I have to admit that I have deliberated long and hard about actually coming clean on this blog about what happened this weekend at the Superbowl. I know there’ll be frowning and tut-tutting all round but frankly I think the odd fall off the good-health-highway is not a bad thing to make you remember how much you have to work at looking after yourself... and how crappy you feel when you don’t.
Here we go then with case and point. Free NFL guest tickets to the Superbowl in Miami on Sunday. Free food, booze, transportation, game tickets and after party. And the Americans do it OH SO WELL. The pre-game tailgate was an absolute triumph of a day out with about 50 different bars, food stalls and a live concert (Steve Winwood got my vote). Problem with the whole affair actually was that the food was in bite size portions... Amuse-bouches if you like. Oh dear. So for a piggy like me, that means I can try almost everything as hey, it’s only little! Even the alcohol was in small sensible portions, it wasn’t rationed, you could have as much as you like, it just came in small servings.
The problem was that by the time my friend Julie and I left the AFTER party at 1.30 in the morning, I had actually managed to make myself ill from eating so much. A steady parade of food and drink started to pass my lips at 1.30 pm and I pretty much ate and drank for 12 hours.
Last night, we sat down and totted up what we’d gone through. It was only when we put it on paper that we were horrified at how much we’d eaten and certainly understanding why we felt a little rough. I thought I would share it with you. It’s quite a read! The following was consumed by just two people.
Chicken Salad (started so well!)
Shrimp Salad
Italian Sausage
Quiche
Pasta Marinara
Jerk Chicken
vichyssoise
Chocolate fondant
Vegetable crudites
Pulled pork
Pizza
Hot dog
Sushi
Spring Roll
Jambalaya
Mushroom pastry
Sausage
Scallops
Beef Brisket
Mini Croissant
Pana Cotte
Lemon Tart
Lemon Meringue
Tiramisu
Chocolate Sponge
Chocolate Mousse
Bloody Mary
White wine
Prosecco
Lite Beer
Martini
Rum and diet coke
(lots of water - not that it helped really)
What followed our once-in-a-lifetime day out was interesting. I went to bed with a temperature AND a hot flush that I usually only get from eating too much yeast/sugar. I slept AWFULLY and today I feel like I might just have the first ever FOOD HANGOVER. I didn’t drink anywhere near enough to have a sore head - but my sinuses are full, my head heavy and my tummy is bloated and sore... PLUS I am REALLY hungry today (is it possible to stretch your tummy so that it just wants more?!)
I have previously read articles on the excesses of Superbowl. There are two days in the year when Americans eat and eat and eat; One is Thanksgiving, and the other is Superbowl Sunday. For example, the yanks plough through 20 million lbs (9 million kilos) of potato/corn chips and 8 million lbs (3.6 million kilos) worth of guacamole dip alone on Superbowl Sunday and its estimated that on these two days of the year the food intake per person can be as high as 8 THOUSAND calories - IN ONE DAY!!
Even Julie and I didn’t manage that. We reckon we probably hoovered about 4 to 5 thousand calories each yesterday and we will be bringing our poor bodies out of shock this week with health fruit and salads and LOTS of water. I know we aren’t alone in this over-indulgence, just glad it isn’t a regular thing. Back to my 1500 a day thanks. Nothing teaches you not to sneak that extra piece of chocolate cake like eating the whole thing and making yourself sick!
Nice to know we are all human - and after a gym session today and a round of golf, I feel a little more human. And that I will probably never go to a Superbowl again so will NEVER repeat that feat. If I DO ever go again, believe me, a little self restraint will be in order... When will I learn?
Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Monday, February 8, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
GEORGIE - Track it! The way forward...
GEORGIE - Sunday 7th FEB
With Rosie's "Daily Diet" blog fresh in our minds, I thought it might be good to share with you a few little helpful ‘keeping on track’ tools.
