One good day in a week of too much Chocolate

This was one of the healthier diet days I’ve had in the past week. Actually stayed below 2000 calories, 5+ servings of fruit and veg (the bean stew has 2-3 servings of vegetables since its all vegetables and beans in a tomato base), high in fibre, and no junk food. Despite the lack of junk food (the sorbet was only 140 calories and was made with pureed fruit) it was surprisingly high in fat, though most of that was from good fats in the olive oil and avocados. However, it does mean that once again I am short on protein and higher on fats than I would like.

Overall this lack of balance, coupled with an abundance of calories from chocolate, was a major theme last week. I averaged 2325 calories a day with less than 100 calories a day burned through exercise (I only had one body balance workout and one 30 minute race), with 20% of those calories from protein, 51% from carbohydrates and 29% from fat. At the start of the month when I decided to up the amount of carbohydrates to 50% of my diet, the idea was to keep the amount of protein at 25% and drop the amount of fat from 30% to less than 25%. However last week most of my “extra” carbohydrates can from sweet treats, which are also full of fat. The worst part is this was a rest week, so the excess fats are likely to hang around because they were not used to fuel exercise, while the lack of protein may have impaired the muscle building that’s supposed to happen in a rest week.

This week I will be in Switzerland on business, so it’s going to get harder to keep my nutrients balanced. I used to live in Zurich, so I do have the advantage of knowing where to go to get gluten free food. The bad news is that I also know gluten free food is less available and less well known in Switzerland than it is in the UK. So my goals this week: Get in all my workouts and get enough to eat. Worry about calories and nutrient balance next week.

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1916.47	98.21g	238.90g	64.41g	0	29.0g
	20.5%	50%	30%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
09:00	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
	Genius brown bread toast	2 slices
	with Flora Light	8g
	St Dalfour Blackcurrant jam	32g
	Sainsbury's Orange, Mango and Passionfruit juice	200mL
10:00	Black Tea	500mL
12:00	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
13:45	Baked chicken breast	125g
	Mashed potato	200g
	with butter	6g
	Stir fried Kale	50g
	in Olive oil	7.5mL
	with Pine nuts	4g
	Bisto Best Chicken Gravy	about 5g
	Sainsbury's Bramley apple sauce	30g
14:30	Green Tea	250mL
17:00	Fresh Strawberries	100g
	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
20:45	Lee's Hippy Farm Beans (Leon's recipe book)	350g
	Fresh avocado	60g
	Alpro Soya Original	200mL
21:30	Sainsbury’s Raspberry Sorbet	132g
22:15	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.

Why Love Leads to Weight Gain

I was feeling a bit stiff from my Body Balance class yesterday morning, but I felt oddly better. I had a really productive morning at work, feeling quite up and focussed. Yesterday afternoon I decided a nap was a better use of my rest week time than another workout, and it did leave me feeling refreshed and well able for my 5pm meeting. I also had a pretty good diet day, right up until my husband came home with yet more Easter chocolates! Even though I was full from my dinner last night, I couldn’t resist having some chocolate when my husband was sat next to me on the sofa digging into his.

There is something about the prevalence of chocolates around Easter. I like to think I am pretty savvy to the effect of advertising on my life, but apparently I am not immune to the temptation of cheap Easter chocolates piled high around the entrance to every shop. Though to be fair, it’s my husband and not I who has been buying them. I have asked him not to, but his argument is that he would feel bad buying for himself and not for me, and that I would probably end up nicking half of his anyways. And to be fair he is trying to be sweet, bringing me a surprise treat, so I feel bad refusing it.

The problem is that I have not self control when it comes to chocolates, even when I’ve just eaten a good meal. If I could have a few pieces, or the equivalent of just one normal sized, 200 calorie bar, it would be fine. One of those giant Easter eggs would last for at least a week and I would get a daily treat that didn’t blow everything out of proportion. But once I start, I just can’t seem to stop, and if I know it’s in the house, I just have to have it.

There is still plenty of chocolate in the house so it looks like this is not going to be the week where I get my calories back under 2000!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2368.45	126.61g	290.49g	79.00g	0	34.34g
	21%	49%	30%
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
	Nature's Path Gluten Free O's	60g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry 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
	Plums	105g
11:30	Green Tea	250mL
13:15	Princes tuna chunks in water	63g
	with Hellman's Light mayonnaise	12g
	and Branston gherkin relish	10g
	on Genius brown bread toast	2 slices
	Tomato	85g
	Skim milk	200mL
	Sainsbury's Be Good to Yourself chocolate mousse	62.5g
15:30	Green Tea	250mL
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill
16:30	Sponser Protein Snack bar	1 bar
18:45	Strawberry lemonade Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	500mL
19:30	Cook Moroccan Spiced lamb Tagine	280g
	Merchant Gourmet Red and White Quinoa	100g
	Galaxy milk chocolate	63g
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.

