Surprises Travelling to Zurich

Travelling days are always hard, whether you are a Celiac struggling to find food you can eat or someone determined to stick to a healthy diet. I had a flight to Zurich at 11:30am yesterday, which pretty much dominated the day. Just a short hop (2 hours) to Zurich, which means they only provide “snacks” on the flight. And invariably this means no food for Celiac’s or other “special diets”.  Knowing this, I made sure to get a good snack of nuts and dried fruit (OK, and chocolate) at the airport before boarding the plane. However, I was still very annoyed when the “snack” was a sandwich – with no gluten free alternatives despite putting gluten free on my ticket when I booked it. Not only that, but the staff had not even been told!

So, a latish lunch of sushi at the airport before heading to my friends where I was staying. To my surprise, I discovered my friend had taken up the latest fad diet – the 4 hour body diet. Basically, it’s a version of the low carb, paleo diet – No wheat or grain based carbohydrates (bread, pasta, porridge, etc.), no fruit, no dairy, nothing with white sugar, and lots of meat, fish, eggs, beans, lentils and vegetables.  Like most of these diets, it’s not so much what you eat that makes you drop weight so fast, but the fact that most of these foods are MUCH lower in calories than the ones you cut out. Going from 2500 calories a day to 1200 calories a day – of course you’re going to lose weight like crazy!

Which is why I went out and bought my own milk and juice for breakfast and ended up eating a gluten free hot cross bun with a glass of milk a couple of hours after our dinner of grilled chicken and salad. I’m not a dieter, I’m a runner, so I do need the carbohydrates!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2483.35	128.94g	318.38g	76.63g	0	37.64g
	21%	51%	28%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:00	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
	Sainsbury's Orange, Mango and Passionfruit juice	200mL
07:30	Black Tea	500mL
10:45	Sainsbury's fruit and seed mix	40g
	Brazil nuts	6g
	Galaxy smooth milk chocolate	42g
	Glaceau Vitamin Water, Revive	500mL
12:30	Black Tea	100mL
13:30	Maki and Nigiri sushi	10 pieces
	Edamame	1/2 cup
	Apfel Schorle	500mL
16:45	Fresh Strawberries	105g
	Sponser Protein Snack bar	1 bar
18:30	Grilled chicken breast	about 100g
	with Cattlemen's Classic Barbecue sauce	about 1 tbsp
	Spinach salad	50g
	with tomato	about 100g
	avocado	1/2 of one
	broccoli	2 florets
	strawberries	50g
	truffle olive oil	1 tsp
	and white balsamic vinegar	1 tsp
20:00	Sainsbury's Freefrom Hot cross buns	1 bun
	2% milk	about 200mL

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.

A Beautiful Spring Day

It was beautiful spring day yesterday – sunny and the temperature got all the way up to 18 C. So I took advantage of the fact I run my own company from home to go out and enjoy the weather. I went for lunch with a friend, where we sat on a terrace by the river in the sun. La Tasca has a new menu, which seems to have more gluten free options (including chorizo!), however, still no nutritional information there or on the website so calories wise your guess is as good as mine. Then I wandered into town and paused at a new bakery on the corner, Sweet Revenge, which was advertising “Gluten free cakes this weekend!” in the window. So I went in and had a cup of tea and a chat with the server, who revealed that the owner and baker was herself a celiac so they offer 2 flavours of gluten free cupcakes every weekend and any flavour of gluten free cakes on order. I even snuck a slightly stale red velvet gluten free cake from last weekend, which was still lovely.

However, after my lunch and a cake I definitely needed a run that afternoon. My husband was home early so we went out for my interval/fartlek run together. On the one hand, it was a bright sunny day, I was feeling somewhat fresh and my husband really pushed me to sprint all out during my fast fartleks. On the downside, my husband was also feeling really fresh and was really pushing me to work hard during my fast fartleks.  I thought I was going to die, or at least throw up a couple of times. I could feel my quads working far harder than I’m used to and my heart rate never got below 165 bpm – and spent most of its time above 175 bpm.

