Getting Better Just in Time for New Year's

A much better day all around. My muscle soreness had gone by yesterday morning and I was feeling much better, so not only did I get some work done in the morning but my resistance workout in the afternoon went very well. I was also eating better, getting more protein, complex carbohydrates and vegetables. Unfortunately I fell into the dieting trap of getting too few calories, with less than 1550 calories consumed at 8:30pm. Which is when I decided a cheese plate was just the thing to get my total up, then a couple of cookies can’t hurt, then a nightcap . . . which led to a low percentage of protein and a high percentage of fat.  I don’t really mind the final calorie count though, because not only did I workout yesterday, but 2050 is still 500 calories less than I had the day before!

Hopefully this trend for working out and eating less will continue so that I’ll be back into my routine by Tuesday. Of course, tonight being New Year’s Eve I doubt I’ll manage to eat and drink less! Even though my husband and I are not going out, we’ll still be having a bit of a celebration here!

Happy New Year all!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2055.24	95.54g	246.83g	71.13g	7.8g	23.47g
	19%	48%	31%	2.5%
Calories burned through exercise:		416

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
09:30	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Poached eggs	2 large
	Nairn's Gluten Free Porridge oats	50g
	with Sultanas	20g
	Essential Waitrose Pressed apple juice	150mL
10:15	Black Tea	500mL
11:30	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
13:30	New Covent Garden Pea and Ham soup	300g
	Genius brown bread toast	1 slice
	Brussels Mini Pâté Packs	20g
	Spinach	25g
	Raw tomato	100g
	Kraft Light Honey Mustard dressing	15g
14:30	Green Tea	250mL
15:30	Resistance workout
	TriBerry Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
16:45	Sponser Vanilla Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
	Seedless Red Grapes	100g
18:00	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL
20:15	Baked salmon	85g
	Mixed brown, white and wild rice	120g
	Microwaved broccoli	100g
21:00	Waitrose Long Clawson Creamy Blue Stilton	15g
	Waitrose Cornish Quartz Cheddar	30g
	Waitrose Wensleydale with Cranberries	30g
	Fresh pineapple	111g
21:30	Homemade sugar cookies	40g
22:00	Harvey's Bristol Cream Sherry	50g

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

My First Swimming Hangover

I was in seriously rough shape yesterday morning. I knew I’d pushed it with the swimming the day before but I woke up with a pounding headache and legs so sore I could hardly get out of bed. Not to mention that I slept almost ten hours straight! I also think that maybe I didn’t get enough protein or something my body needed to start the recovery process because I haven’t had such sore muscles in a long time, no matter how hard I trained.

So my morning started with an electrolyte tablet in a big glass of water (I was really hoping it was a dehydration headache because that is easy to fix), then breakfast, then a couple of painkillers, then a bath with muscle salts. By about noon I was almost ready to face the day. Then I was out all afternoon, after which my headache returned, so I had a rather substantial snack at 5pm. From a timing point of view, not the best move as I wasn’t hungry for dinner at all so just had some beans. Can you guess what happened next? No points for saying an evening of snacking on the couch! On the plus side all the sugar did wonders for my mood and energy levels. And there are now no mince pies or chocolates of any kind left in the house.

Clearly I need to get better at listening to my body when I’m training and fuelling it properly after!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2458.47	82.45g	335.64g	87.16g	0	26.46g
	13%	55%	32%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
09:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Orange Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	500mL
	Essential Waitrose unsmoked British back bacon medallions	80g
	Gluten Free fruit muesli	70g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Essential Waitrose Pressed apple juice	200mL
10:30	Lemon and Ginger Tea	250mL
12:00	Black Tea	500mL
12:45	Turkey and butternut squash risotto	300g
	Skim milk	210mL
	Homemade sugar cookies	38g
17:00	Genius brown bread toast	1 slice
	Brussels Mini Pâté Packs	20g
	Waitrose Wensleydale with Cranberries	30g
	Red Grapes	100g
18:00	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL
19:30	Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt	200g
	Tomato	130g
20:15	Sainsbury's Freefrom iced topped mince pies	2 pies
	Waitrose Cornish Quartz Cheddar	32g
20:45	Quality Street chocolates	4 pieces
21:15	Homemade candied almonds	20g
	2 Satsumas (Mandarin oranges)	125g

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

Cleaning up the Christmas Leftovers

I seem to be going for the ridiculously high calories for a couple of days approach to finishing off the Christmas treats, rather than spreading everything out over several days. On the plus side, we are finally running out of some things, such as stuffing and Quality Street chocolates. On the downside, I will definitely have put on a few pounds just in time for my monthly weigh in on January 1^st. Back to keeping the treats out of the house!

