pepper, and chili pepper.
Dessert
"It's all about the little things when you're on a diet," Ronda says.
Greek Yogurt Bowl: Greek yogurt,1 tablespoon chia seeds, and agave.
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Elizabeth Narins is a Brooklyn, NY-based writer and a former senior editor at Cosmopolitan.com, where she wrote about fitness, health, and more. Follow her at @ejnarins.
