- Aimee Cringle, 23, is a British professional CrossFit athlete and rising star in the sport.
- She shared her daily diet with Insider, including lots of cereal, toast, and yogurt.
- Cringle said she is learning not to compare herself to others or feel guilty for eating a lot.
Aimee Cringle loves food.
The up-and-coming CrossFit star, who's based on the Isle of Man (a small island in the Irish Sea), doesn't track her food but estimates she eats about 2,800 calories a day — sometimes up to 4,000, she said.
Staples in her diet are cereal, toast with peanut butter and jam, and hearty meals cooked by her mom, like spaghetti and meatballs or chicken paella.
Considered one to watch among elite CrossFit athletes, the 23-year-old got into the sport as a teenager, fell in love with it, gradually trained more and more while finishing school and studying nursing, and decided to pursue it full-time in July 2021.
Cringle finished first in the 2022 UK CrossFit Open, won the European Championships in 2021, and competed in the CrossFit semi-finals in London over June 10-13.
Cringle is learning to eat for performance and not feel food guilt
Cringle trains with friends twice a day, and she eats to fuel her performance, she said.
"As a female, there's a lot of stigma about food, but with the demand we put on our bodies, we need to fuel," she said.
Cringle said she's a hungry person and eats a lot, but is learning not to feel guilty about that, because she knows food is what gives her the energy for her workouts and helps her perform her best.
An average day of eating might be:
- Breakfast: oatmeal made from 90g oats with chocolate protein powder, topped with a protein bar, cereal, and banana
- Pre-training: corn thins with peanut butter and jam, or fruit
- Lunch: dinner leftovers, such as chicken paella
- Snack: sugar-free jelly, Greek yogurt, and cereal
- Snack: toast with peanut butter, jam, and banana
- Dinner: meatballs and pasta with vegetables, or chicken cheeseburgers
- Snack: cereal with Greek yogurt, or oatmeal
Cringle snacks a lot, and her weakness, she said, is cereal, specifically granola or clusters.
Cringle tries not to compare herself to others
Cringle has a non-athlete twin sister, and she said sometimes when they eat together, she has to remind herself not to compare her portions to her sister's.
Cringle is working on not comparing herself to anyone, whether it's her non-athlete sister's food portions or the elite athletes she looks up to, like five-time CrossFit Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey, she said.
"I follow Tia and other high level women and I'm like, 'I can't do any of that,'" she said.
Cringle can, however, perform 24 strict pull-ups in a row, squat 125 kg (276 lbs), and bench press 92 kg (202 lbs), and these are personal bests she hasn't tested for a while, so it's possible she could actually top them.
Cringle has 160,000 followers on Instagram, but she struggles with her growing fame, she said: "I get recognized, but what if I don't do well? But I guess you can't think like that, as long as I'm trying my best and learning along the way."
To help her focus on herself, Cringle has been working with a mindset coach for six months.
"I'm learning to train my mind as well as my body," she said. "It's helping me feel more confident and believe in myself."