The Benefits of Dark Chocolate

Once again I had a pretty good diet and exercise day. I was back into my normal routine and feeling pretty good, so had no trouble sticking to my normal diet. Almost perfect nutrient balance, high in fibre, enough fruit and veg . . . could have done with a smaller helping of dark chocolate last night, but having four squares instead of 2 squares is only an extra 100 calories on a day where I did a workout, so I’m not too bothered.

Actually, having dark chocolate on a regular basis is recommended by doctors to help prevent heart disease and some cancers. Cocoa powder is high in flavonols and polyphenols, substances that are powerful antioxidants. This means they clean up the free radicals caused by sunlight, pollution and our own body’s metabolic processes. Left unchecked, these highly reactive molecules can damage the DNA of cells which slows down healing and can ultimately lead to cancer and heart disease. When you exercise your body produces more free radicals because all your metabolic processes speed up to provide enough energy to fuel your workout. So for athletes, getting plenty of antioxidants is essential to prevent more free radical damage and to speed up the recovery process. As well, the flavonoids in dark chocolate also have anti-inflammatory properties which mean they help reduce the swelling caused by hard exercise, reducing next day muscle soreness.

If it weren’t quite so high in fat (and therefore calories) chocolate really would be a guilt free food!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1900.09	119.13g	221.52g	61.09g	0	41.26g
	25%	47%	29%
Calories burned through exercise:		351

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	20g
	and walnuts	10g
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
08:30	Black Tea	500mL
10:30	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Cox Apple	117g
	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
11:45	Herbal fruit tea	250mL
13:00	Genius brown bread toast	1 Slice
	Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt	200g
	Spinach leaves	30g
	Raw tomato	57g
	Kraft Light Honey Mustard dressing	10g
	Wensleydale with cranberries	23g
	Brie	26g
13:30	Green Tea	250mL
14:00	Weight routine
	Lemon lime Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
15:30	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
18:45	Twinings Camomile, honey and vanilla tea	250mL
20:00	Quick cook Turkey Steak	88g
	Merchant Gourmet tinned puy lentils	100g
	Boiled carrots	75g
	Frozen peas	85g
	Ocean Spray Smooth cranberry sauce	20g
	Bisto Best Chicken Gravy	about 5g
20:45	Lindt Excellence 70% cocoa dark chocolate	40g

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

Avoiding Starvation Mode

Yesterday was a pretty good diet for a rest day, except I wasn’t getting enough calories! I was adding up my meals for the day after dinner last night and realized I’d only had 1285 calories. I wasn’t overly hungry either, though admittedly I hadn’t done much all day either (except go out and buy my first pair of skinny jeans – and I had far more trouble finding a pair that fit over my muscular calves than ones that fit my hips and waist, which is a first). While I am trying to lose a couple of kilos, cutting back on too many calories can send your body into starvation mode. In order to survive the “famine” your body slows the metabolism right down and stores as much fat as it can, making it that much harder to lose weight.  So in order to prevent that, I’m trying to make sure I never go below 1600 calories per day. Hence the Muller Rice pudding last night followed by blueberries and cheese an hour later.

Overall it was a much better diet week than just about any I’ve had since Christmas. Not only did I do all the workouts I had planned, but I managed to keep the calories down most days, and vary my intake based on how much exercise I’d done. Unfortunately getting double the calories on Friday (from cheese, chocolate and wine) pretty much negated all my careful work the rest of the time! My average daily calories for the week were 2060, despite 4 of the last 7 days being less than 1850 calories. On average I was getting 21% protein, 48% carbohydrates, 28% fats and 3% alcohol, with a respectable 28g of fibre. Not a terrible nutrient balance, but I would have preferred more protein and fewer carbohydrates and alcohol. And again that balance changed a lot from day to day, with 22% fat one day and 33% the next.

So this week’s goal is more of the same, only without the giant binge day!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1668.63	103.25g	202.42g	51.27g	0	31.39g
	25%	48%	28%
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
	Whole Scrambled egg with 2 egg whites	3 eggs
	Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt	185g
	Mushrooms	100g
	in butter	5g
	Raw tomato	120g
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	100mL
10:30	Black Tea	500mL
12:15	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
13:15	Turkey cottage pie	270g
	Irish Yoghurts Diet Apricot and Nectarine	125g
14:00	Green Tea	250mL
17:00	Sponser Protein Snack bar	1 bar
18:00	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL
19:30	Sainsbury's Pork loin	53g
	Boiled and mashed sweet potato	200g
	with butter	2g
	Steamed broccoli	85g
	Bisto Best pork gravy	about 5g
20:00	Muller Rice smooth toffee	190g
21:00	Blueberries	110g
	Extra Mature cheddar	25g
21:30	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.

Supporting my Long Run

Pretty much my entire day yesterday was centred on my long run. My husband and I had a good lie in then a very leisurely brunch. As I knew I would be running for over an hour and not having a mid morning snack, I ate more carbohydrates than I normally would (toast and jam with blueberries on the side). While I do understand the concept of training the body to burn more fat by running in a carbohydrate depleted state, it only works if you can control your cravings after the run as well. The last time I did an hour I was exhausted, headachy and craving sugar and carbs all evening.