I did get to the gym yesterday, where I was careful to ease into my new weight routine by only doing one circuit, though I did manage a full 30 minutes of swimming,. Still I found it really hard and I was really feeling it afterwards. I was supposed to make dinner but was so tired after my swim that I asked my husband to do so – at 7:30. So even though I had a second recovery shake an hour after the first one, I was still starving at 7:30, which is when I started on the candy. My timing has definitely been off this week, and a direct contributor to how much junk food I’ve been having, especially in the evenings.

Hopefully I’ll manage to get back into a more normal routine soon, with more exercise and less snacking in the evening!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2534.65	98.81g	357.79g	78.96g	0	35.55g
	16%	56%	28%
Calories burned through exercise:		400

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
08:30	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Gluten Free fruit muesli	70g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Essential Waitrose Pressed apple juice	200mL
09:30	Black Tea	500mL
11:00	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
	Homemade pumpkin pie	130g
12:00	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL
13:30	Diced chicken breast	70g
	Mrs Crimble's Sage and Onion stuffing	117g
	Green Giant Creamed Style Sweetcorn	140g
	Roasted Butternut Squash with Olive Oil	239g
14:15	Green Tea	250mL
15:30	Resistance workout + 30 min swim
	TriBerry Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
17:15	Sponser Strawberry-Banana Recovery Drink in water	60g
18:15	Sponser Vanilla Recovery Shake	30g
	mixed with skim milk	210mL
	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL
19:30	Quality Street chocolates	9 pieces
	Homemade candied almonds	17g
20:30	Chicken and mushroom bake	250g
	Merchant Gourmet tinned puy lentils	120g

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

A Day at the Races

My husband and I engaged in that most British of traditions yesterday: we went to the winter race festival at Kempton Park. Never having been to any kind of racing before I came here, nothing says British to me like horse racing and the obsession with betting on everything. This year we had good weather and we managed to get there early enough to get tickets in the premier enclosure, so we could stand at the finish line and have a good view of the parade ring from the balcony above. I like to see the horses before they run, as my strategy is basically to bet on whoever looks lively. As I know nothing about horses sometimes this works, more often it doesn't!

As usual one of the problems with being out from 10am to 4:30pm is finding gluten free food. We knew there was plenty of food at the park, but there seemed to be fewer gluten free choices than I remembered from last year. There were burger carts, crepe carts, cafe carts, fish and chips carts, pizza stalls . . .  nothing that really screamed safe to eat for the Celiac on the go. I ended up getting some shredded roast pork, without the baguette or stuffing it usually comes with, and some fries. This brings me to second problem with food at these places: quality. The pork and fries were so greasy I literally could not eat more than a few mouthfuls. It not only tasted awful (which is a rare feat with fries) but it hit my stomach like a lead brick and I swear I could feel my gallbladder labouring to provide enough bile to digest all that fat.

So, no real lunch and while I had brought a peanut protein ball as a snack, it wasn’t really enough to sustain me all afternoon, even with a chocolate bar and tea. No surprise then that I arrived home exhausted and hungry, which led to a good hour of snacking in front of the TV. Note to self: Next time bring a packed lunch!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2756.55	104.22g	349.04g	104.68g	0	17.08g
	15%	51%	34%
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
	Sainsbury's Be Good to Yourself smoked bacon medallions	45g
	Nairn's Gluten Free Porridge oats	50g
	with Sultanas	20g
	Essential Waitrose Pressed apple juice	200mL
10:45	Starbucks Eggnog latte	Tall
12:00	Pulled roasted pork	about 30g
	French Fries	about 10 fries
	Black Tea	350mL
13:15	Galaxy Chocolate bar	46g
14:30	Bounce Peanut Protein blast	49g
	Black tea with milk and sugar	350mL
16:45	Turkey and butternut squash risotto	300g
	TriBerry Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	500mL
17:30	Homemade sugar cookies	45g
	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
18:15	Quality Street chocolates	9 pieces
20:15	Homemade chilli	350g
	Doritos Hint of lime corn chips	22g

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