The best personal trainers are our role models for how to live a healthy lifestyle. At DailyBurn, we’re proud to work with trainers like Judi Brown who practice what they preach.

Yet it’s important to realize that trainers struggle with the same issues that we do. They crave sugar sometimes, they get stressed out, and sometimes they too would rather sleep an extra hour instead of jumping out of bed for a 6 AM workout on the weekends.

Still, trainers do live by a code of nutrition that includes a list of foods that they will never eat (no matter what). As Judi Brown says, “I love candy, but I choose apples!”

While trainers won’t agree on the type of diet that their clients should eat, they all agree on a list of core foods that their clients shouldn’t eat if they want to see results.

Here are 5 foods that trainers will never eat (and you shouldn’t eat them either):

Protein Bars The Size Of Your Arm

Protein bars are nothing more than candy bars wrapped in promises with a few added nutrients and low quality protein additives. Many protein bars are packed with sugar or artificial sweeteners, including hard to digest sugar alcohols that can cause gas and bloating.

While some trainers rely on protein bars in a pinch, they usually choose smaller bars that contain whole ingredients like nuts, dried fruits, and high quality protein.

Some protein bars are so hefty, that you could chase after someone and knock them out by using your bar as a weapon. Protein bars this size are not only unnecessary, they also contribute to weight gain if you eat them frequently.

Instead, trainers eat: a handful of almonds and a piece of fruit, or a protein shake.

Soda

Trainers don’t drink soda, period. Although switching regular soda out for diet soda used to be a dirty little secret that would keep trainers revved up throughout the day, now trainers are shunning artificial sweeteners altogether.

Drinking soda is like dumping a chemical cocktail down your gullet. Soda will not only kill your performance in the gym, it will also stop fat loss in its tracks.

Instead, trainers drink: Seltzer with a twist of lime or lots and lots of just plain water.

Diet Foods

Processed diet foods that are marketed as non-fat, low-carb, or low calorie are typically filled with chemicals and food additives to make them tasty. The problem with diet foods is that they are often as devoid in nutrients as they are devoid in taste.

Diet foods like Snackwells, the classic non-fat cookies that have come to represent everything that is wrong with diet foods, contain as much sugar as a soda.

Instead, trainers eat: The real thing. If trainers want a cookie, they will eat (only one) high fiber oatmeal cookie with raisins and walnuts.

Giant Sunday Morning Pancake Breakfasts

After a long hard week at the office topped off with 5 solid days of working out, it can be tempting to reward yourself on the weekends with a Sunday morning pancake breakfast. Trainers know that rewarding yourself for a good week at the gym with a mountain of food . . . is probably a really bad idea.

Why? Because it negates all of your hard work. Think about all of the time and effort that you spend on your workouts. Destroying all of your progress gets old after a while. You’ll look in the mirror, and you’ll ask yourself why you continue to pour your time into something that yields no results.

Instead, trainers eat: A healthy twist on a “cheat” meal. If trainers want a pancake, they will give in by making a protein pancake or two by subbing protein powder and almond flour for white flour.

Superfoods

Despite what you may see on advertisements for superfoods like goji berries, acai, and spirulina, most trainers don’t chow down on so-called “superfoods” before or after a workout. Why? Because superfoods are a creation of the health food industry. They are touted as miracle foods that are more nutritious than most, and because of that hook, food producers jack up the price of these ingredients. The truth is that goji berries are no more nutritious than blueberries, and spirulina is just an expensive substitute for a large salad packed with green leafy vegetables.

Instead trainers eat: Foods that are cheap and nutrient dense:

Almonds
Eggs
Plain Yogurt
Protein Powder
Chicken
Green Leafy Vegetables
Sweet Potatoes
Beans
and more.

So skip the superfoods and go for easy to find nutritious foods that are close to the earth instead of highly processed.

Do you know a personal trainer who is a good role model both in the gym and at meal time? What foods will your trainer never eat?