Goodbye

	3 Oct.	1 Jan.	1 Feb.	1 Mar.	2 Apr.
Morning Weight:	63.0 kg	60.7 kg	59.2kg	58.7kg	59.0kg
Evening Weight:	63.9 kg	61.7 kg	60.4kg	60.3kg	60.3kg
Morning Body Fat:	30.7%	27.7%	26.9%	26.2%	25.2%
Evening Body Fat:	28.8%	25.8%	25.2%	24.7%	24.3%
Measurements:
Bust:	33”	32”	32”	32”	31.5”
Waist:	28”	27”	26.5”	26.5”	26”
Hips:	40”	39”	38.5”	38.5”	38.5”
Thigh:	23.5”	22.5”	22”	22”	22”

Overall I think March has gone well. I did find life got in the way more than usual, both in terms of finding time to exercise, eating a healthy diet and recording that diet in my food diary. Visits from in-laws, things getting busy at work, trips to Zurich . . . it all adds up. Given that this was the case, I’m a bit surprised that my weight and measurements are showing any improvement at all. Despite spending last week in Zurich, which meant a couple of missed workouts and eating all over the place, I still managed to drop almost a percent in body fat and half an inch from my waist. I could wish the inch of fat lost from my bust could have come from my hips, but that’s not the way it works! And given that my sport is running, it’s entirely possible that I have put on muscle on my hips, bum and thighs, which would account for my weight staying the same despite the drop in body fat.

Overall, since I started this food diary blog 6 months ago on October 2^nd, 2011, I have met all my weight loss goals. I have gotten my body fat percentage below 25%, reduced my measurements so I fit into all my clothes again, and lost a good 4 kilos. I had originally thought to lose 5 kilos (10 pounds), but given my measurements and how much muscle I think I have put on, losing 4 kilos was plenty.

This being the case, I have decided to end this food diary here, rather than continue for a full year. I have learned a great deal about nutrition and training by doing it, and it has certainly helped me stay on track during my weight loss and training. But I’m finding it more and more of a burden to keep up. And I’m tired of picking foods because they will balance off my fat grams for the day or choosing restaurants based on whether I can find the nutritional information online. One of my goals for this blog was to share my love of good food with other athletes and Celiac’s, but I find myself struggling to enjoy my diet as much as I used to.

So, before I lose sight of why I started this, I have decided to stop. Thank you for your attention dear reader, and I hope you have found at least some of this information useful. I wish you all the best.

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2252.77	124.84g	303.54g	60.86g	0	40.46g
	22%	54%	24%
Calories burned through exercise:		209

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
08:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	4 rashers
	Sainsbury's Freefrom oats	50g
	with Sultanas	20g
	Sainsbury's Orange, Mango and Passionfruit juice	200mL
10:30	Black Tea	500mL
12:15	Black Tea	500mL
13:15	Lee's Hippy Farm Beans (Leon's recipe book)	350g
	Merchant Gourmet tinned puy lentils	105g
	Irish Yoghurts Diet Pear and Mango	125g
13:45	Green Tea	250mL
14:45	Resistance workout
	Strawberry lemonade Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
15:45	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
	Brazil nuts	6g
	Pecans	10g
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill
18:00	Sainsbury's lighter mature British cheese	40g
	on Amisa Gluten free Buckwheat Crisp bread	27g
	with Waitrose Carmelised red onion chutney	18g
	Galaxy Minstrels	50g
20:30	Sainsbury's Extra Lean casserole steak	96g
	Boiled and mashed sweet potato	200g
	Sainsbury's frozen green beans	100g
	Bisto Best beef gravy	about 5g
21:00	Sprungli Liliput chocolate truffles	3 truffles
21:30	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.

Surprises Travelling to Zurich

Travelling days are always hard, whether you are a Celiac struggling to find food you can eat or someone determined to stick to a healthy diet. I had a flight to Zurich at 11:30am yesterday, which pretty much dominated the day. Just a short hop (2 hours) to Zurich, which means they only provide “snacks” on the flight. And invariably this means no food for Celiac’s or other “special diets”.  Knowing this, I made sure to get a good snack of nuts and dried fruit (OK, and chocolate) at the airport before boarding the plane. However, I was still very annoyed when the “snack” was a sandwich – with no gluten free alternatives despite putting gluten free on my ticket when I booked it. Not only that, but the staff had not even been told!