I was so tired afterwards I couldn’t face making dinner, so ended up having a ready meal from Waitrose, and I can hardly move this morning my legs are so sore. However, no pain no gain and this is how we get faster, right?

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2399.18	113.98g	278.86g	92.13g	0	28.69g
	19%	46%	35%
Calories burned through exercise:		383

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
	Sainsbury's Freefrom oats	50g
	with Sultanas	20g
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
08:00	Black Tea	500mL
09:15	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
10:15	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Plums	125g
	Irish Yoghurts Diet Apricot and Nectarine	125g
11:00	Twinings Camomile, honey and vanilla tea	250mL
13:00	La Tasca Chorizo	1/2 serving
	La Tasca Paellla Valencia	1/2 serving
	La Tasca Babyleaf salad with oil and vinegar dressing	1 serving
	La Tasca Vegetable Gratin	1/2 serving
	La Tasca Tortilla Espanola	1/2 serving
14:15	Gluten Free Red Velvet cupcake	1 cake
	Green tea	250mL
15:15	Interval Run - 33 minutes
16:00	Strawberry lemonade Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
16:30	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill
20:00	Waitrose Love Life Beef with mushroom & red wine gravy	1 serving
	Waitrose red cabbage	120g
20:30	Fresh pineapple	168g
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.

When Salad is the Only Choice

Yesterday was a more typical day for me when I’m travelling. Good breakfast, small lunch comparatively low in carbohydrates, and an afternoon snack I brought myself. We spent the day doing touristy things, first at the British Museum then at the Tower of London, finishing off with Tower Bridge. We had lunch at the British Museum cafe, which is normally OK for gluten free food, with fresh fruit, crisps and the occasional gluten free brownie for snacks, though you tend to be limited to salads for mains. Yesterday however, there was only one main meal choice as the other two salads had couscous in them and the soup was not gluten free. Disappointing to say the least!

Oddly enough, this meant I was low, not on carbohydrates, but on protein. I’ve found that I can usually find some fruit or nuts, and I can always get a bag of crisps or a chocolate bar, when I need extra carbohydrates and fats. It’s when you need a proper meal with plenty of protein that you struggle. Actually I have this theory that gluten free food is either fresh, natural, and expensive, or completely processed, fake and cheap. It’s the middle of the road chain restaurants and chic cafes that have very little in the way of gluten free choices. These types of restaurants also tend to rely on traditional Western foods which often use wheat – pizza, pasta, pies, bread, cakes . . . even soups and gravies are thickened with wheat flour. Not only are these foods cheaper, but things like sandwiches or pork pies can be made up in advance and served throughout the day. More importantly, it means your protein comes together with your glutinous carbohydrates.Or how I end up getting a salad more often than not when I end up in a cafe!

I swear if I hadn’t already been prone to trying different ethnic cuisines, following a gluten free diet would have forced me to it!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2006.80	88.56g	252.20g	62.91g	15.5g	26.62g
	18%	50%	28%	5%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

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
	Whole Scrambled egg with 2 egg whites	3 eggs
	Mesa Sunrise cereal	60g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	150mL
09:00	Black Tea	500mL
12:45	Spinach salad	1/2 cup
	with avocado	1/4 of 1
	and King Prawns	5 prawns
	and beans	1/4 cup
	Pipers Crisp Co Cheddar and onion	40g
	This Water Lemons and Limes	420mL
15:30	Sponser Protein Snack bar	1 bar
	Black Tea	350mL
18:00	Strawberry lemonade Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
19:45	Homemade Cottage pie	1.5 servings
	Salad with tomatoes and vinaigrette	1 cup
	Red Wine	150mL
20:15	Sainsbury's Be Good to Yourself chocolate mousse	62.5g
	Caffeine free Black Tea with milk and sugar	350mL
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.