We’d read any book Carrie Underwood wrote. But one that the body-positive singer describes as a health and fitness manual she wishes she had years ago? We’re buying five copies sight-unseen.
As Women’s Health reports, Underwood’s first title, Find Your Path: Honor Your Body, Fuel Your Soul, and Get Strong With Fit52Life, is the brainchild of the singer and her trainer, Eve Overland, and nutritionist, Cara Clark. It’s meant to be a suggested framework to help women make better, healthier choices for themselves—an idea we can always get behind.
While promoting the book, the 39-year-old singer—and self-proclaimed “wannabe vegan”—gave Women’s Health a glimpse into her day-to-day life when it comes to fitness and nutrition. The one rule she’s found has really helped her reach her goals? Tracking calories and macros every day. After years of experimenting with counting calories and macros, the founder of CALIA by Carrie Underwood says she’s found the balance that works best for her: 45 percent carbs, 30 percent fat and 25 percent protein.
“I love rules,” she tells the outlet, referring to the stringent counting she does with help from the MyFitnessPal app. “This is how I feel good about myself, and this is how I operate.”
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The “Blown Away” singer also operates under a very particular diet. According to the WH, her diet follows a similar pattern every day: Underwood will have tofu or an egg-white scramble, along with Ezekiel toast, berries and coffee before a morning workout. At lunch, she will usually have a sandwich with Tofurky, tomato, avocado, red onion, spinach and mustard. For snacking, she will reach for a green smoothie or protein bar, and when it’s time for dinner, she’ll make roasted veggies and a piece of vegan chicken, or a tofu stir-fry.
While Underwood doesn’t describe herself as much of a dessert person—she stashes squares of dark chocolate for when she has a craving—she does have a guilty pleasure. “I do have my vice, and it’s red wine. It’s good for my heart, right!?” she laughs.
While clean eating and quasi-obsessive tracking makes a huge difference, Underwood also credits regular exercise for her famously fit physique. “My self-care is my gym time, and that’s a stress reliever for me,” she says. “If I can work out seven days a week—which doesn’t happen, but if I can—I’m going to. Because the next week, I might get two days,” she explains of the need to squeeze in a session whenever possible.
Two days or seven, it’s safe to say the singer makes the most of every minute she is in the gym. Some days, she’ll hit the treadmill. Other days, it’s time for the intense leg workout responsible for her sculpted legs: six “supersets” of three moves, each done for three or four sets. The moves: tuck jumps, Romanian deadlifts (with 30- to 35-pound dumbells), walking lunges (with 20- to 25-pound dumbells), and elevated sumo squats (with a 50-pound dumbell).