So, a latish lunch of sushi at the airport before heading to my friends where I was staying. To my surprise, I discovered my friend had taken up the latest fad diet – the 4 hour body diet. Basically, it’s a version of the low carb, paleo diet – No wheat or grain based carbohydrates (bread, pasta, porridge, etc.), no fruit, no dairy, nothing with white sugar, and lots of meat, fish, eggs, beans, lentils and vegetables.  Like most of these diets, it’s not so much what you eat that makes you drop weight so fast, but the fact that most of these foods are MUCH lower in calories than the ones you cut out. Going from 2500 calories a day to 1200 calories a day – of course you’re going to lose weight like crazy!

Which is why I went out and bought my own milk and juice for breakfast and ended up eating a gluten free hot cross bun with a glass of milk a couple of hours after our dinner of grilled chicken and salad. I’m not a dieter, I’m a runner, so I do need the carbohydrates!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2483.35	128.94g	318.38g	76.63g	0	37.64g
	21%	51%	28%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:00	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Sainsbury's Freefrom oats	50g
	with Sultanas	20g
	Sainsbury's Orange, Mango and Passionfruit juice	200mL
07:30	Black Tea	500mL
10:45	Sainsbury's fruit and seed mix	40g
	Brazil nuts	6g
	Galaxy smooth milk chocolate	42g
	Glaceau Vitamin Water, Revive	500mL
12:30	Black Tea	100mL
13:30	Maki and Nigiri sushi	10 pieces
	Edamame	1/2 cup
	Apfel Schorle	500mL
16:45	Fresh Strawberries	105g
	Sponser Protein Snack bar	1 bar
18:30	Grilled chicken breast	about 100g
	with Cattlemen's Classic Barbecue sauce	about 1 tbsp
	Spinach salad	50g
	with tomato	about 100g
	avocado	1/2 of one
	broccoli	2 florets
	strawberries	50g
	truffle olive oil	1 tsp
	and white balsamic vinegar	1 tsp
20:00	Sainsbury's Freefrom Hot cross buns	1 bun
	2% milk	about 200mL

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.

Starting the week off Right!

I was a bit busy yesterday preparing for my trip to Zurich but I was careful to eat every 3 hours and, as I was out and about, I had little time for snacking. In many ways it was the perfect diet day – right proportions of nutrients, less than 2000 calories, high in fibre, enough fruit and veg and no junk food. Somewhat unsurprisingly avoiding the chocolates not only lowered the calories but made it much easier to balance the nutrients in my diet. This was very much a case of getting the week off to a good start!

I also had my first pyramid run of the season in the afternoon. I like to do my serious interval runs on a treadmill, so I can accurately gauge how fast I am going for how many minutes. It went OK, though I found I needed a good 5 minutes of recovery for every 5 minute pyramid, so one goal next time is to not only to up the speed a bit, but also lower the recovery time. However, I did find myself feeling a bit sick to my stomach during the most intense part of the run. I’ve felt this way before – most notably on Saturday, when I set a new Personal Best time at the Bushy park Run but then came several hard swallows away from throwing up afterwards. At the time I thought that I’d had too much protein for my breakfast, or maybe it was the intensity of the effort with no water (or electrolytes). But that’s can’t be the whole problem since I had a bottle of Nuun this time and was careful to sip it throughout my run. So I’m back to thinking the problem is eating too close to the run, and possibly eating a protein rich meal just before a run.

Guess it’s time to get serious about experimenting with race day/intense run nutrition along with my speedwork!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1962.64	124.49g	254.31g	51.08g	0	32.80g
	25%	52%	23%
Calories burned through exercise:		425

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
08:00	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Mesa Sunrise cereal	60g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's Orange, Mango and Passionfruit juice	200mL
09:00	Black Tea	500mL
11:00	Herbal fruit tea	250mL
12:30	Pork Loin	65g
	Parsnips	131g
	Carrots	60g
	Beets	74g
	all roasted and brushed with olive oil	7mL
	Sainsbury's Bramley apple sauce	30g
	Skim milk	200mL
	Muller rice pudding original	190g
14:00	Pyramid interval run - 35 min
	Citrus Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
15:30	Fresh Strawberries	105g
	Sponser Protein Snack bar	1 bar
19:00	Caffeine free Black tea with milk and sugar	500mL
20:00	Baked salmon	98g
	Merchant Gourmet Red and White Quinoa	100g
	Kraft Light Honey Mustard dressing	10g
	Frozen peas	100g
21:00	Fresh pineapple	142g
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.