So not only did I eat a large breakfast, I also took a small (250mL) bottle of sports drink on the run. I don’t know if it was the drink or if I am just getting fitter, but the run went really well. I had no trouble maintaining an even, easy pace and I had little trouble keeping my heart rate down until the very end. When we got back we did a good 30 minutes of cool down and stretching, immediately followed by lunch, a shower then a nap. This combination seems to have done the trick – no headache, reasonably awake and alert the rest of the evening, and no particular craving for sweets.

While I am trying to lose a couple more kilos of body fat, I’m not willing to sacrifice my running performance or feel like crap all the time. So from now on I will be taking on some carbs during my long runs, in order to prevent the headaches and cravings after. And in truth I doubt the 70 calories from the sports drink will make that big a difference when I’m burning 500 calories an hour. Now the amount of cheese I had for an afternoon snack, with its 22g of fat, I doubt that did me any favours in the weight loss department!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2181.62	106.22g	262.40g	80.58g	0	32.69g
	19%	48%	33%
Calories burned through exercise:		603

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
10:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Scrambled eggs	2 large
	Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt	185g
	Mushrooms	100g
	in butter	5g
	Raw tomato	120g
	Genius brown bread toast	1 Slice
	with Flora Light	5g
	and St Dalfour 4 Fruits jam	16g
	Blueberries	100g
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
	Black tea with milk and sugar	400mL
12:45	Long slow run - 60 min
	250mL Sponser Isotonic fruit mix drink	20g (1 scoop)
14:00	Lemon lime Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
14:45	New Covent Garden Moroccan Tagine soup	300g
	Genius brown bread toast	1 Slice
	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
17:00	Green Tea	250mL
18:00	Saint Agur Blue cheese	15g
	Brie	28g
	Extra Mature cheddar	15g
	Wensleydale with cranberries	21g
	Red grapes	95g
19:00	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
20:15	Baked salmon	100g
	Merchant Gourmet Red and White Quinoa	100g
	Kraft Light Honey Mustard dressing	10g
	Stir fried Kale	33g
	in Olive oil	7.5mL
	with Pine nuts	3g
	Sainsbury's Be good to Yourself chocolate mousse	62.5g
22:00	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.

Taking Comfort Eating to New Heights

I had a rather disappointing couple of days. Late on Thursday night I got an e-mail saying I would not be dancing in the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics, despite my making the call back auditions, because they have decided to use mostly kids. Ironically I had applied to be a general volunteer for the Olympics as well and my interview was supposed to be yesterday morning. I had already left the house and was almost at Waterloo station when I discovered my interview had been moved to the end of March at the last minute (thank goodness for e-mail on my blackberry).

So there I am in the centre of London at 9:30am with nothing to do until 1:00pm. I decided to go by the National Gallery and see if I could get into the Da Vinci exhibit. I arrived in Trafalgar Square only to discover people had been lining up before dawn for tickets and there were none left for today.  That’s when I decided to spend my way happy and headed to Oxford Street. I ended up getting two lovely tops (on my credit card of course) after spending over an hour trying on the store with the most helpful shop assistant. And yes I was feeling better when I headed over to meet a friend for lunch at 1:00pm. I was emerging from the underground at 20 minutes to one when I get a text message from her saying she has to cancel! So I just turned around and went back to Oxford Street. I came out of the Bond Street tube station, saw a sign, and on a whim decided to have lunch at Claridge’s Hotel – just because I had never been there before. It was lovely, very relaxing, and of course the food was delicious. Needless to say I’m guessing at the calorie counts for that meal, as I’m not even sure what was in parts of it!

I did have a couple of meetings in the afternoon, so I got home about 6:30pm feeling tired, drained, and somewhat depressed again. Then my husband arrived home with a large bouquet of flowers, a bottle of good red wine, the makings of an excellent cheese tray, and chocolates. Clearly he had decided that the best way to improve my mood was through food! And you know what? He was right!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
3222.55	143.52g	309.83g	119.41g	46.5g	23.91g
	18%	39%	33%	10%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

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
	Sainsbury's Freefrom oats	50g
	with Sultanas	20g
	and walnuts	10g
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
08:00	Black Tea	500mL
11:00	Sainsbury's fruit and seed mix	40g
	Glaceau vitamin water, defence	500mL
13:15	Goats cheese mousse and Beetroot salad	1 serving
13:30	Butter basted chicken breast	150g
	Potato square	50g
	Celeriac mousse	30g
13:45	Crème brulée garnished with glazed fruit	about 250g
	Tea with milk and sugar	2 cups
19:30	Saint Agur Blue cheese	25g
	Brie	37g
	Extra Mature cheddar	30g
	Wensleydale with cranberries	44g
	Brussels Mini Paté Packs	22g
	Waitrose Caramelised red onion chutney	36g
	Red grapes	105g
	Mrs Crimbles's Cheese crackers	43g
	Amisa Buckwheat crisp bread	11g
	Red wine	150mL
20:30	Red wine	150mL
21:00	Waitrose Marc de champagne and amaretto truffle mini eggs	92g
22:30	Red wine	150mL
23:00	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.