Fox's Den

I love to eat. I love food. One of the reasons I exercise as much as I do is so that I can afford the luxury of stuffing my face with food all day without becoming a rotund lardy fatass who could hide small animals in the folds of my stomach.

The good thing is I love healthy food – vegetables, rice, fruit, nuts, fish rank amongst my favourite foods. If I go a couple of days without eating salad or fruit I start craving something fresh and crispy – or what Wil and I refer to as a ‘Clean Dinner’. When Wil contracted for a living it used to be a popular request from the mobile phone in the car when I asked him if he’d want dinner when he got here. He’d nearly always sigh a breath of relief and state ‘yeah a nice Clean dinner would go down a treat’. What I’d cook would be something along the lines of steamed salmon, carrotts, courgettes and potatoes – all fresh, non-fussy ‘clean’ foods that were a screaming oasis of heaven in a week filled by stodgy restaurant and hotel food. Foods that made you feel self righteous in that you were doing something cleansing and good to your body. I get the same urge when we’ve been away from home on holiday for a week. As much as I love to dine out, I really enjoy my own home cooking and can’t seem to go too long without it.

I sound like a smug bugger don’t I. The thing is like many people I also get those hellishly bad sweet cravings. I don’t care much for chocolate and sweets but desserts and cake are my thing. Trifle, ah god, trifle is the stuff the best dreams in the world are made of. The custardy, creamy, fruity bits laden with jelly and sponge and magical greatness I could die for. Every once in a while Wil buys me a Trifle when he goes shopping and I eat it for breakfast on a weekend.

Icecream is another favourite, especially plain organic handmade vanilla icecream made with clotted cream. I could eat it by the gallon.

During the last 6 months I’ve had bad trouble with my hamstring injury.  I got a nasty shock when I found that during my down time I’d gained some weight. Nothing horrendous but enough to make me feel quite heavy and clumsy on my bike and while running. The problem when you exercise a lot and then stop is that the eating doesn’t seem to taper off as easily as the sport does – therefore I ate the same but did nothing to work it off. I’m lucky in that my build and height disguise the addition of 10lbs fairly well, unfortunately those heavy legs and increased jiggly bits when you’re trying to run are not as forgiving, so the extra ‘me’ had to go. The thing is – when you only really make a habit of eating natural fresh unprocessed food and the occasional trifle or cake there really isn’t a lot to cut out so I had to take a closer look at the amount I was eating.

I joined Tesco Diets for a trial period. I’m not an advocate of diets – I like to eat what I want and I don’t like to omit particular foods altogether as it’s unrealistic to think I won’t occasionally binge on trifle or cake. Fortunately TD had a plan for me – Mediterranean Plan with no meat or poultry. I have to say it’s fantastic. The recipes are all really easy to make, it gives you an option to buy the list of shopping you require online and all the foods are the normal every day foods I’d eat anyway but I’ve learned some awesome new recipes that all the family are loving. (Before anyone worries – I give them a lot more than I eat!)

I chose the setting which suggested I sit or stand all or most of the day and don’t take regular exercise. Although this is only a partial truth I felt that for the time being it’d suit me better as I’ll be able to chance those odd moments where cramming an icecream into my face overrules all rationality and care I had about not feeling the backs of my legs jiggle enough to hit my arse when I run. Because of my recent sweet tooth spurt and increased hunger due to plentiful exercise I’ve only lost 4lbs in the last 4 weeks however, I’m fine with that because the idea of losing weight really isn’t realistic when you’re creating muscle in it’s place. The dissipating jiggly bits is where it’s at for me.

If you’re trying to diet or lose weight or, like me just try to gain a better perspective on portion sizes and quantities Tesco Diets is well worth a try… It has to be said, for me ‘Every little’ wasn’t helping!