Food… am I eating enough and how do I know?

This is my favourite subject! So I could be here a lot. But I do struggle a bit. I dont tolerate wheat, and if I eat simple carbs, I get big sugar “lows”. So the bread, bagels, pasta, malt loaf are out. What can I do? ( I am not diabetic) If I eat lots of carbs, I just seem to get more and more hungry, which leads me ultimately to the comfy pair of trousers!

It must be hard if you can’t tolerate wheat, are you able to handle other grains like couscous or bulgar wheat or quinoa and of course rice? Mushroom risotto with a jacket potato is my favourite meal the night before a race and works well for me. I also love trek and nakd bars which are all wheat free and of course porridge.

Hi guys, like Sue i could be here all day on this subject….. Amanda is spot on with some of her suggestions here. It is certainly harder to find what carbs suit when you can’t tolerate wheat. Are you officially intolerant Sue (been tested) or do you know because of the way in which you feel after eating wheat? there are some fabulous alternatives out there. I know you would have great fun Sue and see the funny side to the ‘free from’ section in Sainsburys. I have tried many of their pastas that are made from anything but wheat and some of them are really delicious. There are also lots of other treats there free from wheat but high in carbs. Rye bread is also a great alternative. Morrisons do one in there ‘free from’ section that is free from wheat AND yeast. As Amanda said and as i posted last night, oats are fabulous. Porridge for breakfast or as your pre session fuel and of course oatcakes to snack on. You can’t beat jacket potatoes for lunch and dinner and you can also get wheat free noodles that are fab for stirfrys. I think the point i am making is, if you search and seek out the right carbs, they ARE out there. We live in a world that quite frankly has gone intolerance mad, therefore the market/demand is huge, so the products are on the shelves.
I sound like a ‘free from’ supermarket geek… the truth is i battled with something which meant i had to cut out wheat and yeast for a period of time. Once i had got over the problem i was still left with stomach issues, very similar to wheat intolerance. Turned out after official testing the thing i was intolerant to was tomatoes! I cut them out and am now happy as anything and eating wheat to my hearts content. Sometimes investing in some proper intolerance testing is worth while.

As for carbs making you more hungry…. are they? or is it all in your mind??? is your brain saying ‘you shouldn’t have eaten those carbs, now you will put weight on, mmmmm carbs, must eat more….’ the more we tell ourselves we can’t have something the more we will want it. So don’t make carbs the enemy and soon you will stop craving them as much. Its just like saying we are not drinking any wine, full stop, we can’t have any wine until the marathon is over. You will automatically crave the wine. Whereas if you tell yourself you are allowed a glass with dinner should you fancy it, you’ll either not bother, or have one and them stop because it is enough. Making anything completely out of bounds in my opinion doesn’t work as we just then go and binge on it.

It is true however that protein keeps you fuller for longer (i won’t go into the science) so you could try always having a bit of protein with your carb snacks and see if that helps. But not as your pre run snack as protein takes longer to break down. However, and here i go again, if you are always feeling hungry…. then you are simply not eating enough, consistently throughout the day… so once again we are back to the little and often theory. ‘Never hungry, never over full’. As Lara said in her post. She followed this advice and motto and nick says she is now running like a demon!
Running does leave you with a big appetite, so feed it and enjoy that food!!! Eat the right things that suit you body, experiment with different slow release carbs, eat them regularly enough, (low fat is of course key), then eventually once your body has adjusted, the weight will come off. Your body is fuelled and able to work at a higher intensity, achieving the training/racing you are asking of it. You’ll ultimately be able to work harder therefore getting slimmer and faster! But it does take time and patience.

I agree with Simon Freeman’s running club unofficial motto ‘we do it for the biscuits’…………

Hmmm food – the love and hate of my life! I love food and am fully open about the fact I have an emotional connection to it! The problem I have now is that since ive started running – I just want to eat all the time, yet when I did – I felt guilty and all in all since I started training in January last year for ht London MArathon – ive put on half a stone, which I still havent shifted despite running faster and now getting back to 4-5 time a week. However – I pretty pants at doing the right kind of eating, so nobody to blame but myself! I hav had a long conversation with Phoebe about it, and am trying very hard to do it right! I have boxes of oat cakes and a huge bag of jacket spuds in my fridge, but its still not feeling totally natural to come back from an evening run and eat a relatively sizeable meal ie a Jacket spud with something. In order to keep my weight down, I had been eating a larger lunch and then just having a snack in the evenings (toast, cereal etc) just to stop me putting weight on – which was fine when not running – but not good when I was running! So – im week5 into my programme – I did lose a lb one week, but it went back on – however, considering im eating way more than I used to (About 4-500 calories more per day), I am not gaining weight – so I still live in hope that my body will adjust and suddenly decide to lose some fat I’m not overweight – just at the higher end of where I should be and would prefer to be at the lower end. I really want to run Paris Mara half a stone lighter as it will be much easier on my knees and I can go faster!
I do love chocolate though! So – for m to still get my fix – I spread a mega thin layer of nutella on my oatcakes (and I mean thin – its see through) – but its just enough to satisfy my sweet craving without adding more than 20 calories. I find oat cakes a bit dry otherwise and I dont like jams or cheeses. Maybe I need to find some more interesting types of oatcakes too!

I of course agree with Phoebe and the various posts she has put on this thread. It really is simple “never hungry and never over full” and you will be fine……….just let the body adapt over the next few months if this philosophy is new to you.
I ran a half marathon yesterday and then 6 miles afterwards. I just ate so much last night and have again all day today. My body needs the new fuel and protein to also repair tissue today. I feel good as a result. Interesting if you read Tom Payns and Richard Gregory’s blog about training in Kenya as both mention the huge volumes of food the Kenyan runners eat.
I am convinced most runners, at all levels, get this wrong and have hang ups in the UK. I really believe you need to eat lots and keep it frequent. As soon as you are hungry you are damaging the next few days training and risking the body storing more of the next meal as fat. So healthy choices and eat plenty.
Surely one of the best things about being a runner is that we can eat much more than others! A real bonus.

One of the other benefits I have found from meeting Nick and Phoebe is a much more positive and healthy attitude to food. I don’t mind admitting that I have had my issues with food and weight over the years and can’t pretend that weight and food has not been a part of my early motivations to keep running. As a coach myself I am constantly amazed about the unspoken levels of eating disorders amongst distance runners – I think it is far more prevalent that people would ever want to admit, men seem particularly reluctant to discuss it even though I think these issues are just as common amongst guys.

In 2009 I was running 90 miles a week most weeks, often eating nothing more than a bowl of cornflakes for breakfast and lunch…I weighed about 60kg (I am a 5’9 male) and had convinced myself that dropping to 57kg or 58kg would in someway make me faster. I remember getting up each morning with no energy at all, day in day out…the inevitable result was injury. I now run half the miles, eat about 20x as much and my weight has stayed pretty much the same…as Simon suggests the right foods are also important. Love quinoa, lentil daal, veg and whole grains but I can now (mentally) cope with eating cake and having the odd beer or glass of wine without stressing about it. I have no doubt this has had almost as much impact on improving my times as the excellent plans I get from Nick.

I don’t always get the ‘never hungry, never full’ balance right, but much more so than I used to. It is though an ever present and the dangers of under eating as a distance runner always seem to be there as I meet people when coaching. It’s worth us talking more about it really.

I am really struggling! I tried cooking quinoa this week. It looked like a mixture of tapioca and threadworms. Even the birds wouldnt eat it! Am I doing something wrong??????