The 3-2-1 Diet

A little while ago now coach and I decided between us that there may be some performance gains to be had if I was to attempt to become leaner. We decided 7-14 pounds was the initial realistic aim. The target weight was one I had achieved in the past, but I was training for a half iron distance triathlon at the time so it was easier to do (I remember due to the volume of long distance training I struggled to keep weight on at that time actually!) I tried the return to the weight watchers diet. It had always worked excellently for me. This time, though, I struggled. On weight watchers, I just wasn’t getting enough calories to sustain the volume and intensity of the training. I became very tired, and my performance started to suffer.

I needed a Nutritionist to give me advice. Luckily, I found Becky White, via Twitter (@onesixeightfit) and asked for her help. This was just before Budapest, so travelling and dining out meant I couldn’t really give the advice she gave me a proper go until this week, when I was back in England again.

I have to admit I found her advice very contrary to what I had been taught at weight watchers. She told me to train BEFORE meals, and to always try and do one session before breakfast each day. She called this the fat burning session. I had always thought I needed the food for fuel. I was instructed to eat a piece of fruit (to kick start the metabolism) and drink black coffee (to stave off hunger pangs) before I went out in the morning. This seemed very odd. The first time I tried it, I had a tough swim set in store. I had done this set earlier in the week, mid afternoon, half way between lunch and tea. I did it at 6.30am, with just an apple and my black coffee to keep me going, and found each speed set was significantly faster than it had been that afternoon a few days earlier. I was amazed. Becky wasn’t at all surprised!

So, maybe she was on to something? I was told to eat twice as much porridge as I had been doing for breakfast (jeeez, that was hard work at first!) I had to eat a medium sized lunch, with pasta, or something, then a light tea, filled out with mostly vegetables. I found this really tough at first. By the following morning, I was STARVING when I went out for my empty stomach ‘fat burning’ training session! I was told that food was fuel, so I had to eat wisely, only snack on fruit or nuts, and switch from tea to back coffee. Ok, odd, but I’ll give it a try. However, the thing that surprised me most was she told me I ate too many foods that contained man made sweeteners and I should cut them out. This was THE OPPOSITE to weight watchers. I took that thought to the weight watchers leader. She declared it nonsense. Well, if I am going to try it, I may as well try ALL of it, so I stopped buying diet foods, and cut back on things containing man made sweeteners. Seemed very very strange. I had got so used to choosing the low fat diet options! But, if you are in doubt as to the logic of this advice, so was I. See the separate blog on aspartame. I did my homework, then decided it was worth a try. Becky had not met me, knew nothing about me yet immediately asked was I struggling to get rid of the last few pounds, when I showed her my food diary.

So, 3-2-1 meals, black coffee, more veg, more fruit and HUGE breakfasts, and main meals within an hour of training sessions. One full week of trying that, and I went to weight watchers this Wednesday. It is also worth noting that this week has been a recovery week, post World Championships, so I have also done WAY less training than usual.

Despite this, I lost 4 pounds this week! The weight watchers leader asked what I had done. I reminded her about the nutrition advice. She was astounded. She said she honestly hadn’t expected it to work! Neither had I!

The main thing I took from this is that I need to start reminding myself that my body is the machine, and the food is the fuel. I am an athlete. I can’t just eat whatever I like, whenever I like. I need to think about what fuel combinations are best. The early training sessions can be tough to get up for some times, but with results like these... I’m keeping on this 3-2-1 diet for now!! I have had NO trouble with training intensity while on this food regime, so I’m a very happy bunny!

read more about the 3-2-1 diet and WHY it works here
http://melanieryding.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-is-3-2-1-diet.html
 

ITU World Championships – Race Report

A wet wet wet wet day! I saw a woman called Kim the evening before, she went through mental preparation techniques with me. I tried in a short 1 hour session to learn as much as I can about correct mental preparation. I couldn’t even tell you what she did to be honest, but I woke up on race day feeling ok, calm, and ready to race. The plan was to focus on my own race, although I wasn’t sure how well I could do this, because I normally spend most of my time worrying about where everyone else is!

Hungary day 1 - marathon run v BUS!

