Nikki Bella and Brie Bella work their butts off in the gym, in business, and in life.
After nearly 12 years in the ring, the now-retired wrestlers, WWE Hall of Famers, and next-door neighbors are keeping busy with plenty of new projects. And I mean, plenty.
In addition to starring in Quibi’s Fight Like a Girl series and producing and starring in their reality show Total Bellas, the badass twins also just wrote a memoir, Incomparable (available May 5th). Oh, and did I mention they’re both pregnant? Yep, their due dates are less than two weeks apart.
As the Bellas expand their army and take on all of these adventures, they’re relying on one thing to keep them healthy and crushing it: the right food.
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Though Nikki and Brie have dabbled in vegetarianism and intermittent fasting, they’ve dropped any strict eating habits since getting pregnant. “I’ve let everything go,” Nikki says. “Everything is about listening to your body when you’re pregnant, and your body really tells you what you lack.”
Here’s what the Bella twins eat in a typical day to fuel their busy schedules and nourish their growing babies.
Breakfast
Brie: As a mom to toddler Birdie, Brie is an early riser. “I wake up at 5:30 so I can get a meditation session in,” she explains. Then, around 6:30 or 7 a.m., she enjoys scrambled eggs with a side of avocado for breakfast. Sometimes she wraps it into a Siete Almond Flour Tortilla to make a burrito and pairs it with a side of fruit.
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Nikki: When Nikki wakes up, she usually has a cup of black coffee, sometimes with a bit of cinnamon. “I like to have my coffee,” she says. “My fiancé Artem and I have a tradition of having coffee in our living room. We like to talk and meditate.” Then, she gets right to work and enjoys a breakfast of two scrambled eggs (well done!) with a piece of multigrain toast. “The baby gets a lot of nutrients from that,” she explains.
Morning Snack
Brie: Breakfast keeps Brie (and her daughter) full for a few hours, but she’s usually ready for a snack before lunch. “We always will have a snack around 10:30 or 11 a.m. I always try to think of something healthy, so maybe it’s a Siggi’s yogurt.” (She likes that it’s not too high in sugar.) Another favorite: carrots and hummus.
Nikki: Nikki also loves a morning snack: “I always have some type of fruit,” she says. “I’ve been obsessing over apples.” She also loves grapes and fresh cucumbers.
Lunch
Brie: Brie’s lunch is usually simple (and guided largely by her daughter’s toddler taste buds). Often, she combines chopped carrots and cucumbers with tofu and barbecue sauce or makes a tuna sandwich with homemade sourdough bread. “I put pickles and spicy mustard on it,” she says. “It hits the spot and tastes absolutely amazing.”
Lunch, Brie says, is usually her most carb-heavy meal. “I’m always thinking, ooh, I can have my bread here,” she says. (It doesn’t hurt that her husband, Bryan, makes fabulous homemade bread.
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Brie also enjoys the occasional veggie-filled pasta dish at lunchtime. Her philosophy: “If you’re craving something, indulge it. You’re making a baby.”
Nikki: Nikki is also a fan of sandwiches at mid-day. She usually piles ’em high with pickles and sliced-up chicken breast or Beyond Meat, since she’s avoiding deli meat while pregnant.
Nikki also makes sure she gets plenty of veggies at lunch. “I’ve been addicted to broccoli,” she says.
Afternoon Snack
Brie: Since reading Headspace founder Andy Puddicombe’s Mindful Eating, Brie tries to be very mindful and intentional about how and why she eats.
In the afternoon, after her daughter Birdie’s nap, that usually involves sitting down for a snack. “I’ll go with what I’m feeling,” she says. “I’ve been really into making this cucumber salad with a little white vinegar and sesame seeds on top. It’s a nice little pick-me-up when I’m a little tired.”
Nikki: Nikki also tries to stay true to her hunger cues at this point in the day. “Sometimes I’ll have a snack before dinner, but sometimes I don’t,” she says. “It depends on how I feel.”
If she is feeling hungry, Nikki goes for a wide variety of fave snacks. “I was loving celery with peanut butter,” she says. Lately, though, she’s all about carrots and fresh guac or graham crackers with fresh cheese. “I’m lactose intolerant, but I crave it so much this pregnancy,” Nikki says.
Dinner
Brie: When dinner time rolls around, Brie likes to experiment in the kitchen. “It’s been really fun to research recipes and come up with stuff,” she says. Her latest creation was inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop and involves chickpeas with cauliflower, jalapeños, spicy mustard, some olive oil, and white wine vinegar. “It is so delicious and so filling,” she says. “My daughter would eat it every day.”
No matter what, though, dinner starts with a vegetable. “I always want vegetables to be the biggest thing that we eat in our meals,” she says. “I always think ‘what vegetable do I want for dinner,’ and then I think about a protein.”
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Brie picks most of her veggies from the giant garden she and Nikki share, in which they grow cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, eggplant, and leafy greens. “Sautéed spinach with grilled garlic and a little sea salt is the perfect add-on for a dinner,” she says. “We’re lucky we have a big garden, so we have a lot of spinach, kale, and chard.”
Nikki: While she’s more relaxed about her food choices earlier in the day, Nikki tightens the reins at dinner. “I do a protein and a vegetable for dinner every night,” says Nikki, who usually eats around 5:30 or 6 p.m.
Lately, Nikki prefers chicken or steak as her protein. “I haven’t been eating much fish,” she says. “For some reason, fish has been really grossing me out.”
Nikki also typically gets her veggies from the garden, too. She often chops up a bunch of different vegetables with a little rice and an egg and cooks it in a wok with organic olive oil or avocado oil.
Dessert
Brie: On the weekends, Brie likes to treat herself to a frozen dessert. “I do love gelato, particularly caramel sea salt gelato,” she says. “It’s something fun to look forward to.”
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Brie’s weekday eating leaves some room for sweets, too, though. “I always keep a dark chocolate bar in my pantry,” she says. “If I have cravings throughout the week, I just go and take a little piece.”
Also in her cupboard: a supply of black licorice. Not any old vines will do, though. “It has to be RJ’s,” says Brie. “I won’t get any other brand.”
Nikki: Like her sister, Nikki also loves her licorice. In fact, she’s dubbed her sister and herself “the queens of black licorice.”
Nikki is also “obsessed” with So Delicious Coconutmilk Ice Cream Sandwiches.
Another sweet craving that’s been a constant throughout her pregnancy: baked goods. I think about baked goods every day,” Nikki says. Considering her fiancé Artem makes a mean banana bread, it’s a craving that’s easily taken care of.
The Bella Twins’ Go-To Packaged Foods
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