A Day In My Diet.

Instead of jabbering on about how I'm interested in health and nutrition, and for a break from the more science-y aspects of health, I thought I'd show you all what I eat in a typical day. Now, I wouldn't say I'm super healthy (I believe in 'everything in moderation'), but one thing I do is count calories. 2000 (or 2500 for men) might sound like a lot, but you would be surprised at how the numbers just whizz by throughout the day. With that in mind, I've tried to incorporate a rough calorie count with this food diary, just to give you some idea of how they add up. Staying healthy means having a balanced diet - for example, if your diet was drawn out on a plate, 3/4 would be taken up by fruit and veg, and carbs, in equal quantities respectively (everyone following?). The remaining 1/4 would contain equal amounts of dairy and meat products, and just a small amount of foods high in fat and sugar. I would draw you a diagram and upload it, but that would probably make this more confusing!

It's really important to keep your metabolism up, so that your body is burning calories, and here are some golden rules to do so:

1) Always have breakfast. This kick-starts your metabolism. Try and include protein and carbs.

2) Followthe 3 and 3 rule - 3 main meals, and 3 small snacks throughout the day. Now I only have two snacks a day, and your morning coffee can count as one, but it's up to you!

3) Never skip a meal! For those of you following me on Twitter, you'll know I said that even if I've had a massive lunch, I always eat something small in the evening so that my metabolism doesn't slow to a snail's pace.

I also believe in this great saying that I heard once: "Eat breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince, and dinner like a pauper", which basically means downsize your meals as you go through the day, to match the natural speed and variance of your body's metabolism.

Ok, before I get carried away on a stream of health facts, here's a day in my diet. Some calorie calculations are rough estimates, so forgive me!

Breakfast

- 1 cup hot water with a squeeze of lemon

- 1 cup regular water

- 1 apple (60 kcal)

- 1 kiwi (60 kcal)

- 2 Chocolate Weetabix (156 kcal)

with

- 200ml Alpro Soya milk (75 kcal)

Calorie Count so far:351 kcal

Morning Coffee

- Small cappuccino and 1 brown sugar (100 kcal)

Calorie Count so far: 451 kcal

Lunch

Usually a salad, for example:

- Salad with grilled chicken breast, lettuce, black olives, artichoke hearts (and whatever I feel like)

OR

- Noodle and crayfish salad (around 300-400 kcal,I would estimate)

Calorie Count so far: 851 kcal

Afternoon snack

- Activia Fat-Free Yoghurt (66 kcal)

- Chocolate Snack-A-Jack with peanut butter and banana (Snack-A-Jack 62 kcal, so with the added toppings I rounded it up to about 100 kcal)

OR

- Hovis Wholemeal toast with peanut butter and banana (Toast, 101 kcal, so I round this up to 150 kcal)

Calorie Count so far (using Snack-A-Jack option): 1017 kcal

Dinner

- Grilled chicken breast, or salmon

- Asparagus

- Quinoa

(all together around 600 kcal - again, I'm estimating!)

Or tonight I'm having:

Spaghetti Bolognese with wholewheat spaghetti and Quorn mince (I'm not vegetarian, it's just a lot lower in fat than regular mince)

Mixed salad

(again, around 550 - 600 calories)

Followed by a few pieces of dark chocolate (I think you've guessed by now I love me some chocolate!) (60 kcal)

I also make sure I drink around 1.5 - 2 litres of water a day.

Total calorie count for the day: 1677 kcal

Obviously the recommended daily intake of calories for women is 2000, and I'm not saying your should follow my diet, but I eat this much because due to my knees I can't exercise, so I cut down my calories accordingly. I've heard recently that some people are fans of the 'high-low calorie' way of eating, where you alternate higher-calorie intake days with lower ones, to keep your metabolism guessing and, apparently, speed it up. I'm not sure what I think of that, to be honest I prefer to keep my beloved me-tab on an even keel - but I'll leave it up to you to decide.

Coming up next is a recipe! Rejoice!

Nati xXx