Every Type of Stress at Once

Not the best end to my week. In addition to all the emotional fallout from a death in the family, I really struggled to get gluten free food over the 5 days of this trip. Every restaurant we went to seemed to have very few gluten free options and very little knowledge of which dishes on the menu would be safe for me to eat. Then when we were doing things with the family the food was often take aways from the local chippy or a sandwich plate. So lots of potatoes for me, big English breakfasts almost every day and plenty of junk food (I remember far too many Doritos, Minstrels and Cream Eggs).

On the plus side, my husband and I made a real effort to keep up our exercise programs. I still did a hill run on Thursday as planned, though the weather was so bad I cut it short by a few minutes, and I managed an hour on the treadmill on Saturday (I was not running outside on unfamiliar roads in that weather!). And I experienced firsthand just how much of a toll stress takes on the body – I had planned a 75 minute easy run on Saturday, but that treadmill run was just brutal and I think I’m coming down with a cold.

However, we got home on Sunday night and yesterday was more or less back in the routine. My diet yesterday was a bit higher in fat and calories than I like (clotted cream anyone?), but it was also high in fibre, fruits and vegetables. This is my rest week so I decided to forego my planned gym session, in the hope my niggling cold symptoms would go away (which they mostly have). I think this will be a very easy rest week, with gentle yoga and swimming, in order to let my body recover from the accumulated physical and emotional stresses of the past 3 weeks.

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1968.89	102.88g	231.85g	68.54g	0	32.28g
	21%	47%	31%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

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
	Sainsbury's Freefrom oats	50g
	with Sultanas	13g
	and walnuts	10g
	Sainsbury's Orange, Mango and Passionfruit juice	200mL
08:30	Black tea	500mL
09:30	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
10:45	Sainsbury's fruit and seed mix	40g
	Brazil nuts	6g
11:00	Lemon and ginger tea with honey	250mL
13:30	New Covent Garden Pea and Ham soup	300g
	Carrot sticks	45g
	Warburtons gluten free fruity tea cakes	1 bun
	with clotted cream	25g
	and strawberry jam	25g
	Fresh cherries	100g
14:00	Green Tea	250mL
15:30	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL
17:00	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Ilchester Applewood smoke flavoured cheddar	25g
20:00	Sainsbury's Pork loin	76g
	Boiled and mashed sweet potato	200g
	with butter	2g
	Steamed broccoli	110g
	Bisto Best pork gravy	about 5g
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.