Meals and gratitude #21

I am in a ridiculously good mood!

As soon as I packed up my stuff at work I was literally skipping out of the door!

Maybe it's all the good food I've had?

Breakfast: unpictured cherries and nuts - unpictured because I was all over the place with meetings, people stealing my desk...

Lunch: a repeat of yesterday but with popcorn (although I ended up having this as an afternoon snack) - salad, houmous, spanish omelette. Good combo if you ask me. It felt like a whooooole lotta food though.

If someone tells me how to rotate an image in Blogger, I'll be your biggest fan.

Dinner: A rice, aubergine and lentil salad which was possibly one of the most garlicky things I've ever eaten. Just as well I'm eating alone tonight...and I love garlic. And I also had some more strawberries. THIS ADDICTION HAS TO STOP.

 

 

Gratitude:

- I imagine a lot of my good mood was due to the beautiful surroundings. I sometimes honestly can't believe how stunning this place is. It just makes me completely forget any troubles I have and feel like the luckiest gal alive. Plus I get to run along that - that makes one happy runner.

- Ed Sheeran's new album. Love. Love. Love.

- A productive work meeting this morning.

What was the highlight of your day?

E x

WIAW: Iron

Hi all! Happy hump day :)

In last week's What I Ate Wednesday I focussed on B12 and said how it was in key in creating iron. And what an important thing iron is!

Functions
 
Its main function is producing haemoglobin, which is what carries oxygen around our bodies. But did you also know that once it's dropped the oxygen off it then picks up carbon dioxide to take back to the lungs?! I sure didn't! No wonder we feel so exhausted when we have an iron deficiency.

Source

Iron also plays a role in converting sugars in our blood into energy. This is something that happens all day long, but is particularly key when we are doing exercise and we need more energy quickly.

And one more thing: it also helps in the production of enzymes which help produce important things such as new cells and amino acids which are vital in the exercise recovery.

Add to that a function in helping DNA creation and a role in our immune systems,  and iron is quite the important mineral!

Iron is not something that our bodies can create themselves, which means it's essential to have in our diets.

Deficiency

If we become iron deficient, this is known as anaemia. Anaemia is meant to be one of the most common mineral deficiencies across the world, affecting mostly women. The reason women are mostly affected is that during our periods we lose blood, sometimes quite a lot. All the iron that was in this blood gets lost too. Pregnant women also are more likely to get anaemia as you're needing extra iron to ensure the baby gets all the blood he or she needs. Other causes are internal bleeding around the stomach, or diseases such as Crohn's.

Source

All of this can cause us to:

- feel tired and lethargic
- have a pale complexion
- experience shortness of breath 

The strength of these symptoms depends on how much iron you're lacking, but can be pretty noticeable even at small amounts. When I was diagnosed with anaemia recently I had basically zero iron in my system, and sometimes I didn't even feel I could take another step. My nurse said to me that she was surprised I could even get up in the morning! As a result I ended up taking time off work - an entire week to start with, and then reduced hours for another month. Not exactly ideal!

Treatment

Iron deficiency is pretty easy to treat with iron tablets. You'll probably be needing something that has a far higher dosage than something you'll find on the shelves in Boots or Holland and Barrett. The highest dosage of iron tablet I could see on Holland and Barrett was 15mg, and I'm on 210mg 3 times a day as prescribed my doctor. It's best to take these with something with vitamin C in, as this helps the body take in the iron, but avoid tea as the tannins may impede absorption. The tablets can have some side effects, normally affecting digestion through either diarrohea or constipation, and they make your poop turn a bit green, but they're definitely worth it if you're feeling the symptoms of anaemia!

Dietary sources

Obviously prevention is better than cure, and if we've been anaemic we need to be knowing how we can naturally be getting iron in our diets. Our recommended daily allowance is 8.7mg for men and post-menopausal women, and 14.8mg for pre-menopausal ladies. Exra is needed if you're pregnant. The majority of women are not deemed to meet their requirements.

