Dropping the Produce Corner

Sometimes I feel that eating well is a bit like trying to hold on to a large folded sweater in wrapping paper; I can only ever seem to get control of three corners at a time. I know there is no such thing as the perfect diet, but there is such a thing as a very good diet. In my mind, the four elements that make up the best diet for me are number of calories, nutrient balance, amount of fibre and amount of fruit and veg. The first two elements can vary from day to day and week to week depending on my training and what I am trying to accomplish. However, I have fixed goals of at least 25g of fibre a day and 5 portions of fruits and vegetables per day.

Yesterday the corner I let drop was the fruits and vegetables. I did do a workout but it was an easy weight routine which only burned 250 calories, so 1742 calories should be enough. The nutrient balance was spot on and I got enough fibre. However, I had cookies and milk for my morning snack instead of nuts and fruit, then I ended up only having one serving a vegetables at both lunch and dinner, so I ended up with only 3 servings of produce for the day. This is really not enough! The reason is that they are high in vitamins, minerals and fibre which is better absorbed by the body than in supplements. Research has shown that fruits and vegetables also contain phytochemicals which help prevent heart disease and reduce the risk of many cancers. Not to mention that people who eat the most of these low calorie, high fibre foods tend to weigh less and have a lower body fat, which further reduces the risk of many chronic diseases. There are lots of other really good reasons for eating lots of fruit and veg, I’m sure I’ll come back to this topic in the future.

So plenty of motivation to get more fruits and vegetables back into my diet!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1742.34	107.97g	208.33g	53.93g	0	24.58g
	25%	48%	28%
Calories burned through exercise:		251

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	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	3 rashers
	Nairn's Gluten Free Porridge oats	50g
	with Sultanas	20g
	and walnuts	10g
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
09:00	Black Tea	500mL
10:00	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
10:45	Sunstart Chocolate wrapped golden crunch biscuits	2 biscuits
	Skim milk	210mL
11:30	Green Tea	250mL
12:15	Resistance workout
	TriBerry Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
13:30	Genius brown bread toast	2 slices
	Princes Tuna chunks (in brine, drained)	60g
	with Hellmann's light mayonnaise	13g
	and Branston gherkin relish	10g
	Raw tomato	100g
	Irish Yoghurts Diet Apricot and Nectarine	125g
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill
16:45	Bounce Peanut Protein blast	49g
17:00	Black Tea	300mL
20:00	Pork streak	80g
	with baked apple slices on top	20g
	Mashed potatoes with butter and milk	160g
	Frozen peas	80g

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