Diary of a 10 km Run

Run: The weather AND my legs. Very heavy. I made it all the way to the nearest village and back (total: 4 miles or about 6 km). So I’m more than halfway there. Hopefully on Saturday I’ll manage a 10 km run while my daughter is, much more wisely, atop a horse for her riding lesson.

It was raining this morning, it’s still raining, and the wood stove is going. Tea and more tea, with honey for what feels suspiciously like a cold coming on. I went to bed at 9:30 last night, on foot of reading for too long to my sons and getting sleepy myself.

Diet: Interesting times. According to my boyfriend (ok, I married him, but he’s still my boyfriend), my butt is looking smaller. I celebrated with a chocolate pastry. Just kidding. The chocolate pastry was before he told me my butt’s looking smaller… The other day he saw me eating some cake and said, “I thought you were trying to cut back on sugary food.” “No,” I said, “I’m just RECORDING it all in my food diary.” A derisory noise emanated from his direction.

I recommend a food diary for anyone who’s kidding themselves that they’re not eating too much / cheating. One day in particular I knew I’d had a bit too much cake, but when I tallied up all the carbs, it was astonishing: I’d had:

6 servings of carbs; 1 1/2 servings of fruit & veg (in a stew that went over my pasta); 2 servings of protein (veggie chicken pieces also in the stew, and a handful of nuts); and 7 caffeine / alcohol units (3 1/2 cups of tea/coffee & wine at lunch and 1/2 beer in the evening).

Yet this is not a terribly UN healthy diet – all home-cooked food etc. It’s just so easy to go astray if I’m not aware of my consumption patterns.

This dire day caused me to have a quick look at carbs, and I was reminded of the complex carbohydrates (whole grains, basically – brown pasta/bread/rice) vs. the simple carbohydrates (white flour things like cake, cookies, white pasta/rice/bread). The complex carbs break down more slowly offering the body a more constant supply of energy, and keeping the blood sugar level more stable.

I also glanced at some protein information. As a vegetarian I need to be sure I get enough. These were the amounts recommended on a nutritional website:

girls 11-14 need 41.2 g / day; boys 42.1
girls 15-18 need 45.4 g /day; boys 55.2
women 10-49 need 45 g / day; men 55.5

Tofu is a great source (10.3 g in a 140 g serving); nuts are also quite high, almonds have 16.9 g in 100g (that’s quite a lot of nuts though); brazils have 12 g / 100g; a boiled egg has 7.5 g; 2 slices of brown bread have 7 g.

So now that my awareness is raised, hopefully my brain will make good choices and not be SO dictated by what my silly taste buds shout out for!