Lessons from Last Week

Again, a very restful and enjoyable day yesterday, starting with my husband surprising me with a full cooked breakfast and ending with a very nice turkey dinner, with an afternoon nap in between.  It was also pretty good on the diet front: 1800 calories, high in fibre, enough fruit and veg, decent balance of nutrients, and a couple of small treats (like the glass of wine with dinner).

Unfortunately it really has been a mixed week on the diet front. It was a rest week in my training plan, and I do try to eat less on the days when I am not training, but it seems every time I left the house this week my calorie count went up by 500. My average daily calories for the week were 2050 per day, with only 144 calories burned through exercise per day. However, that includes three days where I ate 1850 calories or less, and three days where I got through more than 2250 calories. The nutrient balance was also way off, since any extra calories invariably came from chocolates, so I averaged only 20% protein to 48% carbohydrates, 29% fat and 3% alcohol (instead of the 25% - 45% - 30% I’m aiming for). I did really well on getting enough fibre and vegetables every day, but fundamentally there was just too much food.

I think part of the problem is the lack of regular treats in my diet. This does leave me feeling deprived some days (which I often feel anyways when I go out because of the Celiac’s disease) which of course makes you crave whatever you can’t have. I am trying to lose a couple of pounds, but not that hard! So this week I have included a couple of lower calorie pot desserts in my regular grocery delivery and I’m going to try having dessert after dinner regularly to see if that curbs my chocolate cravings. Perhaps just knowing I can have a dessert if I want it will be enough!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1839.47	101.19g	216.85g	52.13g	14.3g	36.75g
	22%	47%	26%	5%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

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
	Scrambled eggs with 1 tbsp milk	2 eggs
	in butter	2g
	Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt	185g
	Grilled Mushrooms	4 medium
	Grilled tomato	60g
	Genius brown bread toast	1 Slice
	with Flora Light	5g
	and St Dalfour 4 Fruits jam	16g
	Sainsbury's Orange, Mango and Passionfruit juice	200mL
09:30	Black tea	500mL
11:30	Herbal fruit tea	250mL
12:30	Sponser Protein Snack bar	1 bar
14:15	Lee's Hippy Farm Beans (Leon's Recipe)	350g
	Alpro Soya Original	200mL
	Sunstart Chocolate wrapped golden crunch biscuits	1 biscuit
	Lemon lime Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
16:30	Green Tea	250mL
17:15	Muller light cranberry and raspberry yoghurt	175g
	Plums	110g
18:00	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL
20:00	Quick cook Turkey Steak	72g
	Baked potato	165g
	with butter	5g
	Steamed broccoli	102g
	Bisto Best Chicken Gravy	about 5g
	White wine	150mL
22:30	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.