I feel sick!

It has happened, I've reached critical mass. After the last post I've consumed cheese nachos and at least half a tub of Ben and Jerry's Phish Food ice cream.

I wouldn't say this is the fullest I've ever felt, but I don't think I'll be eating anymore food tonight!

Tomorrow we have a 2 hour training walk for Coastrek, then yoga and finally an 11 mile (17.6km) training run. So I think I will feel better by Monday.

My final post tonight will be for my friends from Achilles. I'll update you on tomorrow's activities in the evening.

Tom : )

Making Pei proud

Our friend Pei has recently had Wolverine type surgery after an Acro accident. I'm not sure if she has Adamantium in her shoulder, but I'm sure she'll come back stronger.

As she has been keeping up with my eating exploits via this blog, I am eating the next round of CHEAT DAY food in her honour. So when I'm feeling sick later Pei it's all thanks to you!

Thanks to Pei for the AMAZING homemade bread she brought to the beach earlier. That went down a treat with the spicy salami and pesto featured in the previous post.

Tom :)

P.S I ate a Maxibon ice cream after the flat white and before the sugary cherry coke and that is dessert wine before dessert! Get in my son!

Another food photo

I'm out of quirky post titles, but here's the previous two ingredients, heated up and slammed together like a car crash of deliciousness.

Ok it's still just aubergine and lentils, but honestly it's tasty. Trust me.

Photos of food!

I am aware that good doesn't last long enough to take a photo of. So here's a photo of one of the aubergine lunches I made.

It ain't rocket science. Cut an aubergine in half, then slice the outside of each half. That way the aubergine (eggplant for my Aussie/American friends) sits flat in the oven pan.
Score a criss cross on top with a knife, drizzle olive oil and rub into cuts with hands.
Pour passata sauce into oven dish, lay aubergine on top. Add garlic or seasoning as desired.
Stick in a preheated oven at 180C for 60 mins. Prep time 5-10 mins max and you don't need to worry about watching it cook. Just put a timer on so that you don't forget!

Red lentils are easy too. Boil water, sling appropriate amount of lentils in, cook for 20 mins on a simmer, by which time they will look like lentil mash and be more yellow in colour. I add a veg stock cube and stir it in to give flavour. Any extra can be put in box in fridge and eaten hot or cold.

Boom!

4HB day 2

Yesterday was day two of the 4 hour body so I'll start there with my update.

I began the day with two fried eggs and dry fried (and mashed) kidney beans. This was a simple and tasty brekkie, which I cooked with a little coconut oil and lightly seasoned with pepper. As per the instructions,of the 4HB I ate within 30 minutes of waking to stabilise blood sugar levels. I have found this to be the key for adhering to the plan as it seems to reduce cravings and hunger later in the day. When I did the 4HB previously it was also a key factor in eating enough daily calories. Where as before I may have only eaten 150kcals at breakfast I am now eating 2-300. Not a huge amount, but it will help to ensure less muscle wastage.

After running 6 miles in training I realised I hadn't prepped any lunch beforehand. Fortunately I'd bought veggie burgers for this situation, so after a quick double carrot hummus snack I tucked into two veggie burgers, with two fried eggs. Job done.

We had friends round for dinner last night, so I knocked up a veggie bake. This consisted of pre-cooked red lentils (seasoned with herb & garlic mix), a layer of passata, pre-steamed broccoli, carrot and roasted peppers, topped with pre-grilled aubergine (eggplant for all the aussies and yanks). It's pretty much ready to serve once it's pre-cooked, but the passata needs a warm through, so it went in the oven for 20 minutes. Simple!

I'm not specifically avoiding meat, but after eating a fair amount over Xmas it helps to cleanse the system. Catherine however is doing the 4HB "veggie style", which is a much trickier task (at least it would be for me!)

Catherine and I both find we have plenty of energy for training and are less lethargic. I ran my 5 mile tempo session 9 seconds per mile quicker than target pace (7:43/7:52).

There are two other key points to remember. Firstly to make sure you eat every four hours to maintain steady blood sugar levels. Secondly that you drink water regularly throughout the day to help your body metabolise fat for energy and to help your digestive system and gut to properly process your food.

There are other key points I'll highlight over the course of these posts, but to find out more just check out: http://fourhourbody.com