Too Much, Too Soon - my Achilles Tendon Rupture

This page gives my views on my diet. I hate to sound too serious but please dont regard this as dietry advice…

After my ATR I changed my diet and got quick results in a week. I visibly lost weight and felt my stomach shrink. My menu while in ATR revovery (at least) will be:-

Breakfast
 - Cereal (Special-K), maybe fruit (apple, pear or banana)

Lunch
 - Chicken Thighs (skinned), vegetables or salad, maybe a jacket potatoe or noodles (boiled), maybe fruit (apple, pear or banana)

Dinner
 - Pork Chop (grilled - George Foreman is great) or fish (steamed or baked), vegetables or salad, maybe fruit (apple, pear or banana)

Weekend treats
 - replace either meal with bacon & eggs and slice of toast with marmalade.
 -  2 x bottle of beer (330ml)

Drinks
 - breakfast pure fruit juice
 - post breakfast or lunch or dinner (at least 15minutes) tea (milk, no sugar)
 - lots of water about 2 litres per day

 

I may have swapped the combinations but this is basically my daily diet since my ATR.

An ATR severely restricts your activity and usefulness. Swinging everywhere on crutches is great training for the parallel bars and standing on one leg while washing your dinner plate gives you butt-cheeks made of steel, but most of the time you spend sat down with your ATR leg up as high as you can get it. This routine is not conducive to burning calories. The associated boredom and monotony increases your appetite for pleasure to junkier proportions, leading to an occasional craving for sweet-immediate gratification-junk food. Doughnuts, cream buns, pizza all that glob seems to be essential to recovery.

Hence not only will an ATR transform your habits it will also transform you into a “Jabba the Hut” type slug with no discerning bodily difference between head and torso.

I was determined that I wasnt going to add insult to injury and pack on the blubber while recovering. In fact the opposite; my ATR is the perfect opportunity for me to shed the blubber I already had. Theres not much I can do with an ATR but I could lose weight. Suddenly my negative is generating a positive.

There is only one way I was going to achieve this, from several options. The castor oil & prunes sounded something for the conniseur not me; Atkins diet? Nah, eating fat and protein with no Carbs (that is Atkins, isnt it?) doesnt sound healthy to me; cabbage soup diet - are you nuts? No, I discarded the wonderful and freaky options for something much more mainstream and hopefully effective and healthier. I would simply scale down my chomping and limit what went from hand to mouth.

This actually started when I went into hospital for my surgery. Hospitals dont have money to throw around but they need to keep patients healthy (and get them out ASAP). The Hospital gave 3 meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Either side of lunch & dinner they offered tea and a biscuit type stuff. The meals themselves were not large in portions but contained a good mix of the three amigo’s: Carbs, fat and Protein. It was a definite drop from my norm but I never felt hungry while I was there. But I felt my stomach was shrinking inside.

Since my idle speed (metabolic rate) was going to drop I need to drop the intake; since I would need less energy but a good source to replenish the muscle and tissue I decided to reduce the amount and reduce the carbs and fat while maintaining a frequent supply of protein. This lead to my basic daily menu complying with the following.

Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch  - Protein with Vegetables or salad, plus carbs
Dinner  - Protein with Vegetables or salad

I didnt want carbs in the evening becaus I figured that was going to be the period with the least energy demand (e.g. sleeping) and so I didnt want any carbs or fat (or at least to a minimum; I did cheat with a piece of wheatgerm toast or glass of hot milk now and then).

Also I think the time you eat is important. I had always tried to not eat after 8pm; this seemed to aid weight loss and aid sleeping. The hospital did breakfast at 7.30-8.00am, lunch at 12.30pm and dinner was about 6pm.

I also have this theory that eating garbage or stuff not easily processed by the body will blow you out. Wait, I know you’ve heard that since time began on every corner, let me explain myself.  If, say, you treat yourself each day with a little chocolate but it takes 2 days for your body to digest the chocolate then: -

i) there will be a gradual build up of undigested chocolate in your body making you expand

ii) undigested food cannot be burned off with exercise; thus you can exercise and still gain in size/weight, even if you are eating tiny amounts of garbage

This little theory is based upon my own experience and thoughts; it may be completely wrong but it makes me feel clever so I dont care.

Beer had to be kept to a minimum. Im not a big drinker anyway but Im cursed in that if I think of beer I get bigger. Beer blows my stomach out like a hot air ballon being inflated. More than 2 bottles a week and I start growing around the equator. And it takes ages to get off. This would not be too bad but I love Leffe bier (Belgian). Leffe blond bier is better than wine, champagne or brandy. It has a full body and deep refreshing flavour but has a smooth texture with small bubbles that dont inflate my stomach like most beers. I prefer the 6% strength but if your in a rush to get alcohol dilution the 8% bier is also delicious but slightly less flavoursome to me. Nicely chilled (not freezing or you destroy the flavour) this beer is addictive to male or female. My No. 2 beer is also Belgian, Hoegarten blond bier. I dont drink anything else apart from a glass of wine or champagne on special days. I did have a Vodka martini that was the most delicious, refreshing and leg nobbling drink I ever had; but it was made in an old, small restaurant in Prague, Czech Republic (I tried another at a different bar and it stunk; I never was able to drink spirits but that Vodka Martini would have made Bond stay in the bar and to hell with Q, M and the rest of the world).

Trackback URI | Comments RSS