I have been loving so much of the inclusive and accessible strength training content being published here and have been following along as I embark on my own lifting journey, which in many ways has been great for my mental health and has made me better understand the concept of food as fuel after many years of seeing food as something to fear. I\u2019ve been in and out of various therapy and treatment programs for disordered eating habits and have been pretty stable in my recovery for a while now. I mostly practice an approach to eating best described as intuitive eating, but I don\u2019t follow any nutritionists or anything because even some of the best ones can sometimes say things that end up triggering me.<\/strong><\/p>\n I KNOW I\u2019m not eating enough protein, especially considering the lifting I\u2019m doing and how I want to lift heavier and heavier. But I do not want to track my protein intake explicitly because I don\u2019t want to do any tracking of my food intake. It\u2019s just too slippery of a slope. I\u2019m doing protein bars from time to time but honestly haven\u2019t found one I\u2019m crazy about (yes, I\u2019ve read the ranking y\u2019all did!). Plus, they\u2019re kind of expensive and also seem to really boast their macros front and center on all the packaging, which I realize might be helpful for some people but isn\u2019t so much for me.<\/strong><\/p>\n Any tips and tricks for how to incorporate more protein naturally into my meals without tracking and without pre-packaged snacks grately appreciated!<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/p>\n Hi! I\u2019m so glad you\u2019re enjoying our strength training<\/a> content! Stef Rubino is doing a great job and also is my personal strength coach, so I\u2019ve learned so much from them.<\/p>\n A lot of what you\u2019ve written resonates with me. While I do sometimes supplement my protein intake with bars and other pre-packaged foods, my preference is to just get a lot of protein in every meal I make, without having to think about it too hard because I\u2019d also rather not track\/think about macros for similar reasons. Here are some of the things I\u2019ve been able to incorporate in a lot of the food I make that ups the protein:<\/p>\n Obviously, there are tons of other ways to get protein, including fish, meat, and legumes, but the above are some of the easy staples I keep around that can be added to so many things. Protein snacks have obviously become a big business, and that\u2019s fine! But I promise you don\u2019t have to be buying every protein fad to feed your growing muscles. Just adding a few things that\u2019ll up the protein you\u2019re eating can go a long way, and you\u2019ll likely be able to feel the difference in the gym.<\/p>\n While I write this from the personal perspective of having dealt with disordered eating tendencies of my own, I of course encourage you to seek professional mental or physical health help if you do find yourself slipping backwards in your recovery journey. And I encourage anyone reading this who has their own tips to offer to throw them in the comments, because this is all just what personally works for me, but there are so many other ways to incorporate protein outside of buying pre-packaged products.<\/p>\n You can chime in with your advice in the comments and\u00a0submit your own questions\u00a0<\/a>any time.<\/p>\n \t\t \t\t\tBefore you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members.<\/strong> If this article meant something to you today \u2014 if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF<\/a> and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?<\/p>\n Join AF+!<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya<\/strong> is the managing editor of Autostraddle and a lesbian writer of essays, fiction, and pop culture criticism living in Orlando. She is the former managing editor of TriQuarterly, and her short stories appear in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Joyland, Catapult, The Offing, The Rumpus, Cake Zine, and more. Some of her pop culture writing can be found at The A.V. Club<\/a>, Vulture, The Cut, and others. When she is not writing, editing, or reading, she is probably playing tennis. You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> or Instagram<\/a> and learn more about her work on her website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kayla has written 1030 articles for us.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tKayla Kumari Upadhyaya\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n