Before I go into the best sources of iron, I want to talk about the different types of iron that we can find in our foods:

- Haem iron is found in animal products. It is the most easily absorbed form or iron
- Non-haem iron is that which is found in plant products, and is much harder to absorb. This is where getting your vitamin C can help out. 

So what are your best meat-related food sources:

- Beef = 3.5mg per 100g

Source

- Pork = 2.9mg per 100g
- Sardines = 2.9mg per 100g

For non-meat sources:

- Lentils = 6.6mg per cup
- Spinach  = 6.4mg per cup
- Swiss chard = 4mg per cup
- Tofu = 3mg per 4oz
- Cumin = 2.8mg per 2 tsp
- Dark chocolae and dried fruits are also pretty good sources - any excuse to eat chocolate, just make sure it's good quality dark chocolate
:)

So if we had a cup of spinach and a cup of lentils every day, ignoring everything else, we'd be almost there for us girls on our iron intake! (Though it's always best to exceed your recommended amount due to the point about not always absorbing the iron).

So what did I eat today and where did my iron come from?

Breakfast was nuts and the yummiest strawberries ever. Strawberries are packed with vitamin C to help iron absorption. 

I've never been a massive fan of strawberries (unless they were strawberry flavoured sweets) but this year every strawberry I eat seems to be the most yummy thing ever!

Lunch was salad and these sweet potato chips. I had lentils in my salad which added to my iron levels, and the vitamin C in the strawberries will have helped with its absorption.

Had a berry Nakd bar this afternoon as for some reason I was feeling really shaky so thought a sugar boost might help. Then dinner I had a tomato salad with extra spinach and some not so healthy tomato and mozzarella pastries.

Really need to watch my fat, and a bit scared by the number of calories. But I think I did quite well on my iron intake :)

Hope you had good days!

E x

Sources
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Anaemia-iron-deficiency-/Pages/Treatment.aspx
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=70
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/spotlight-high-iron
http://www.nelsonsnaturalworld.com/en-gb/uk/our-brands/spatone/iron-essentials/ironfromfoodsources
http://www.livestrong.com/article/495974-what-are-the-functions-of-iron-in-the-bodys-metabolism/

WIAW: Vitamin B12

Hi everyone!

Half way through the week :)

Today I wanted my What I Ate Wednesday to focus on B12.

A couple of months ago I was diagnosed with a B12 deficiency which had caused me all kind of trouble!

B12 is important in creating iron and therefore red blood cells and helping growth. It also plays a vital part in helping the eyes, brain and nervous system functioning properly - and it helps grow our DNA!

Source

Having a B12 deficiency can lead to some significant side effects. Not only can it cause anaemia, which will leave you feeling tired, light headed and out of breath, but it can also cause mouth ulcers, an altered sense of touch and response to pain, and disturbed vision. However for me the biggest effects were on my mood: it can cause depression and irritability. My mood dropped, I was feeling anxious about anything and everything, was having panic attacks...and generally just wanted life to give me a break.

Source

B12 levels are easily tested through blood tests, and (provided the cause is just a dietary deficiency) easily treated through a series of injections over the course of a couple of weeks. And what's best is that the impact can be really quick!

My experience of B12 deficiency was a real eye-opener as to just how significant good nutrition is not only for our physical wellbeing, but also for our mental wellbeing.

The recommended daily intake of B12 is 1.5mg, but the liver also stores around 3-4mg of B12 , which would be sufficient for 3-4 years. Nevertheless, we need to keep ourselves topped up. The best sources are:

Source

Sardines = 8.1mg for a little over 3oz
Salmon - 5.7mg for 4oz
Lamb = 2.5mg for 4oz
Beef = 1.4mg for 4 oz

So you can see that if you eat meat and fish you can easily cover your RDA. But what about if you're vegetarian?

Yoghurt = 0.9mg per cup
Eggs = 0.6mg per egg
Cows' milk = 0.6mg per 4oz
Cheese = 0.2mg per 1oz

Therefore vegetarians have to be a bit more aware of their B12 intake, but it's still possible to keep it topped up.