Overdosing on Carbohydrates

A very off balance day for me yesterday, and I don’t quite know how it happened. I didn’t sleep very well and I woke up feeling very stiff and sore from my interval run the day before and generally depressed and unmotivated. I decided to do my weight routine anyways, but skipped the half hour of cycling or swimming that normally goes with it. It did help me feel better, but then I was craving sweets afterwards, despite only burning about 250 calories, so had some toast and lemon curd. Lunch was leftover stir fry as planned, with a yoghurt to try and add some protein, and I had a protein snack bar in the afternoon for the same reason.

Despite this, I got to 5pm and my food diary showed I’d had about 1400 calories but over 60% were from carbohydrates and only 17% from fat. So when we went out for dinner that evening, so I skipped the appetiser and ordered a big meaty rack of ribs, thinking protein and fat.  Well you can find nutritional information on Tony Roma’s meals online and it turns out the sweet barbeque sauce adds over 60g of carbohydrates! The baked beans I had on the side for extra protein had the same problem. OK, I know the two sweet cocktails didn’t help, but still!

I suspect my being so tired contributed to my cravings for sweets (and alcohol) so with any luck a good night’s sleep with sort me out!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2677.34	120.31g	362.93g	50.95g	45.80g	33.21g
	18%	54%	17%	12%
Calories burned through exercise:		263

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
	Whole Scrambled egg with 2 egg whites	3 eggs
	Nature's Path Gluten Free O's	60g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
08:00	Black Tea	500mL
09:30	Resistance workout
	Strawberry lemonade Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
11:00	Sponser Vanilla Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
	Genius brown bread toast	1 slice
	with Flora Light	4g
	and Waitrose Lemon Curd	15g
12:00	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
13:15	Prawn stir fry in Oyster sauce	270g
	Instant Rice Vermicelli noodles	47g
	Irish Yoghurts Diet Strawberry	125g
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill
15:00	Green Tea	250mL
17:00	Sponser Protein Snack bar	1 bar
18:15	Cosmopolitan cocktail	1 serving
19:15	Tony Roma's Original Baby Back Ribs half rack	1 serving
	Tony Roma's Garlic mushrooms	1 cup
	Tony Roma's Barbeque beans with bacon	1 cup
	Cosmopolitan cocktail	1 serving
21:30	Lemon Tea Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
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.

Curry as a Treat

A much better day all around. Not only was it bright and sunny again, but I did get a good night’s sleep so was feeling more awake and motivated. I had a good morning working away at my desk, was able to eat quite sensibly, and had no problems doing my weight routine. Where it falls down a bit is with the dinner. Chicken curry with rice, salad and a couple of poppadoms doesn’t look like a lot of food on the plate, but it came in at over 800 calories and almost 30g of fat!

I always have this image of Asian food, from India to China to Thailand, as being healthier than traditional Western food. Which may or may not be true, but that doesn’t mean its low calorie! Until I came to England I had never considered having a curry as a regular meal, either as a take away or something made at home. Growing up I thought we did OK for international food at home – we had traditional Western meat and potatoes meals, but also Italian pasta, Mexican tacos and fajitas, “Chinese” stir fries and Ukrainian perogies and cabbage rolls. But the prairies in Canada were mainly settled by Europeans, so finding truly Asian meals like Indian curries and Japanese sushi was rather difficult. It’s changing now but I still remember the first time I had Japanese food was when I went to University in Vancouver in 1996.

This being the case I still view many Asian foods as occasional treats and as such am rubbish at estimating calories and fat grams in these meals. I’m sure there are lower calories versions, but for the moment I’d best keep my curries as occasional treats!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2193.34	129.01g	269.61g	65.67g	0	24.85g
	24%	49%	27%
Calories burned through exercise:		273

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:15	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
09:30	Black Tea	500mL
10:00	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
10:30	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Satsumas	105g
	Irish Yoghurts Diet Strawberry	125g
12:45	Homemade cottage pie	1 serving
	Alpro soya original	200mL
	Raw Tomato	113g
	Sainsbury's Be Good to Yourself chocolate mousse	62.5g
13:15	Green Tea	250mL
14:15	Resistance workout
	Strawberry lemonade Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
15:15	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
20:00	Loyd Grossman Rogan Josh sauce with chicken added	265g
	Tilda Lime & Coriander rice	125g
	Waitrose baby leaf salad	25g
	Sharwood’s plain poppadoms	2 poppadoms
	with Sharwood’s Mango chutney	50g
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.