Food

Food glorious food and nutrition

I literally do not care about Christmas food guilt

/ katieferg89 / 6 Comments

Ah, the usual holiday posts are back. “Do 5,000 burpees followed by a 27 mile swim in a lake and then run to Dover and back to burn off your Christmas dinner”, “how many calories are really in the entire box of Lindor truffles you just ate”, “did you know the average person eats 15 times their usual calorie allowance in the 3 days over Christmas”, “if you go shopping for 7 hours you can drink one glass of Baileys” (some of those may be embellished, but you get the gist) – you would think people had suddenly discovered calculators and infographics for the first time.

zzzzzzzzz.

Do.Not.Care

I like food. I like exercise. I don’t always do one to counteract the other. Sometimes, yes, maybe I do think about it – but the countless other benefits far outweigh the extra mince pies I’m going to be eating for the next few days (who am I kidding, I mean the ones I’ve been eating for the last 4 weeks already)

I’m thinking about doing parkrun on Christmas Day. Is it because I’m worried about eating too much and having to get myself into a calorie deficit? No, it’s because I love the idea of getting out to parkrun on Christmas Day! (and if it was, promise me, I’d be running more than 3.1 miles, clearly)

I went for a bike ride (aborted due to double puncture) and then for a run in the 6 inches of snow we had last weekend. Was that because I couldn’t face sitting inside all day? No, it was because I literally had SO.MUCH.FUN.  Have you ever been mountain biking in the snow? If not, you should try it. Ever been running through fields where you can’t hear anything because of the silence of snow, and the fact the closest dual carriageway is closed? You should. It’s incredible. And if it’s proper, fresh snow, it’s really likely to be not that dangerous. (Ice however, is another matter)

Food and exercise are not purely there to balance each other out. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always seem to be the mainstream media case. Did you see the tweet below from Laura Thomas?

Yeah. That says a lot. Katie’s (Cake Vs Scales) post earlier this year said a lot around this – if you pick up a men’s health and fitness magazine, the focus is completely different. Yes, there will still be a focus on becoming healthier – but it’s not purely about weighing less, or eating 1,200 calories a day.

Remember – it’s OK to take some time for yourself. You don’t have to be perfect every day. Heck, you don’t have to be perfect ever. And you would have thought that this time of year would be a great opportunity to embrace that. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, this time at the end of the year is a good opportunity to recharge your batteries, take a break (if you want) and just do what you feel like doing. If I want to spend three hours on my bike, that’s fine. If I want to spend a day in my pyjamas sleeping on the sofa, that is also fine. I’m not going to beat myself up about it. See friends, see family – and if you don’t want to, you don’t have to please everyone.

There’s a lot of pressure to be “always on” and you know what, sometimes you don’t have to have a reason to say no. If you don’t fancy going out for Christmas drinks 6 days in a row, don’t force it. It takes a bit of guts first time round (and you’ll always be questioning that people think you are boring) but rejoice in making your own decisions. It’s taken a while, but I’m at an age now (god that makes me feel old) that I know what I like doing and I’m perfectly fine with that – and don’t feel the need to be trying to keep everyone else happy.

You also don’t have to give an excuse. I used to be full of “I’m sorry I can’t make it because of xyz” when really, I just meant “I actually don’t feel like coming”. So now, I’ll just say “sorry I can’t make it” and that is totally fine. And now, I will stop being negative and telling you all to avoid any social engagements or activities of any form – do what makes you happy and remember it’s OK to be a little bit selfish, whatever time of year!

Look after yourselves and have a good end of year break.

A weight off my mind

/ katieferg89 / 9 Comments

I recently (hmmm a month ago) posted something on Instagram that took a longer decision to make about posting than it should have. No, it wasn’t whether my smoothie looked too much like grey sludge (thanks chocolate almond milk) or whether someone had spotted me trying to take a surreptitious gym selfie. No, it was this.