For vegans, however, it is almost impossible. There are fortified cereals (often full of additives) and soya milks which have B12 added, and nutritional yeast can also be fortified with B12. However it is incredibly difficult to meet your goals, and easy to become deficient over a period of time. Therefore vegans are advised to take a B12 supplement. As I eat a predominantly vegan diet, I started taking a B12 supplement I picked up form Holland and Barrett. It contains 20,000% of what I need - so I'm thinking I've got this one covered!

I honestly can't stress enough how important it is to ensure you're getting enough nutritional value from your food. I can't put into words how low and distant I felt when I was deficient. It's certainly spurred me on to make sure I eat the right amounts and variety of foods to ensure I get the correct nutrient profile I need :)


However...today's WIAW hasn't been great. I can't even do you a calorie breakdown, as I can't remember everything I ate, but it involved a lot.

Breakfast started off healthily with this:

There was a lot of peanut butter with that. (No real B12 source here, but I had my supplement first thing).

Then lunch was this salad with flaxseed and soya tortilla crisps and some protein bread I'd made (which had eggs - bonus for the B12!).

Work was being pretty stressful today, and I wanted to avoid it by eating. So I started off by eating the rest of the tortilla chips, then a lot of bread, and a lot of peanut butter...and then went to the shops and bought potato wedges, crisps, a pack of 5 cookies...all gone.

So I'm estimating around 3,000 kcal, maybe more :(

This is the first time I've eaten that quantity of food for a long time, and I was feeling so good about my eating on the whole this week. So stupid.

E x

Sources

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Anaemia-vitamin-B12-and-folate-deficiency/Pages/Symptoms.aspxhttp://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/guide/vitamin-b12-deficiency-symptoms-causeshttp://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=107
http://www.webmd.boots.com/healthy-eating/guide/vitamin-b12-deficiency
https://www.vegsoc.org/B12 

WIAW: Sodium

Isn't it so nice to already be half way through our weeks?!

On last week's WIAW I talked about potassium in our diets, and mentioned how it worked together with sodium in a careful balance.

So this week I thought I'd talk a bit more about sodium!

Sodium, or salt, gets a bit of a bad reputation for causing high blood pressure through over consumption, which can lead on to a whole host of health problems such as heart disease and stroke. One third of adults in the UK are currently suffering from high blood pressure. It is estimated that people in the US consume double the amount of sodium they need, and people in the UK consume 43% more than we should.

Source

So where do we get all this sodium from? Well 75% of sodium intake in the UK is estimated to come from processed foods, and another 10% is simply added to food at the dinner table.

Salt is a key ingredient in processed foods for a number of reasons: not only does it improve the shelf-life of food, but it can affect the flavour of the food and improve the colouring of food over time.

Processed foods can include anything from microwave meals, to canned soups, to even bread and cereals. All have hidden salt in that we can be unaware of.

Source

However for those of us who are eating clean, unprocessed foods, not exceeding the recommended 2.4g of sodium a day (or 6g of salt, which is roughly a teaspoon) shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

We need sodium just like we need potassium. It helps with muscle contraction (and prevents cramping) and keeps important minerals such as calcium in the blood stream. Salt is an electrolyte which sends messages around our body, in this case to tell it how much water it needs, and regulating fluid levels is important for blood pressure. Salt is also important for digestive health. Not only does it help us produce saliva and taste food, but it also helps break down food through helping produce a digestive liquid which lines the stomach walls.
 
A sodium deficiency, often a result of incredibly high levels of sweating (think stranded in a desert) can lead to dangerously low blood pressure and shock.(Have you ever craved something salty after sweating?)

So by eating natural, unprocessed foods, we should be able to maintain a healthy sodium intake.

If you like to add salt to foods for flavour, try adding herbs and spices instead. Sea salt and himalayan salt are also meant to be healthier versions, however probably still have similar levels of sodium in.

Source

So what have I eaten today?

I've still been struggling getting on back with my eating following the binges of the last few days. In fact today's been a hard day just generally. However I have made some sensible choices with my eating.

After my workout this morning I didn't have time for proper breakfast before heading off to the Dr's so I had a frozen tahini-dipped date. Love. They're so much better frozen!

