Breakfast and snack staples

Food is a very self-chosen and particular thing, really. I would say that I'm quite strict with my food choices and tend to eat the same kind of diet daily - call me boring, you may! But to be honest, I think my body works better with this more 'routinely' way of eating, particularly in terms of breakfast and snacks.



I always start the day with porridge. I'm fixated with the stuff, and have pretty much eaten it every morning for the past year (!). Every time I deviate things go wrong; the fruit/yoghurt option doesn't satisfy my belly enough to kick-start the day, and the heavier traditional English breakfast is absolutely not compatible with my rather fragile digestive system. However, I always used to be a Weetabix kind of girl because unlike other cereals you can't possibly over-estimate your portion size (lame but true!).

I make porridge with probably 80% water and 20% milk to compensate for the amount of milk I use in tea/coffee throughout the day; that and the fact that too much milk doesn't tend to agree with my stomach, particularly in the morning. I sprinkle with sultanas and (sometimes) linseeds. Porridge never fails to keep me going until lunchtime (unlike Shreddies - 'Hunger locked up until lunch', such lies!).

My mid-morning snack usually just entails of fruit, and that generally goes for the rest of my daily snacks, too. I'm a massive fruit-fiend. My favourite fruits are bananas (but I usually just eat these for pre-workout energy or post-workout recovery because of the high-carb count), peaches, apples (which I can finally bite into again, post-braceface), grapes , apricots, plums, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. I don't know, I just can't quite get enough, and the natural sugar keeps me going throughout the day.

For me, there is absolutely no need for crisps and sugary cereal bars, or artificial sugars in general; it's a no-go in my book, because they just provide you with a quick sugar/salt high, which your body may be satisfied with at first, but give it an hour and you'll most likely be at the same level of hunger again.

My ultimate downfall is my love addiction(?) for caffiene. I am a tea and coffee gussler. However, I do try to stick to some kind of pattern i.e. tea with breakfast, coffee as a mid-morning pick-me-up, and limited/no caffeine in the evening.

At work, coffee is a necessity to keep me going through the long shifts. I've heard mixed things about the good/badness of tea and coffee; one minute it's beneficial, the next it's not? Obviously it depends on how much sugar/milk you take. However, I'm sticking to the former conclusion (surprisingly enough). Tea and coffee is too much a part of my life to let go of it now! Besides, I always thought caffiene was a tool for fast metabolism. Do correct me if I'm wrong!

Road cycling ahoy!

Gold Olympic medal holder Kristin Armstrong (Women's Time Trial)

Today I made the impromptu decision to cycle to my Grandparents' house, after what is likely to be an entire year's abstinance from any vehicle with less than four wheels. My boyfriend kindly gifted me his road bike because quite frankly, the poor old thing wouldn't stand a chance under the strain of his almost-100kg mass.

Having only ever ridden my childhood bicycle, this provided quite a different cycling experience. As with a standard road bike, the handles are lower down, the gears are not by the handles (I actually cycled in first gear the entire way to my Grandparents' house for sheer fear of handling the metal levers that resembled gears - and quite rightly were, as my Dad informed me upon my arrival), and the general positioning makes for quite an uncomfortable ride - for a woman, at least. Perhaps I needed more adequate seat padding.

Even so, I enjoyed reexperiencing the whipping of this late summer's air around my face (minus the odd and inevitable fly-in-mouth/eye situation). It lifted my mood immensely, and made a great change to my usual stuck-in-a-rut exercise routine. I think it's a great idea to mix up your exercise routine every so often; I know I'm a 'repetitive exerciser' as I choose to partake in the same cardio activities and ab exercises, but it's invigorating to mix things up a bit and challenge different muscle groups more intensely. My quads are definitely feeling the mix up!