I personally suffer two failings when it comes to my nutrition. It’s not WHAT I eat, as I like the healthy stuff and can keep my ‘treat’ food to a sensible level - it’s HOW MUCH that counts. The first problem is that I am a pig, so put it in front of me and I will eat it (that, my friends, is a whole other blog that we shall get around to soon) and the second is that if I don’t track what I put in my body, then I don’t keep my weight constant or am not able to lose a few pounds.
The primary function of diet programmes such as WeightWatchers is that you COUNT how many points (or calories) you are putting in your mouth a day. I don’t advocate fastidious calorie counting, and like Rosie said, I don’t advocate eating less then you should (it only makes your body store the fat) but knowing WHAT you are putting in your body everyday really helps.
I remember 3 years ago when I moved to America; a little on the chubby side, and a little inspired by the huge levels of obesity around me, I changed it all up. I started properly exercising and eating well and that was the start of all this. BUT about six months in, after an initial weight loss of the extra chub I stopped losing weight. I wanted to lose another 5 kilos (10 lbs) and it wasn’t happening. My trainer at the time recommended a food diary. I wrote down everything I ate, and he looked at it. Amazing how often I was going well over my daily limit of calories when I wasn’t paying proper attention! I started researching ways to track what you put in your body for an article last year so though I might share with you a few of the results in case they help!
www.sparkpeople.com
This online community boasts 7 million US members alone. It has an online daily nutrition and exercise tracker that takes a while to get used to but takes 5 minutes a day once you have it. It’s also a great way to help you track your sugar, carbs and protein intake. (I NEVER manage to eat enough protein no matter how hard I try!). There are also thousands of online team leaders and other ‘sparkers’ who get involved in lots of online discussions that can help you feel less alone on the sea of good health!! They will also send you 'you can do it' emails that help motivate!
Loseit! App for Iphone
This is my saviour. A little icon on my iphone screen that lets you track what you eat and offset it against exercise at the touch of a button. There are other apps for iphone and Blackberry but having tried them all out for an article I was writing this is the one I would recommend the most. Recently this app has been tied up to a Loseit! website which has expanded its capability so I highly recommend this if you are in iphone land. (Available at the App store and last time I looked it was FREE!)
WeightWatchers
The reason this programme works is that you quantify what you put in your body and stick to the limits they set you. Zar did WeightWatchers with great success and will tell you that the only way you can fail to get healthy and STAY healthy on this programme is if you fail to count your intake properly. It’s that simple!
Finally - Keep a food diary!
One of my best friends in London is a GP. She says she cannot believe the amount of overweight/obese people who come to her saying “I hardly eat anything but I’m still fat”; to which she ALWAYS sends them home to keep a food diary for 2 weeks. They write down EVERYTHING they eat and drink in that period and she looks it over. She says its unbelievable that so many of these people are regularly eating more then a thousand calories over their daily needs and wondering why they are struggling. Keeping a diary of what you eat takes discipline but is a great way to LEARN about the nutritional value of what you are eating and thus how much you should be shovelling down your throat. It helps moderate the amount of ‘treat’ food you eat and monitoring the amount of calories you intake in alcohol can sometimes be a sobering experience for some!
Hope these help, please feel free to post comments on any or ALL of our blogs - see you all next week in blog land!
With Rosie's "Daily Diet" blog fresh in our minds, I thought it might be good to share with you a few little helpful ‘keeping on track’ tools.
I personally suffer two failings when it comes to my nutrition. It’s not WHAT I eat, as I like the healthy stuff and can keep my ‘treat’ food to a sensible level - it’s HOW MUCH that counts. The first problem is that I am a pig, so put it in front of me and I will eat it (that, my friends, is a whole other blog that we shall get around to soon) and the second is that if I don’t track what I put in my body, then I don’t keep my weight constant or am not able to lose a few pounds.
The primary function of diet programmes such as WeightWatchers is that you COUNT how many points (or calories) you are putting in your mouth a day. I don’t advocate fastidious calorie counting, and like Rosie said, I don’t advocate eating less then you should (it only makes your body store the fat) but knowing WHAT you are putting in your body everyday really helps.