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I AM POSTING MY ACTUAL WEIGHT ON THE INTERNET. It's incredible what a taboo weight still is (despite the whole #strongnotskinny movement) & how much of a HUGE step this felt. Normally I would probably only ever tell my mum. Weight (and BMI for that flipping matter) ain't nothing but a number and the fat % is what I am really keeping an eye on 🎯 (and it's in a good place RN) I've basically floated around around this weight (ish….) for the last 5 years or so and only really accepted it in the last 12 months as I've learnt it's where I naturally settle – I'm never going to weigh 9 stone something #sorrynotsorry Blog post to follow at some point soon on this – lots of love Katie xoxo🏃🏼‍♀️🏋🏼‍♀️🤸🏼‍♀️⚖️#epiphany #training #weight #taboo #istilleatloadsofpizza #scales #trainhard #healthyliving

A post shared by These Girls Do (@thesegirlsdo) on

There you go people of the world, colleagues, friends, family, strangers…HERE IS HOW MUCH I WEIGH.

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Mini Recipe Book: Healthy, nutritious meals from Body FX

/ Kate O'C / Leave a comment

We were delighted when Body FX approached us to make a couple of contributions to their recipe book designed to “help you understand the principles of eating for optimal health and supporting cellular function for targeted fat loss or muscle building gains”. This ain’t no diet plan, y’all, it’s a 45 page book of tasty, nutrient-dense recipes that are easy to follow and prevent you falling into the “chicken and broccoli trap”. Because man cannot live on broccoli alone, y’hear!

Click here to get access to the ebook (which, by the way, is FREE)

A whole bunch of awesome fitness enthusiasts and fitness bloggers such as Richard Scrivener, Danielle (Take the Lunge),  Amanda Bootes, Kara Godfrey, Jennifer Helen, Laura White, Stephanie Grace and Emma Campbell have provided recipes, as well as us. But you, our awesome followers, can find a little sneak peek of what the book has to offer below… Continue reading →

Sweating it out – are you replacing your minerals?

/ katieferg89 / Leave a comment

The sun is finally out and I (and everyone else, don’t lie) am SWEATING a lot. Especially if you are doing any kind of sport. I sacked off track partway through the session last night because a) it was the hardest sessions EVER (6 x 1 mile) and b) it was the hottest day ever.

Now, I obviously know when you sweat, you lose electrolytes and that is a bad thing. You don’t perform as well, you don’t recover as well, you get cramp. That is why companies are constantly peddling electrolyte drinks, vitamin water (I drink it because I like the taste rather than any nutritional benefits), protein coconut water (still tastes as bad as normal coconut water vom) to get you to replace lost salts and minerals.

So that is a form of supplementation – but supplements as a whole, I’ve never really felt the need to delve into…It’s a combination of

  1. thinking I don’t need to (and I know best obviously)
  2. remembering a nutrition module in my degree with the conclusion of you don’t really need to if your diet is sufficient
  3. every study showing the benefits having an opposite study that refukes the claim (again, side effects of a sports science degree)
  4. I always forget to take them.

Pharma Nord got in contact a few months back to ask if we would like to try out their Bio-Magnesium tablets, and I have to say, I was easily convinced by the claims of magnesium in reducing DOMS and aiding recovery. I rarely feel like I’m not in a state of DOMS (to the point that my legs always hurt walking up stairs.end of) so this was a BRILLIANT way of convincing me.

What role does magnesium play in the body?

Magnesium regulates A LOT of reactions in the body (over 300 enzymatic reactions!), from protein synthesis to blood pressure regulation. It is also probably fairly low in the list of “top things you would think about supplementing” – with iron and sodium tending to be near the top of the list for endurance athletes, but its role must not be ignored.

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Gluten-free chickpea blondies

/ katieferg89 / Leave a comment

I think this is a first for this blog. A actual recipe. We’ve not broached this area before, tending to keep things behind closed kitchen doors and have you all guess what we’re whipping up. But here we go.

Post long run this Sunday I decided that I had some serious cravings, and wanted to make something that made myself feel vaguely better about the fact I would be spending the rest of the day on the sofa with Netflix. And also something that didn’t require several layers of baking and waiting for completion – I’m looking at you, Millionaire’s Shortbread.