I also had some crisps that were lying around. It's that "quick, eat whilst noone's around" feeling. So over it.

When I got back from the Dr's I whipped up some homemade almond milk, and then made a cherry and banana green smoothie with extra spinach to bust this anaemia in the butt!

(Worst picture ever?)

Was still feeling the binge emotions and so ate some muesli and cheese. And then panicked and hence nothing til dinner. Which was snacky and not nutritious.

So not the healthiest of days. And not as much as I know I should have eaten. So frustrated with myself today!

As for sodium, the crisps would definitely have been high in sodium, as would have been the cheese, nutella and hot cross buns. Definitely need to move away from processed foods for the rest of the week to keep my sodium levels in check.

How have your Wednesdays been? What was your favourite eat of the day?

E x

Sources
http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm315393.htm
http://www.wcrf-uk.org/research/cancer_statistics/salt.php
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HighBloodPressure/PreventionTreatmentofHighBloodPressure/Processed-Foods-Where-is-all-that-salt-coming-from_UCM_426950_Article.jsp
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/salt.aspx
http://getfit.jillianmichaels.com/sodium-important-diets-1307.html
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/the-importance-of-salt-in-your-diet.html


 

WIAW #3: Potassium

Hi everyone!

We're half way through the week :)

I've had such a lovely day today. I woke up to sunshine and it put me in a great mood straight away. I went for a run and kept an average pace of 10 min/miles, which is just such a change from even just 4 weeks ago! I had a chat with a potential private clinic about getting help for my disordered eating and have an introductory session tomorrow evening, which I'm both excited and terrified about. I've had a blood test to check my iron and B12 levels are back to normal, cleaned the flat and did washing, made almond milk and prepped meals for the next couple of days, bought flowers and chocolates for my flatmate as it's the last exam of her phd tomorrow, went for dinner with my boyfriend and his parents...and went to the Chelsea Flower Show!! It's been packed but so good :)

But it's What I Ate Wednesday time. Each week I want to focus on a different nutrient, to show how important each and every one is, and why we need to eat a healthy diet (in content and volume) to ensure we meet our needed amounts.

Today I want to focus on potassium. Potassium is important for keeping the right mineral and fluid levels in the blood, without which our heart and nervous system wouldn't work so well.

Diets high in potassium are associated with:

- better blood pressure control

- kidney health

- better muscle contraction, including the heart

- stronger bones, particularly in older women

- lower risks of stroke

On the whole, if you eat your recommended amounts of fruit and veg you should be able to meet the recommended daily allowance of 4,700mg (5,100mg for breastfeeding women). However many of us don't eat the 5 (or more) recommended portions of fruit and veg, either due to poor diet or restricted eating, and anyone who sweats a lot (for example through exercise if you're like me) will lose potassium. In runners this may mean your muscles are not recovering as effectively if your potassium levels are low.

Potassium deficiency (or hypokalaemia) can cause weakness, muscle cramping, digestive issues, and fainting due to low blood pressure.

Bananas are traditionally seen as one of the richest potassium sources (one of the reasons they're a runner's favourite post-run fuel), containing 422mg per banana, however there are other foods that have even greater potassium doses:

Source

Green leafy vegetables are your best source
- 1 cup of swiss chard = 960mg
- 1 cup of spinach = 840mg
- 1 cup of bok choy = 630mg

If green veg isn't your thing here are other great sources of potassium:
- 1 cup of cantaloupe melon = 427mg
- 1 cup of tomatoes = 426mg
- 1 cup carrots = 390mg

Alternatively pick up a coconut water. A normal small carton contains 740mg of potassium!

It's important that for potassium to do its job properly, you must make sure you're not having too much sodium, which processed food is often laden with. To keep things in check, make sure you're getting your potassium from natural sources like those above.

My breakfast today was a green smoothie which contained both banana and spinach so double the potassium loving! It also contained cherries, flaxseed and almond milk - it was the yummiest smoothie yet! I also had a frozen tahini-filled date which was exactly what I needed post-run.

Lunch was a bit snacky (I was panicking a bit as I was going out for dinner, and I hate not knowing what I'll be having or planning how many calories will be involved). Probably minimal potassium there.