I remember 3 years ago when I moved to America; a little on the chubby side, and a little inspired by the huge levels of obesity around me, I changed it all up. I started properly exercising and eating well and that was the start of all this. BUT about six months in, after an initial weight loss of the extra chub I stopped losing weight. I wanted to lose another 5 kilos (10 lbs) and it wasn’t happening. My trainer at the time recommended a food diary. I wrote down everything I ate, and he looked at it. Amazing how often I was going well over my daily limit of calories when I wasn’t paying proper attention! I started researching ways to track what you put in your body for an article last year so though I might share with you a few of the results in case they help!
www.sparkpeople.com
This online community boasts 7 million US members alone. It has an online daily nutrition and exercise tracker that takes a while to get used to but takes 5 minutes a day once you have it. It’s also a great way to help you track your sugar, carbs and protein intake. (I NEVER manage to eat enough protein no matter how hard I try!). There are also thousands of online team leaders and other ‘sparkers’ who get involved in lots of online discussions that can help you feel less alone on the sea of good health!! They will also send you 'you can do it' emails that help motivate!
Loseit! App for Iphone
This is my saviour. A little icon on my iphone screen that lets you track what you eat and offset it against exercise at the touch of a button. There are other apps for iphone and Blackberry but having tried them all out for an article I was writing this is the one I would recommend the most. Recently this app has been tied up to a Loseit! website which has expanded its capability so I highly recommend this if you are in iphone land. (Available at the App store and last time I looked it was FREE!)
WeightWatchers
The reason this programme works is that you quantify what you put in your body and stick to the limits they set you. Zar did WeightWatchers with great success and will tell you that the only way you can fail to get healthy and STAY healthy on this programme is if you fail to count your intake properly. It’s that simple!
Finally - Keep a food diary!
One of my best friends in London is a GP. She says she cannot believe the amount of overweight/obese people who come to her saying “I hardly eat anything but I’m still fat”; to which she ALWAYS sends them home to keep a food diary for 2 weeks. They write down EVERYTHING they eat and drink in that period and she looks it over. She says its unbelievable that so many of these people are regularly eating more then a thousand calories over their daily needs and wondering why they are struggling. Keeping a diary of what you eat takes discipline but is a great way to LEARN about the nutritional value of what you are eating and thus how much you should be shovelling down your throat. It helps moderate the amount of ‘treat’ food you eat and monitoring the amount of calories you intake in alcohol can sometimes be a sobering experience for some!
Hope these help, please feel free to post comments on any or ALL of our blogs - see you all next week in blog land!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
ROSIE - The daily 'DIET'
Diet. Yuck, don’t you hate that word? It brings to mind starvation, dizziness, “bad, boring” food and general doom and gloom. The kind of thing you have to suffer because you’ve over-indulged at Christmas or have tried on your bikini and those love handles have increased in quantity since last year.
Well, I’ve got good news for you… yes, food is NOT your enemy! In fact, it’s your friend. Since qualifying in nutrition I have found so many people UNDEREAT and this, in fact, is the reason they struggle to lose weight. The key – you should not eat under 1500 calories per day. The fad diets – you know, those ones you see in magazines – the calorie count is ridiculously low. That’s the reason most people fall off the wagon and can’t stick to them – starting an unhealthy pattern of yo-yo dieting.
The reason? When you under-eat, your body clings onto all available sources of energy as it recognises the signs of starvation – yes, really! So it thinks, “okay, I’d better save some of this energy in case I really need it in the future”. So if you’re feeling very virtuous sticking to your three meals per day and your 1000-1200 calorie per day diet… think again.
Aim for at least 1500 calories – more if you’re exercising. The other key? Eat regularly – every 2-3 hours. It sounds ridiculous and to start with you will feel like you’re eating way too much for your body. However, your body will get used to it and start to utilise the energy as it should, by burning it off. So, smaller meals, more snacks and you’re onto a winner.