Enter these beauties. Gluten-free, flour-free, chocolate-heavy and with a healthy dose of pulses (and a healthy dose of peanut butter, but apparently not everyone would put peanut butter on the list of key components of a balanced diet). Chickpea blondies. Stop rolling your eyes already about the fact chickpeas have gone into a dessert. It’s a thing and you can’t escape it. The fact that I went for gluten-free baking is nothing to do with dietary intolerance, they just taste nice.

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The New Year Bandwagon – Ditch the detox and kick-start healthy habits instead

/ Kate O'C / Leave a comment

It’s January. I had a hectic December and, much like everyone else, ate and drank waaaaay too much. On top of that, I am four months in to a significant change of lifestyle, i.e. student life, and playing a lot less sport as a result. Things were beginning to look grim. Not to mention wobbly. Something had to give, so here I am shamelessly piggybacking off Katie’s recent post about Dry January and friendly sabotage to talk about the January Bandwagon.

It’s still one of the most popular New Year’s resolution in the UK – “I will lose weight”, so people up and down the country part with wodges of cash to join gyms (a lot of Twitter angst was felt towards this by regular gym bunnies) and slimming clubs. Now, I’m not in dire straits by any stretch, so paying to have someone weigh me once a week and talk about ‘syns’ or ‘points’ wasn’t something I felt I needed to do, and as someone who already hits the gym of my own accord I felt fairly well equipped to take myself in hand, but having stood on the scale on New Year’s Eve morning to be faced with 69kgs it was clear I needed to do something. Now.

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Dry January and friendly sabotage

/ katieferg89 / 6 Comments

OK OK I’m putting my hands up. I’m on the wagon. I do not plan falling off it as I have not done so in previous years. It really isn’t that hard. No, I’m not doing it for charity because frankly, I don’t think giving up alcohol is the right thing to do to raise money. No, I’m not doing it because I want to lose weight. No, I’m not doing it because everyone else is doing it. And no to whatever other reason you think I’m doing it for.

I’m doing it because I know it makes me feel better, sleep better and train better (and, very handily, save money) However, as per previous years, comments are already cropping up left right and centre about why I’m doing it, if I’m drinking on certain occasions, why in preaching about it to everyone (I’m not, but if you ask, I will tell you) and I feel like I am CONSTANTLY having to defend my corner and my decision.

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Avoiding the mid-afternoon munchies i.e. giving yourself a bit of a treat

/ katieferg89 / Leave a comment

If you are anything like me, afternoons can seem to draaaaaag. Meetings run into meetings, calls into calls and you often need a bit of something to look forward to that isn’t just “going for a run as soon as I am outta here” (by run, sometimes I mean pub)

My previous poison was hot chocolate. Yes, even in July. Or sometimes a little trip to M&S for a Belgian chocolate flapjack (seriously, if you haven’t, go right now and buy one. You will thank me. Or maybe hate me for giving you an addiction). I’ve got better recently – snack packs of chicken and protein shakes have been my saviour for the past year or so, but I reckon you’ll still find me with a hot chocolate at least once a week (eek!)

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10 superfoods every health conscious 20-something should rely upon

/ katieferg89 / 1 Comment

1. Peanut butter. Actually any form of nut butter. Full of protein and healthy fats, the benefits of which multiply by 100 if you choose the ‘eating it from a spoon’ method. Also exponential benefits related to the size of tub purchased.

PB

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My week in eats (and wine)

/ katieferg89 / 2 Comments

OK, so I promised last Sunday evening that I would document what I was eating this week as an attempt to vaguely undo any cheese-and-wine-and-beer-and-all-the-food related damage from a week in Chamonix. However, as I mentioned during the week, this is kind of a necessity when skiing because a) I ski hard and b) I am not working a season and doing this every week for 5 months and c) HOLIDAY EXERCISE = CALORIES DON’T COUNT

However, I am conscious that I’ve been a bit lax recently even before skiing because I’ve been injured, work has involved a lot of late nights and takeaway sushi, I’ve got to move out of my flat so there has been some mega stress there, far too many nights out recently……but these are pretty pants excuses so I have decided that I need to get a bit of a handle on things for a while as there is a difference between intuitive eating and ‘throwing all your toys out of the pram because sod it, I can do what I like and surely that’s better than obsessing over everything I eat’

Also apologies for all my pants iPhone photography.

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