My relationship with food

I have always had a bit of an up and down relationship with food.

As a young child, I was always on the smaller frame size until around 8 years old when I then put on a fair bit of weight (not anything to do with the copious amounts of pickled onion monster much I was eating amongst various other unhealthy food choices!).  This carried on well into my teens when I continued to make bad food choices and also started to lead an indulgent and excessive teenage lifestyle.

Young me :-)

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In my late teens and into my twenties, I started to get into my fitness and would swim, go to the gym, attend various fitness classes, play tennis, walk - it wasn't excessive by any standards but I didn't fuel my body correctly and didn't see the importance of a healthy diet - at this stage in my life it was more about partying than leading a healthy wholesome existence.

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The yoyo diets were in full swing - Atkins, Ketogenic, The Grapefruit Diet, Slimfast, Vegetarian, Dairy Free.  I am guilty of abusing laxatives and various weight loss pills in my late teens and early twenties.  Add in a grief stricken bout of abstaining from eating, it is now easy to understand why my weight would fluctuate as would my mood, energy, , concentration, complexion, water retention…

Pickled Onion
Monster!

Fast forward about 18 years and 3 very different pregnancies and my body has definitely been through some changes to say the least.  It has only been in the last 10 or so years I have had a better relationship with food.  Please do not get me wrong – I have (and will continue to have) good days and bad days / weeks / weekends! 

The most important bit of advice I can give people is to view your food consumption as a way of fuelling your body.  Our bodies perform optimally with a specific amount of macronutrients - protein, fat, carbohydrates and water.  Add in some high intensity training / strength training / competition training / competitive sport etc on a regular basis and your body is going to be craving the ‘right’ foods.

The recommended guidelines for how much of each macronutrient we should be consuming is as follows:

Carbohydrates – 50% of daily calorie consumption

Fat – 35% of daily calorie consumption

Protein – 15% of daily calorie consumption

Water – aim for at least 2 litres per day (about 4 pints)

These are exactly what they say above – guidelines.  They will need to be tweaked for every individual as everyone’s nutritional needs will vary depending on their goals, their genetics, their build, their activity levels.

Netball Days

For me, eating a healthy balanced diet compliments my daily lifestyle and exercise schedule.  My love of food is always there and I allow myself to be indulgent when the mood takes me.  This does not come naturally – I am not one of those people who can ‘eat what they want’.  I am susceptible to putting on weight easily and will do so when given the chance.  However, I have grown to understand that I need to support my activity levels rather than try to restrict myself with rigid diets and denying myself those things that I love.  It is all about striking that balance – fuel your body correctly – eat the minimum amount of nutrients your body requires and remember:

1.      Energy in (kCal consumed) IS EQUAL TO energy out = weight maintained

2.      Energy in (kCal consumed) – LESS THAN energy out = weight reduced

3.      Energy in (kCal consumed) – MORE THAN energy out = weight increase

I eat on average just over 2100 calories per day.  This amount of calories will differ from the next person and so it is important to find out what your own personal daily calorie consumption should be to support your goals (e.g weight loss, weight gain, muscle hypertrophy).  I will increase / decrease certain macros depending on what I am trying to achieve.  For example, if I have just returned from an indulgent weeks holiday, or perfect example, post lockdown – and my weight has increased, amongst other things, I will lower my carbohydrate consumption and cut out the treats for a certain period to balance out the increased calories consumed over the indulgent period.

Around 15 years
and not at my
healthiest

Throughout a standard (non-holiday) Monday – Friday (and unless I am aiming for a specific result) to maintain my weight and muscle mass, a typical day for me may look like the following:

On waking – hot water with freshly squeezed lemon juice.  This is very quickly followed by 2 coffees without sugar.

Breakfast tends to always be a silken omelette on wholemeal toast and with a seasoned avocado drizzled in olive oil.  Top this with watercress or rocket with parmesan shavings and some chilli sauce and it is one of my go to meals (breakfast, lunch or dinner) as its quick, nutritious, and delicious. 

