I run because I love food

British Military Fitness was so hard tonight, I can barely bear to blog about it. Not sure my legs had recovered from Monday, and it was Johnny again tonight with more hill sprints. I felt sick for the duration of the class.

So onto an alternative subject that is close to my heart: food. More accurately, how to lose weight and still have enough energy for exercise. The Fat Runner has set himself a challenge to lose 6kg in three weeks – a tough one for anyone, but he’s making some progress. Tonight, he asks whether his eating habits would work for other runners.

I love food. Obviously. But I also have a natural propensity to put on weight – my Mum was very overweight for years after having me and my brother – to the point that she joined Slimming World and lost more than four stone. She’s kept the weight off for more than ten years too, but still has to be quite disciplined about what she eats.

I hate diets. For me, maintaining my weight (under 10 stone, and preferably a bit nearer to 9 and a half stone – I’m only 5′4″) means finding the right balance between eating and exercising. I’d crept up to around 10 stone 5 in the New Year,  so I wanted to lose a few pounds.

FatRunner thinks the following basic principles make sense:

1) Lots of water – your cells need it, and your liver needs it (and as your liver controls insulin, sugar metabolism and fat storage, it’s a good idea to keep him happy)
2) Not too much alcohol – lots of calories, dehydrates your liver (and makes him unhappy) and makes doner kebabs too appealing to resist
3) Lots of vegetables – generally low calories, and packed with minerals and vitamins and stuff
4) Restrict carbs other than for breakfast – not for any special reason other than (i) they are packed with calories which you probably don’t need at any time other than breakfast, and (ii) when I eat carbs at lunchtime, I feel sleepy in the afternoon
5) Restrict chemicals (processed foods, any drink which isn’t water, tea, or fresh fruit juice) – I’m not saying here that it’s impossible for our bodies to deal with chemicals (as some diets try to say) but that they need to be filtered out someway, which puts more pressure on the liver.

I’m totally in agreement with lots of water, not too much alcohol, lots of vegetables (I would add lots of fruit to that – bananas, raspberries and blueberries for snacking are staples on my shopping list). I’m not too sure about the idea of restricting carbs after breakfast. I feel I need carbs at lunchtime, especially if I’m exercising in the evening. I have gone through phases of cutting out carbs in evening meals, but not seen a dramatic effect in terms of weight loss.

As for chemicals, not sure exactly what FatRunner means here, but I do avoid ready-meals (which are evil) and – where possible – pre-prepared sandwiches and so on. The fat and salt content is absolutely unbelievable, and it’s all the more obvious now that most supermarkets have deployed the traffic light system on packaging.

FatRunner also mentions the following, as areas he doesn’t have an opinion on:

1) Red meat, white meat or fish? No idea. Fish is meant to be good for you but full of pollutants and/or unsustainable. White meat is lower in fat than red, but has less nutrients such as iron. Red tends to have a bit more fat. So I generally eat a mixture
2) Small meals throughout the day, or three standard meals? I always bought the ’small meals keeps your metabolism ramped up’ argument, but I’m not so sure… And apparently new research suggests it’s not true.

I eat loads of fish and avoid meat during the week (though I’m a sucker for a bacon sandwich or a steak at the weekend). And I’m more of a three-square-meals-and-some-snacks kind of a girl, than a “grazer”.

I’ve lost around half a stone since Christmas, and my typical daily food quota looks like this (I’d love to see it in the tube on Supersize/Superskinny).

Cup of tea

Breakfast: a big bowl of muesli

More tea

Snack at around 11am: Some fruit (banana or a big handful of berries)

More tea (and maybe a milky coffee around 11 if I’m flagging)

Lunch between 1-2pm: couple of wraps with avocado/salad, or cheese/tomato. Cheese is a bit of a weakness, but I try not to have it every day. Low-fat yoghurt.

More tea

Snack at 4pm: my energy levels plummet at this time (seemingly regardless of what I eat) and I’m extremely susceptible to the temptations of cake. So I take a little box of dried fruit and nuts (not a massive bag, otherwise I’d eat the whole lot). This is a relatively new addition to my daily food intake, and I think it’s really helping to overcome the I-need-cake-now-otherwise-I’m-going-to-hit-someone feeling that arrives like clockwork every day.

Erm, maybe one more cup of tea – and another banana if I’m exercising in the evening

Dinner between 7-8.30pm: typically pasta/homemade vegetable sauce, fish/salad, couscous/prawns, etc. Another yoghurt.

Evening snack: more of a habit than an actual need for food, but I always have some chocolate in. Sometimes I can get away with a little snack-sized bar; other times I eat half a bar of Green and Blacks. Or a whole Easter egg, on one recent occasion.

I might also have a cup of ginger tea with honey before bed, but no more caffeine.

Oooh, and plenty of water throughout the day – at least three or four pints; more if I’ve exercised before work.

Is that a lot? Not sure – but it seems to be working for me, at least in terms of maintaining a healthy weight and losing the odd pound here and there.

Obviously any semblance of a healthy existence goes completely out of the window at the weekends, when I eat more or less what I like. A (large) gin and tonic and half a bottle of wine with a curry (albeit homemade) on a Friday, bacon sarnie after a run on Saturday morning, hot chocolate and cake at Paul if I’m in town, more wine and another naughty meal on Saturday (I don’t hold back on the starters and desserts when out at restaurants)…the list just goes on and on.

Ah well, nobody can be good all of the time…