Up North and going great

It’s been a few weeks since my last blog, and I’ve been settling in really nicely. I’ve actually been really busy training and travelling all over the place that I haven’t had time to write. However, during this time I’ve had two major things on my mind. Food and over training.

The feedback I got from recording what I eat was basically that I do eat really well, but then I’ll top it off with some ice cream or chocolate or take away, which kinda negates the good food I’ve eaten. Seeing as I am back in training mode again, I’ve made a conscious decision to try to cut down on the treats. Not cut them out completely, because at the end of the day that would make me go mental, and also at the end of the day my goal is to eat to perform, but if I’m not happy with what I eat then it’s just not going to work at all.

But I have re-jigged my meals through the day. I’m trying to eat breakfast, then have second breakfast, then have lunch, then work out, then have dinner. It’s kind of working for me, but I have found that second breakfast does just turn in to me snacking on the meal I created whilst sitting at my desk, rather than eating it in one go. But if I get the good calories in it shouldn’t matter how spread out they are?

Each meal is basically a protein source and a veg source.

For breakfast I’ve made some poached egg with tomato, mushrooms, onion, spinach, beans (not baked beans) concoction (this week I threw in spring greens instead of spinach and bacon instead of beans).

For second breakfast I’ve been having these delicious tuna flavoured pots. Wow they are so tasty. They come with a lid to re-seal them, but they are so tiny! Who would eat just half a can I have no idea. To accompany the tuna I had sweet potato and peas last week, but this week I had sugar snap peas and houmous (and red pepper).

For lunch I’ve had salad and either chicken or pork.

For dinner I’ve had corn on the cob, Green veg (asparagus, broccoli etc), and either chicken or pork.

So as you can see, really simple, but I’ve getting so much more veg in my diet than previously. I do get bored really quickly with food, so I do try to switch things up as much as possible. Last year when I followed my sports nutrition diet, I had so much chicken breast that by the end I just could not physically put it in my mouth. I really don’t want to get to that place again, so I’m gonna try have more pork and beef and fish this time.

TMI alert! Skip this paragraph if you’re just not in to toilet humour (literally). So, I’m gonna tell you something other people probably don’t tell you when you start to eat so much healthy food. It makes you poo, a lot. Likely seriously I need the toilet ALL THE TIME! And it’s the kind that doesn’t flush! You need to stand there for ages waiting for the water to re-fil so you can give it another shot! Very frustrating, but I’m pretty sure that regular bowel movements is good for your health, something to do with reducing bowel cancer? I dunno, but I’ll take it as a good sign.

So the other thing that’s been on my mind is over training. My new CrossFit gym have wise words of wisdom at the end of every session intended to make you think, and one of the sessions little chats was about over training and making sure you’re killing yourself in the gym without getting the adequate time off to recover.

I don’t know why, but for some reason I suddenly got all paranoid, like they were directing it at me, because I basically moved in to their gym and haven’t left for three weeks (bar to use the toilet :P) - I like to think of it as a bolus dose of exercise to kick start my regime - So after a couple of sleepless nights (mostly from the adrenaline still pumping through my veins from the workout I did), I had a chat with the head coach and straightened things out. They weren’t directing it at me (phew), so that made me feel so much better, and we went through how I intend to continue my training over the next few months (I know right, some people worry about what they wear or look like, I worry whether I should have done that run club session after the weightlifting session and the CrossFit session earlier in the day….).

Of course, I didn’t then ignore the advice, I re-assessed how I was getting on, looked at what I was doing and whether it was sustainable, and as usual adjusted things if needed. Which is pretty much what I’ve been doing from day one. If I feel tired, I rest, if I think I can push a bit more, then I try. I managed to get through all of my races last year successfully without burning out or hurting myself. I do kinda think that was a miracle, but I’m gonna stick to that plan for this year too, because at the end of the day, I know my body best, and need to make those decisions carefully. No one else will.

Achievements this week.

My pull ups tally is still at one, but my Push ups is now at 6.

I did a benchmark workout called Grace and knocked nearly 3 mins off my time.