I tend not to snack as much as I can but it is hard with little ones around.  I will always try to avoid the refined food – think anything processed and anything white – these foods will spike your blood sugar and then quickly fall again making you want to eat more a short while afterwards, hence the spiral we can often find ourselves in and overconsuming in this area.

For snacks, its good to have a selection of healthy choices available to you – fruit (watch the sugar content – berries and kiwis are a low source of sugar – grapes really high), energy balls (recipe on the food ideas page), nuts and seeds are very good as well.  If I find myself craving a snack, my first port of call would be to drink some water to keep me hydrated and also stave off the hunger until my next meal.  I do try not to snack wherever possible but if I do, I will always try to make it healthy more often than not.

Lunch tends to be a concoction of what we have got in the fridge and always nutritious, filling and quick and easy.  Quite regularly I will have beans on toast (always wholemeal) with the children, scrambled eggs, jacket potato (if I have been training) with tuna and salad or a beans and pulses concoction (recipe on the meal idea page).

Dinner tends to be family led.  All your favourites – spaghetti bolognaise, chicken tray bakes, chicken in red wine, chilli, cottage pie, BBQs, pizza (my all time favourite).  We try to eat no later than 6PM, however if I am due to exercise and there is not a big enough window for digestion, I will eat post exercise.

Early 20's - bloated
and rounder from an
excessive lifestyle.

I am not perfect by any means, and although I am unable to advocate the use of supplements, I do have a whey protein powder in my cupboard.  As a general rule (and again depending on your goals), you need to be consuming approximately 1g of protein per kg of body weight.  For me that is 80g of protein.  Having a busy daily life means that I may sometimes fall short of this amount.  It is only in this situation that I would I use my protein powder to ‘supplement’ my balanced diet.  I will view it as a snack and it will usually be a treat post training.  It could be all too easy to supplement a diet all the time in this way but there are so many reasons why you should definitely not do this.  I tend to only have them post training and like I say, only if I am falling short of the required daily amount of protein.

Come the weekend, I allow myself to relax a little.  The balanced meals will continue however I may treat myself to pastries, pizza, crisps, more bread than normal, chocolate etc.  It is all about striking the balance – by having been ‘good’ throughout the week, I can allow myself the odd treat at the weekend without it having a negative effect on weight gain.  It keeps me sane and allows me to reward myself with yummy food that I have worked hard for throughout the week.

By Sunday evening I am ready to hit the re-set button and prepare myself for a healthy start to the week.  We will meal plan as a family and decide on what meals we are going to have for the week but I am not a meal prepper and so cannot offer advice in this area.  Trying to stick to the recommended guidelines in terms of eating a portion of oily fish a week will always be worked into the meal plan.

I have come to understand that carbohydrates are not the enemy – quite the opposite.  Carbohydrates are essential to our body and essential for energy stores to survive (digestion, regulation of temperature, heartbeat) however it is important to remember that excess carbohydrates (surplus to your essential energy requirements and to support your lifestyle) gets stored as fat.  It is also important is to make the right choices in terms of carbohydrates – always opt for the less refined carbs as they take longer to digest and carry a superior nutritional content over their white alternatives.

Examples are:

-         White bread – switch to wholemeal / pitta / sourdough

-         White pasta – switch to wholemeal

-         Potatoes – switch to sweet potatoes

Although there always seems loads to remember, throughout all of this, the main thing is to keep it simple.  Start a food diary and don’t change anything to start with – track what your ‘normal’ consumption is and see where you can easily make some adjustments.  Make small changes to start with – succeed at them and then move on to your next adjustment.  Find some healthy meals you like and rotate them throughout the week.  If you’re looking to make changes to your diet to achieve certain goals, my advice would be to change one thing and stick to it rather than trying to change everything – you will feel too restricted this way and may find it difficult to succeed.  Keep it simple guys and I’m here to help if you need me 😊

Now (2020) - In control.