Cluck's Corner of the Internet
Dairy intake reduced to <250ml – ACHIEVED. A home made latte and a cup of tea, and a filter coffee at a nice café in town – couldn’t stay caffeine free any longer!
Alcohol reduced to maximum 14 units per week (in line with health guidelines not to exceed 2-3 units per day) – FAILED. Not even going to try to do the math….
Get out for a walk or cycle every day, including gym days – ACHIEVED. 5km walk
Dairy intake reduced to <250ml – ACHIEVED. No tea or coffee – only fruit infusions.
Alcohol reduced to maximum 14 units per week (in line with health guidelines not to exceed 2-3 units per day) – ACHIEVED. 2 glasses white wine (3 units)
Get out for a walk or cycle every day, including gym days – ACHIEVED. 1hr Zumba class plus 10km evening walk to pub and back
Dairy intake reduced to <250ml – ACHIEVED. No tea or coffee – only fruit infusions.
Alcohol reduced to maximum 14 units per week (in line with health guidelines not to exceed 2-3 units per day) – ACHIEVED. Zero units.
Get out for a walk or cycle every day, including gym days – ACHIEVED. 5km evening walk
Dairy intake reduced to <250ml – ACHIEVED. No tea or coffee – only fruit infusions.
Alcohol reduced to maximum 14 units per week (in line with health guidelines not to exceed 2-3 units per day) – FAIL. 4 glasses white wine (6 units) Ooops.
Get out for a walk or cycle every day, including gym days – ACHIEVED. 1hr Body Balance class plus 5km walk (to hospital and back)
Dairy intake reduced to <250ml – ACHIEVED. Even with a day out in town, utilising free wifi 🙂
Alcohol reduced to maximum 14 units per week (in line with health guidelines not to exceed 2-3 units per day) – ACHIEVED. A small glass of sparkling wine (1.5 units)
Get out for a walk or cycle every day, including gym days – ACHIEVED. 5km walk (plus walking round town not shopping)
Dairy intake reduced to <250ml – ACHIEVED.
Alcohol reduced to maximum 14 units per week (in line with health guidelines not to exceed 2-3 units per day) – ACHIEVED. Zero units.
Get out for a walk or cycle every day, including gym days – ACHIEVED. 30min run and 5km walk
PLUS Gym day – 2 rounds of Cross Fit workout. Ouch!
Dairy intake reduced to 250ml (that’s about 1 latte and 2 cups of tea) – ACHIEVED.
Alcohol reduced to maximum 14 units per week (in line with health guidelines not to exceed 2-3 units per day) – ACHIEVED. Zero units.
Get out for a walk or cycle every day, including gym days – ACHIEVED. 10km walk
I know, most normal people do resolutions in January. This has never worked for me. January is a terrible time to give up comfort food and booze, or to try and start exercising more. Too cold, wet and dark out. Much rather stay under a slanket on the sofa eating leftover Christmas treats.
Much as I’ve felt an improvement in my health having “gone Paleo”, I have let bad habits (too much dairy in the form of cheese and milky coffee; too much alcohol) creep back in and I’m worried I’m undoing all the good work as my ailments are stating to return:
It’s a vicious circle as the less energy I have, the less I want to go to the gym and more I want to down lattes and vino. Summer has (apparently) begun and I’d like to feel like I can enjoy it this year so I need to get back on track. This is no 900kcal/day diet or juice detox, just me actually sticking to the plans I made a year ago, so the recovery plan for the 30 days of June goes thus.
What?
How?
Often when people find out that I’m “Paleo” their immediate response is “oh, that’s like Atkins”. No. No it isn’t. While it is a naturally lower carbohydrate diet, as you don’t eat added sugar and avoid processed starches, it is not a high protein diet. It is also not about how many calories you eat, or how many grams of fat, carb or protein. It’s about eating real food.
Trying to reduce the Paleo lifestyle to a one-liner of “low carb” and purely basing you food choice on whether or not it’s labelled as “low carb” is dangerous. Let me use this example to show why. The US takeaway chain Chick-Fil-A offers a “healthy” low-carb option in their menu. You can have a Chick-fil-A® Chargrilled Chicken Club Sandwich (minus the bun) with Honey Roasted BBQ sauce, all with only 6g Carbohydrates. Wow! Only 6g carbs – that’s, like, really healthy right?
Now, here’s the ingredient list:
Grilled chicken (water, apple cider vinegar, soybean oil, yeast extract, salt, modified corn starch, palm oil, dehydrated garlic, dehydrated onion, corn maltodextrin, sea salt, flavor, sugar, chicken stock, cane molasses, chicken fat, spice, natural flavor [including smoke], chicken meat, dextrose, lemon peel, citric acid, red bell pepper, orange juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate, natural flavor, paprika, vinegar, xanthan gum, ascorbic acid, and spices), tomatoes, green leaf lettuce, Colby-Jack cheese (Colby cheese [pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes and annatto], Monterey jack cheese [pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes]), bacon (cured with water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphates, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite).
Sauce: Soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, water, distilled vinegar, honey, mustard (distilled vinegar, water, mustard seed, salt, turmeric, paprika, spice, garlic), tomato paste, egg yolk, sugar, salt, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate added as preservatives, annatto color, spices, natural smoke flavor, xanthan gum, lemon juice concentrate, dehydrated garlic and onion, caramel color, olive oil, propylene glycol alginate, calcium disodium EDTA added to protect flavour.
Diet Coke only has zero calories; no fat, no sugar, no protein. It’s made with caramel color, phosphoric acid, sodium saccharin, potassium benzoate (to protect taste), natural flavors, citric acid, caffeine, potassium citrate, Aspartame, dimethylpolysiloxane. Phenylketonurics: Aspartame contains phenylalanine). Hardly the elixir of life.
We see this again in, what I like to call, the White-Wine-Spritzer reward. In all of the different industries I’ve worked I have met the same women. Members of [insert weight-loss subscription based group here] will NOT eat at all on a Friday because they are “saving up points” so they can have 3 spritzers in the bar that night. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the intention when their carefully calculated plan was created but, hey, it’s still only 500 kcals!
Moral of the story? Look beyond the numbers on the packet and look at what is actually in the food you are eating. Don’t leave it to the manufacturers of foods and drinks to decide what you consume. Their #1 priority is not your wellbeing, it’s the contents of your wallet. Most of all do the research, choose what’s right for you and take responsibility for your health.
Visiting the Windsor & Eton Brewery today to get some supplies for the man of the house. Hoping they have a nice, light ale for me so I can have a couple over the weekend.
Decided to skip wine altogether this week as I’m going to want a few drinks in this lovely weather, and it’s just got too many units per glass. Interesting info on the Drink Aware site showing the difference in units between small and large sized glasses, and varieties of wine. Our local pub does serve the ‘small-small’ @ 125ml measures, but most pubs and restaurants don’t – if you ask for a ‘small’ you normally get 175ml – as opposed to a ‘large’ @ 250ml. That’s a 3rd of a bottle people!!!
Taking my usual, Chilean Sauvignon Blanc (13%) as an example:
125ml = 1.6 units (this is a bit scary as I’d always thought a small-small glass was 1 unit)
175ml = 2.3 units
250ml = 3.2 units (interesting – have just 1 of these and you’d be exceeding daily health guidelines, for a women)
Alternatively, if I switch to the lighter summer ales I like: (around 4%)
Half-pint = 1.1 units
Pint = 2.3 units
So based on these rough numbers, and my 7 unit/week limit, I can have 4 small-small glasses of wine or 6 half’s of ale over the week. Sounds reasonable enough 🙂