It’s also important to keep active, this will ensure your body does actually use the energy you consume – your metabolism will be super boosted. The two best bits – you should rarely be hungry and will have way more energy!
One thing to keep an eye on – those portion sizes. If you eat too much at each sitting then – of course – you will gain weight. It’s also really important that you don’t have a “main meal” anymore. Try and take that idea out of your mind as, whilst your three meals will be bigger than your snacks, most people eat their biggest meal way too big and way too late in the evening – your body has to work hard to metabolise the calories overnight. Still eat what you would usually eat but halve the portion and have it earlier than normal.
Below is an example day of how I eat to give you an idea of how regularly you should be consuming calories:
6 am: Breakfast – Fortified Muesli, orange juice, cup of tea.
9 am: Snack – Cereal bar or banana
12 noon: Lunch – Wholemeal pita with cheese, ham & salad & a yoghurt/piece of fruit.
3 pm: Snack – Fruit (say an apple) and handful of nuts & raisins.
7 pm: Supper – Tuna, avocado, feta salad/soup/chicken & veggies/omelette.
10 pm: Snack – A couple of biscuits (my treat!) or yoghurt or something light.
Give it a go – good luck!
PS I'm not ALWAYS this virtuous. I don't want you thinking I'm too much of a boring health freak. If you're good 90% of the time then 10% of the time you really deserve to enjoy yourself with food!
Well, I’ve got good news for you… yes, food is NOT your enemy! In fact, it’s your friend. Since qualifying in nutrition I have found so many people UNDEREAT and this, in fact, is the reason they struggle to lose weight. The key – you should not eat under 1500 calories per day. The fad diets – you know, those ones you see in magazines – the calorie count is ridiculously low. That’s the reason most people fall off the wagon and can’t stick to them – starting an unhealthy pattern of yo-yo dieting.
The reason? When you under-eat, your body clings onto all available sources of energy as it recognises the signs of starvation – yes, really! So it thinks, “okay, I’d better save some of this energy in case I really need it in the future”. So if you’re feeling very virtuous sticking to your three meals per day and your 1000-1200 calorie per day diet… think again.
Aim for at least 1500 calories – more if you’re exercising. The other key? Eat regularly – every 2-3 hours. It sounds ridiculous and to start with you will feel like you’re eating way too much for your body. However, your body will get used to it and start to utilise the energy as it should, by burning it off. So, smaller meals, more snacks and you’re onto a winner.
It’s also important to keep active, this will ensure your body does actually use the energy you consume – your metabolism will be super boosted. The two best bits – you should rarely be hungry and will have way more energy!
One thing to keep an eye on – those portion sizes. If you eat too much at each sitting then – of course – you will gain weight. It’s also really important that you don’t have a “main meal” anymore. Try and take that idea out of your mind as, whilst your three meals will be bigger than your snacks, most people eat their biggest meal way too big and way too late in the evening – your body has to work hard to metabolise the calories overnight. Still eat what you would usually eat but halve the portion and have it earlier than normal.
Below is an example day of how I eat to give you an idea of how regularly you should be consuming calories:
6 am: Breakfast – Fortified Muesli, orange juice, cup of tea.
9 am: Snack – Cereal bar or banana
12 noon: Lunch – Wholemeal pita with cheese, ham & salad & a yoghurt/piece of fruit.
3 pm: Snack – Fruit (say an apple) and handful of nuts & raisins.
7 pm: Supper – Tuna, avocado, feta salad/soup/chicken & veggies/omelette.
10 pm: Snack – A couple of biscuits (my treat!) or yoghurt or something light.
Give it a go – good luck!
PS I'm not ALWAYS this virtuous. I don't want you thinking I'm too much of a boring health freak. If you're good 90% of the time then 10% of the time you really deserve to enjoy yourself with food!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
