A Look at What 1 Professional Ballerina Eats All Day

Ballerinas may make dancing look easy, but the most graceful performances take hours and hours to get just right. So what do you do when your job involves five days a week of rehearsals that can last six hours or more? You make sure that your diet includes foods that give you sustained energy throughout the day without making you feel weighed down. We asked Lauren Fadeley, a principal dancer at the Pennsylvania Ballet, to share her secrets for staying light on her feet and energized all day.

Snack healthy: Grazing throughout the day rather than having full meals helps keep Lauren from feeling fatigued. She starts her day with fruit, nuts, and coffee, then keeps a bag full of freshly cut veggies or Larabars for her to snack on every hour when the ballerinas get a break. Once practice is over, Lauren sits down to a big meal of lean proteins and veggies (spaghetti squash with a ground turkey tomato sauce is her favorite) that refuels her body and preps her for the next day's grueling schedule.