Dear Roxy: What's your non-training diet like?

Roxanne Modafferi is back to answer your most burning questions about MMA, the UFC, and life in general, 'Happy Warrior' style with her Dear Roxy column.

Art by Chris Rini

MMA is a sport filled with burning questions. What’s the right way to defend an armbar? What’s the best way to cut weight? How many Demetrious Johnsons would it take to beat Francis Ngannou? Fortunately, former UFC title contender Roxanne Modafferi has the answers, in her Bloody Elbow exclusive column, ‘Dear Roxy’.

In our last edition, Roxy tackled a few more of readers’ burning quandaries, such as whether the MMA scene gives young women room to grow without being abused, how Roxy’s brain has fared after a long MMA career, and Roxy reveals some of her favorite fighters and also what she thinks about kickboxing heavy MMA.

This time around, we’ve got questions on her non-training diet, fighters who refuse to tap to locked-in submissions, and she reveals her latest hobby.

Let’s get to it.

Dear Roxy,

When you aren't cutting weight, just regular day to day to stay in shape, what's your normal diet and exercise routine look like? I rarely see anyone talking about what they eat on a normal day just to stay in good shape outside of fighting. Jay_Train

Dear Jay Train,

Well, when I was still fighting, my normal routine was the same in and out of camp because I’m old school and I always wanted to be ready to take a fight on short notice. I actually never got a fight on short notice, but I never had to worry about getting “in” shape.

I always ate a huge breakfast with cereal in yogurt, then eggs, then toast, then veggies. An hour later after digesting a bit, I jogged for 20 minutes and stretched. After that, I did whatever training I had for the day. I went super hard in the morning and rested in the evening. For lunch, I always ate boiled chicken with steamed veggies with some kind of carb. My stomach used to be sensitive so I didn’t eat greese or oil. For dinner I had fish and veggies. I didn’t eat any desert in camp and out of it, I had ice cream. Pretty clean.

Nowadays, since I’ve retired from fighting and have a morning job, I still wake up at 4 AM. However, I only jog for 5-10 minutes because I hate jogging and I'm not going to fight soon, so I slack. I stretch for 20 minutes still, and have a smaller breakfast. I eat pretty much the same thing, and weirdly enough, my appetite has gone down. Must be my age. I’m also more tolerant to oil. I’m actually losing weight, so I’m trying to eat more. It’s really nice not to have to worry about how much carbs or fat I eat. I can have desert every day but I’m not really that hungry anymore.

I do physical training once a week instead of twice nowadays, and jiujitsu three times instead of every day.