Up very early (5,.30am) on day 1 here in Budapest. Hubby decided that since there was a half marathon in town, he wanted to take part in it, saying he would use it as a marathon training ‘jog out’! Since I squeezed my Saturday training into Friday, because we were travelling out on Saturday, Sunday was scheduled to be my second whole day off. Very odd, but I thought I had better dedicate some time to poor Mark, since he spends so much time being my triathlon support team! So we decided to NOT negotiate the complex transport system and got a taxi to the start line! After sorting out the race registration, and course map study, I was tasked with the job of getting to the hotel and back to collect the swimming gear, so that we could take advantage of his free thermal spa dip when he finished the race (all part of the half marathon race entry). Easy I thought!. Hmmm, no! I asked a woman where the metro was. The map said it was right here in the park where I was standing. Just behind me she said. I asked can I miss it? She said no, you will see it. I wandered around. No sign. I asked another two people – its just over there they replied. Still I couldn’t see it. I got so angry and frustrated I walked down the park to where I knew the next one was, having given up trying to find it! I get to the metro. Beszel angolul? I ask in my very limited app assisted Hungarian. No, they don’t speak English. Oh shit! I somehow manage to point and stumble my way thru a ticket purchase, and on I get. Next, I was looking for the tram station, to continue my journey across the river. Beszel Angolul? Yes, he did!! But, he tells me there are no trams on Sundays between 10.30am and 11.30am. Its 10.40am. FFS! I ask how do I get to Buda. A short walk he says – bus stop number 7. Ok. No worries. Off I go. When I find the junction, it looks like picadilly circus. There are subways to each road side, and a bus and tram station at each junction. It took me almost half an hour to work out the correct subway exit and the correct bus stop to stand at!! No English speakers here to help me! Aaaargh! I was sure at this rate hubby would be sprinting his way round the course at speed while I stumbled on public transport!! I stand at the bus stop, watching the first few come past wondering whether I should have a ticket. They are all just getting on, and not buying. As I stand and panic, a bus or 5 go past. No, I need the 7. after the 173 leaves, no, I could have got that one!! Grrrrr!! My bus comes, at last. I get on, no one asks for any money. How odd. Is it free on a Sunday? Who knows! So, bendy bus journey passes without incident, and I notice we pass the tail end runners going the other way. Hmmmm, I am now convinced he will get back before I do!! They are all now running back the other way! Hotel, grab gear, dash out, and back I go. Its now 12 noon. 2 hours since he started. He’ll be standing there now waiting for me!! I manage to get back through the transport maze much more smoothly, now knowing that I tell the ticket man egy – (1) but he confuses me still further by asking ‘ooot?’ he repeats it several times. I am confused. He is confused. He throws his arms up in the air and hands me a ticket, taking my note. When I get on the train I finally wonder whether it was ‘return’ he might have been asking me?! Oh well. I decided to get off at the mystery station that I couldn’t find. When I emerge into the park, I am but meters from where I started off, but the only sign there is even a station there is a flight of stairs that go down – no sign saying to where! How was I meant to find that!! Conclusion? It takes hubby just about 1 hr 50 to ‘jog’ round Budapest for 13 miles, but it takes me more than 3 hours to get to the other side of town and back via metro, bus, and foot!! Well, at least I didn’t get lost (or mugged!) Best bit – I have just discovered (at 8pm) that the Hungarian system is I should have been ‘trusted’ to buy tickets all day – had I had been caught by an inspector – 10,000HUF fine! Ooops!!

Training fuel, aspartame & weight loss

 1/9/2010

Another tough weight watching week this week. I thought I had been good, but 0.5 on. On-off-on-off – getting a bit fed up with this. I asked for some nutrition advice. Becky White from www.onesixeightfitness.com asked me to fill in a food diary for three days. I explained I was struggling to maintain training and weight loss at the same time. She came up with some very interesting results. Not at all what I expected. I recently cut back on what I eat – understandably. She told me I ought to double the size of my breakfast – that it should be the biggest meal of the day. AND... I should try and do some training BEFORE breakfast – to maximise fat burning. Sounds tough stuff to me! Dinner also should be my lightest meal. Gosh, that’s going to take some changing!!

The most interesting thing, though, was her take on artificial sweetener. Apparently research suggests that that ‘the two are linked because the body doesn’t know how to digest these artificial substances and therefore stores them as fat. Opt for ‘full fat yogurts and sugar added drinks or none at all!’

So I went looking for this so called research.

Here, they suggest that the aspartame suppresses the natural feeling of fullness, and therefore you overeat, but backed up with no direct links to research findings:

http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/weight_gain_myth.htm

This article also links aspartame to weight gain, but says that it’s because of the links to the effects on your metabolism. It does include research references:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080210183902.htm

This article refers to the same research, but deems it inconclusive, and in need of even more research!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7233459.stm

It does mention that the theory is not one nutritionists agree with. Hmmm. This nutritionist is the one that brought it to my attention, and she is also the one that asked me did I tend to carry excess weight around my middle. I just want to add, she has never even met me!

This article, again, does not back up its claims with evidence, but I am beginning to think that the case and point here is the argument between low SUGAR and low CALORIE. Maybe someone needs to separate them out in a piece of research!

http://www.sucralose-org.co.uk/myths/default.asp

Finally I stumbled upon a research abstract that sums it up beautifully!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20078374

So, I think I conclude that although current research does not establish a CONCRETE link between aspartame and weight gain, there are a lot of causal factors that still need further investigation! That’s not all that helpful! But it does give me something to think about!

So what am I going to do about all this?

Well, I think I will start by consuming the diet stuff I already have, then we’ll see what happens next. I’ll have to come up with a list of replacement alternatives while my head embraces this whole ‘full fat’ idea. It just doesn’t seem right or logical to me!! Better get to work on that list! I do have a sweet tooth, this will be HARD!

I’ll try the double the breakfast half the dinner idea... well it can’t do any harm trying something new, the weight watchers thing doesn’t really work for this hard at work athlete at this moment in time. But, I think I need to find a balance. I see the weight watchers points logic; it’s a way of simply labelling all the things that are good and bad for you in a clear understandable way. So does that mean more veg? I guess so!

Finally, I think I need to see food more as fuel, an think carefully about when I am eating in relation to when I am training – that WILL be hard, because I am meant to do all training JUST BEFORE a main meal! That sounds like a logistical nightmare in the making!

I’ll let you know how I get on!