Dinner ended up being at this amazing Italian restaurant, Sale e Pepe in Knightsbridge, with my boyfriend and his parents. The food was great, but the service was better. I have never seen waiters with so much energy and excitement, and they were constantly singing and bouncing around. I definitely recommend it! Pasta main dishes are averagely priced, but the other mains and starters are quite pricey, so it's more of a treat. I had asparagus to start (another good source of potassium at 403mg a cup) and then gnocchi in a tomato, basil and mozzarella sauce. Was hoping I'd be able to avoid the mozzarella but it was truly melted in the sauce. Tomatoes, however, another great source of potassium!

I was panicking a bit today about the calories, and whilst I can't be sure my dinner is accurate (I haven't included any oil of which I'm sure there was plenty...) I was surprised by the total. I feel incredibly stuffed! And I would say my potassium levels were pretty good today!

 Exercise today was a run this morning where I averaged a 6mph pace - so chuffed! I also totalled up over 14,000 steps just tootling around :)

 And to finish off, here are a few of  my fave pictures from the day :)

Clockwise: tartan garden!; a dress...made from flowers; anyone want to buy a T-Rex head made of shells?!; the Alan Titchmarsh garden "Over the hills...and far away".

Hope you all had lovely days!

E x

Sources:
http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/potassium
http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6801
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?dbid=90&tname=nutrient
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/lifestyle-guide-11/supplement-guide-potassium
http://www.webmd.boots.com/a-to-z-guides/low-potassium-hypokalaemia
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/truth-about-coconut-water

WIAW: Meals and gratitude #3

 Hi all!

Time for another What I Ate Wednesday! For more information about its awesomeness, and links to other WIAWs, see Peas and Crayons blog.

Today’s been a bit weird eating-wise – I’ve been so rushed off my feet, spending 6 hours of my working day in meetings – and so food has been pretty rushed!

Breakfast started with the usual, trying to silently munch on my apple whilst talking to a colleague on a phone (there was mixed success). I find the combination of the sugar and carbs in the apple, and protein and fat in the nuts really helps me feel satisfied until lunch time.

I didn’t get chance to get out at lunch time, so was glad I’d thought ahead yesterday and bought my lunch in advance. It was a “new to me” M&S salad – pretty clean (if you avoid the dressing) bar a bit of refined sugar in the sundried tomatoes. It was pretty good, but I unfortunately didn’t give it much attention as I was trying to shove it down my throat in record time before my next meeting. Still, again a good mix of protein from the lentils and cheese, carbs from the couscous, and fats from the cheese.

There was a lot of food hanging around in my mammoth all-afternoon meeting: mini chocolate brownie bites, and mini rocky roads were there, and at the break a colleague offered to buy us all ice creams due to their being no air conditioning in the room and us all sweltering. This is a brilliant example of what I want to overcome: I said no to everything (and then grabbed a brownie on my way out…) even though I would definitely have benefited from an ice cream to cool down! But the eating in front of people, and having something that “naughty” was just not something I was going to allow myself (note: eating an ice cream is NOT naughty! There’s a lot of talk around foods good for the body, and foods good for the soul – see Laura’s brilliant blog, Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish – and I could have benefitted from some food-for-the-soul ice cream at that point!).

I didn't leave work until late so knew I was going to be on a train back home til around 8pm. I decided I probably needed to eat a snack dinner on the train otherwise I was going to get super hungry and then massively binge when I got home (as I always worry about doing on a travelling home day). Unfortunately there’s limited choice at the train station, and so ended up with a packet of plain crisps (rather than flavoured crisps which are packed with additives) and a packet of Belvita biscuits. Not nutritious at all, but I did the best I could with the selection, and actually I'm quite pleased because I got TWO items of food, mindful of needing to boost my calories.


Where I failed with having a mini "binge" when I got home - eating less nutritious foods far too quickly before my brain kicked in. Still I did stop it from going to a full on binge, and I know I'm still under my calories. I seem to have a mental block around the 1,000 kcal mark - going over just makes me panic. But that's why I'm getting help right?!

