Food as Fuel

Definitely feel like I am getting back on track. I had another day below 2000 calories, with a decent balance of nutrients (though I find it hard to get enough protein from my vegetarian meals) and enough fibre. I could probably have done without the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups but I felt the need for some extra calories after my long run and was on the move, which limited my options.

I completely lost the plot on this over Christmas, but during normal training weeks I try to vary my calorie intake according to my activity levels (over Christmas I just ate lots all the time). Food is fuel, so the idea is to eat more on days when I am training harder to fuel the workout and speed recovery, and less on light training and rest days so I don’t gain weight. That way even if I burn 600 calories while exercising, I am never creating too great a calorie deficit, nor overeating on my rest days. Clearly I did not mange that well yesterday, since I have had the roughly the same calorie count for the past 3 days and without the chocolate I would have only had 1600 calories. I think I need to look at how I can get more calories from healthy foods at lunch, for my snacks, and after my workouts, so I am not ravenous in the evenings.

Feel free to comment if you have any good ideas on how to achieve this!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1969.90	97.95g	254.53g	63.48g	0	26.33g
	20%	52%	29%
Calories burned through exercise:		617

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:30	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
	Gluten Free fruit muesli	70g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
09:00	Black Tea	500mL
10:00	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
10:45	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Seedless green Grapes	100g
13:00	Genius brown bread toast	2 slices
	Princes Tuna chunks (in brine, drained)	60g
	with Hellmann's light mayonnaise	13g
	and Branston gherkin relish	10g
	Irish Yoghurts Diet Strawberry	125g
13:30	Green Tea	250mL
13:45	Easy run - 55 minutes
15:00	TriBerry Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
15:30	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
16:30	Reese's Peanut Butter Cups	1 pkg
20:00	Lee's Hippy Farm Beans (Leon's Recipe)	350g
	Skim milk	210mL
21:00	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL

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