half marathons<\/strong><\/a> over spring and summer and a full marathon in September.<\/p>\nWell, I was two weeks into training, when I noticed that I constantly felt hungry, no matter how much I ate. The hunger kicked in as soon as an hour after a meal, and I almost got obsessed with my food – I planned my daily activities around food and meal times.<\/p>\n
I just continued with three meals a day, but never missed one, and when I was about to go out, I made sure that I had something to eat before. My portions got bigger, though and I tried to add some extra calories. Like peanut butter on the top of honey with my morning yoghurt and more nuts. I just love to add pine nuts to any meal I’m having. I felt justified to have some chocolate now and then, but with chocolate – if I’m not conscious about it, then I would have a piece more and more often, and the number of pieces increases seamlessly.<\/p>\n
I went on to feel free to have pizza, maybe once a week, plus smaller snacks in between the meals. It all happened quite slowly not overnight, and it didn’t cross my mind that maybe I need to adjust my diet wisely, not according to my training load. I just felt happy to have a good appetite and I was happy that I liked food and eating.<\/p>\n
Now, I haven’t checked whether the weight gain is mainly fat or possible muscle growth. By visual observation I’d say 2:1, to fat<\/strong>. I can’t say I am worried about my weight gain. It’s more about the fact that I could have managed my increasing appetite with more care by being conscious of what I’m eating. Luckily, my enormous appetite stopped on the 6th<\/sup> week of training, it was also the time I realised I have to plan what and how much I’m eating.<\/p>\nWell, after some research on the internet and my previous knowledge about nutrition and my personal experiences, I came up with a solution, or diet plan if you wish, that suits me. I understand that we are different, our bodies and tastes, some people are more into carbohydrates and some into protein, but this works for me.<\/p>\n
For example:<\/strong><\/p>\nDivide breakfast<\/strong> into smaller portions and two parts. Breakfast is a very important meal for me as I am usually quite hungry in mornings.<\/p>\n\n- At 8am<\/strong>: Greek yoghurt and blueberries, nuts, almond flakes, honey, peanut butter<\/li>\n
- Before midday<\/strong>: Oatmeal porridge with berries, nuts, coconut oil.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Divide lunch<\/strong> into two parts as well: hot food and cold food. Again, the portions are much smaller than what I used to have before.<\/p>\n\n- Between 2-3pm<\/strong>: steamed vegetables with butter and chicken\/salmon<\/li>\n
- Around 4-5pm<\/strong>: salad\/quinoa\/dark rice with cheese and tomatoes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For dinner<\/strong>, I usually have something small that has left over from my lunch or I happily repeat my first meal of the day again – Greek yoghurt and fruit\/berries\/nuts.<\/p>\nDuring the winter months, it’s so easy to forget to drink enough water, so I got into the habit that I have my water bottle always with me, as I have my mobile phone and glasses. Also, I always say yes to a cup of tea as it helps me stay hydrated.<\/p>\n
I will try to avoid chocolate now for some time, maybe until next Christmas?…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Me, running and my food… I have never liked food or eating much but that doesn’t mean that I have been super slim throughout my life. My vice was sugar – cakes, chocolate, biscuits and liquorice. For the past years, I have tried to go without any sugar. However, a couple of times a year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":""},"categories":[5,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3925"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6711,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions\/6711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}