Gratitude

Things I have to be grateful for today:

- The weather! I know I keep banging on about the sun, but this is SO rare in the UK! But not only was it sunny, it was WARM (hopefully it will continue to a day where I'm not stuck in meeting rooms all day)

- My meeting this afternoon finishing early meaning I could get home a bit earlier

- Having a heart-to-heart with the graduate I "budy" at work regarding the same tough situation we found ourselves in at work. It's so good to support each other and know that someone else is feeling the same emotions you are

- Getting good feedback from my project manager during a performance review

- Going home!

What’s made you grateful today? I want to hear your good stories from the day!

E x

A "use your imagination" What I Ate Wednesday

Half way through the week! Love a bank holiday for making the week speed by :)

I'm a list person. I would spend an hour writing a list of all the lists I needed to make if I could! And I like planning. When I organised my Dad's birthday this weekend it took me hours, and I had everything planned to within the minute. So satisfying!

So I wanted to apply that to the blog, planning out a rough guideline of what kinds of posts you can expect each day of the week. Each day I'll still show my eats and my exercise, how I'm feeling etc. too, but i don't want them to be the main focus of all of my posts. A lot of the ideas are adapted from some of my favourtie bloggers, and I'm going to put together a list of all the blogs that have taught me most about nutrition, motivated me to recovery, and that I just find downright amusing! That way you can gain all of their wisdom too! Anyway, let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to include on a regular basis.

Motivation Monday: A little pep talk to get you out of your nice comfy bed and ready for the week

"Tuesday": OK, so my creative juices ran out with the alliteration for Tuesday. Tuesdays will be whatever's going round my head at the time - might be a review of a new-to-me product, random ramblings, or to answer specific questions you guys ask

What I Ate Wednesday: A run down of my eats for the day, showing the thoughts behind my choices and focussing on the nutritional elements of the meals

Thursday Thoughts: My thoughts/views/experiences of a specific aspect of eating disorders, with a focus on recovery

Friday Favourites: Links to some of my favourite social media finds of the week for your delectation

Weekend Round Up: A Sunday summary of my weekend, which I promise won't just be me sat in my PJs watching Storage Hunters and QI on repeat ALL the time (guilty as charged)

Anyhoo, on to What I Ate Wednesday (see Peas and Crayons' blog for the low down on its creation and amazingness).

Technically you're meant to photo your eats for the day, but, eh, my phone has been broken for the last few weeks (here's some life advice: never stick your phone down your bra for an hour long run...) so you'll just have to use your imagination.

I really pushed myself to eat more today. And you know what? It was more than yesterday, so definitely in the right direction. There were definitely some guilt feelings afterwards though, but not as bad as I've felt in the past. And why should I feel guilty?! I'm still not eating ENOUGH rather than OVEREATING!

I made sure to have some nuts with my apple at breakfast to make sure that there was protein to help slow down the release of the sugars in the apple. Nuts used to be something that I would never eat as they were too calorific and fatty, but they're packed full of so much goodness, and the fats are good fats! Plus nut butters are one of my favouritest things in the world (fyi, it's ok to use a non-word like favouritest when you love something THAT much).

I normally avoid pasta as I try and keep my gluten intake down but it was the only salad in Tesco that didn't have too much added sugar and rubbish in it. Plus I hadn't had any other gluten today. It was actually pretty good, with chickpeas, beetroot, edamame beans, broccoli - lots of exciting good stuff! The Nakd bar was my treat for the day as they're quite high in sugar in relation to their calories.

I got the smoothie for some flax seed omega goodness - these smoothies have a few added punches of nutrition than the usual ones, and it was actually really yummy!

I'm on a strawberry kick from the weekend. I don't normally like them, but I had the yummiest organic ones at the weekend and I needed another fix. These ones weren't quite as good, but they gave me a good antioxidant boost.

Exercise today was a run along the beach (just under a 5k) this morning, which was a beaut, and then I totalled another 8,500 steps throughout the day.

Feel quite happy with the nutrition of my eating today - just need to curb that sugar intake!

Enjoy the rest of your evenings :) x