I didn’t really look yesterday but one of the reasons my balance is off this week is the amount of alcohol I’ve been drinking. Last week I happened to go the whole week without a single drink. This week I’ve had at least one drink four out of the last five days! Part of this is because we have open bottles of wine in the house. My husband uses a light red wine in the turkey cottage pie he made on Monday, and a white wine goes into the chicken risotto he made on Tuesday. In each case only 150mL of wine is used in the dish, leaving an open bottle of wine too good to waste. Plus there is just something about sipping a glass of wine or port on a cosy winter evening by the light of Christmas tree lights.
Now if ever there was a healthy pleasure, a glass of wine has got to be it. A glass of alcohol a day has been shown by more than 100 studies to reduce heart disease risk by 25-40%. It does this by preventing the artery damage caused by LDL cholesterol, inhibiting blood clots and raising HDL levels. Red wine is particularly recommended because of the high levels of antioxidants, whose color comes from the resveratrol in grape skins. Oddly enough, a new study has shown that light to moderate drinkers do 20 minutes more exercise per week than teetotallers. A glass of wine is relatively low calorie too, at less than 130 calories per 150mL glass. So I don’t see myself giving up alcohol anytime soon! And being a seasonal alcoholic like most people, odds are good that most of December will include a daily glass of wine if not more.
While this is fine from a health standpoint, it really throws off the nutrient balance I’m striving for. Without yesterday’s glass of red wine I would have had a balance of 24% protein, 47% carbohydrates and 28% fat (and less than 1900 calories), all of which drops after one glass of red wine to make room for the alcohol. Once again I’m going to have to look at how I can get more protein and slightly more healthy fat into my diet.
The Score:
Calories: | Protein: | Carbs: | Fat: | Alcohol: | Fibre: |
2022.59 | 114.42g | 227.52g | 58.51g | 15.5g | 27.16g |
23% | 45% | 26% | 5% | ||
Calories burned through exercise: | 444 | |
What I ate:
Time | Item | Amount |
08:15 | Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate | 1 each |
Cold water | 200mL | |
Sainsbury's Be Good to Yourself smoked bacon medallions | 50g | |
Gluten Free fruit muesli | 70g | |
Alpro Soy milk | 120mL | |
Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice | 200mL | |
09:30 | Black Tea | 500mL |
11:00 | Brazil nuts | 6g |
Cashews | 17g | |
Clementine (Mandarin orange) | 73g (peeled) | |
Raspberry and Echinacea tea | 250mL | |
13:00 | Chicken breast | 125g |
in Uncle Ben's Lemon Chicken stir fry sauce | 125g | |
Instant rice vermicelli noodles | 1 nest | |
Essential Waitrose Fresh Vegetable stir fry | 150g | |
stir fried in vegetable oil | about 6mL | |
14:30 | Resistance workout + 30 min bike | |
Lemon Lime Nuun electrolyte tablet in water | 750mL | |
16:15 | Sponser Protein Snack bar | 1 bar |
19:00 | Orange, mango and cinnamon tea | 250mL |
20:15 | Sainsbury's extra lean beef escalopes | 77g |
Boiled and mashed sweet potato | 180g | |
Steamed broccoli | 97g | |
Bisto Best beef gravy | about 5g | |
Red wine | 150mL | |
Waitrose Ploughman's vintage farmhouse cheddar | 15g | |
Waitrose Long Clawson Creamy Blue Stilton | 18g | |
21:00 | Lindt Excellence 70% cocoa dark chocolate | 20g |
22:00 | Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew | 1 chew |
500mg Glucosamine sulphate | 1 pill |
Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.
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