Eating and excercise

Hitting the Wall

"I do like James," said Ron, my father-out-law-soon-to-be-in-law, "but I've never met anyone who eats as much as he does!".

I'm not sure if I have a fast metabolism. Maybe I burn off more calories than I estimate. Perhaps pretending to be clever at work takes more energy than I think. Whatever. Nevertheless, there have been several occasions where I've wanted to go for a run after coming home from work but I've just been too tired. Then I've proceeded to eat half of the house. Thinking about it, on these tired days I've generally not eaten enough. Yesterday was a good example that got me thinking about this.

• Breakfast: muesli, no banana (fell out of my bag on way to work!)
• Lunch: small sandwich, sausage roll. Forgot other fruit :(
• Emergency wobbly legs late afternoon snack: Mars bar from Max's tuck shop
• Made it home with no energy. Not going for a run. Can just about say "whrrrrrrttttt"
• Tea: inhaled a large bowl of mushroom + pesto pasta
• Followed by Hula Hoops, two chocolate brioche rolls I'd been saving for running snacks, a bit of dark chocolate and two crumpets with Marmite.

Felt much better!


Energy Out vs Energy In

Every day I ride to work and back which, according to various estimates, burns around 200-350 calories each way. This means 400-700 calories on commuting a day. Not bad. However the body isn't an infinite store of energy (who knew?!) so I've got to put it in too!

So today was an experiment to consciously eat plenty.

• Breakfast 1: Crumpet and butter
• Cycle to work (247 Strava calories estimate)
• Breakfast 2: Muesli and banana large portion
• Lunch: Egg sandwich on brown seeded bread, tiny bit of mayo, cup of Heinz mushroom soup and a steak pasty from the butty shop
• PM snack: Another egg sandwich as above, orange, apple
• Cycle home (215 Strava calories estimate)
• Tea 1: Chicken sandwich, marmalade sandwich, crumpet with Marmite
• Running club 4.5 miles, 846 calories
• Tea 2: Pint of ale, toad in the hole (4 sausages)

And I feel great! Turned in a good day at work, good concentration levels, plenty of energy for running and such.


So?

I think I need to look at my diet a bit to make sure I'm eating enough but also make sure it's good stuff. I do tend to eat lots of carbs (bread!) and perhaps not enough lean protein. However I generally get my five a day. I'm not fat by any stretch of the imagination, so I know I can eat this much and exercise it off.

Now, where's my pie?