Food Diary!

I've wanted to do a food diary post for a while now. I read a lot of different kind of blogs and many fitness writers post a lot of food diaries. I love reading them but there's one thing that I always find a bit disturbing - how much food they actually do eat?! Also it would be good to know the measurements of the person, at least their height. Otherwise it can be misleading for the reader. A good few times I've found myself thinking "he/she eats so little and exercises like crazy". 

As a diabetic I have to weigh and measure all the food I eat. That's how I know how much insulin to take. The amount of insulin is determined by carbohydrates, aka carbs. Besides carbs, insulin intake is determined also by exercise, stress, current blood sugar level, previous and next day, weather (!)..everything really! I use MyFitnesspal for counting, it's a really handy app and will count all your macros and nutritients for you. You can also scan products with it. 

So without further do here's an example from yesterday, that happened to be a day off :) And my measurements are: 175cm (5'9"), 72kg (158 pounds). Active and sporty lifestyle, type 1 diabetes since I was 10 years old.

BREAKFAST
Egg whites 200gr
Cold smoked salmon 60gr
1 tbs Avocado (leftovers)
Oat porridge 50gr with Almond milk (unsweetened) 300mll
Strawberries 50gr
Raspberries 50gr

482kcal, 37gr Carbs

GYM
45min legs and glutes workout, stretching 10min.

Blood sugar rise after breakfast so not enough insulin. The workout took it down a bit, and towards lunch it was almost in balance. 

SNACK
1/2 protein cookie
190kcal, 19gr Carbs

Some protein bars are ok, and after workout you should take some extra protein anyway. I try to find bars etc that are low in sugar and carbs and over all have not many ingredients. I don't eat them every day though. 

LUNCH
Quorn "mince" (vegetarian) 200gr
Peas-corn-pepper mix 100gr
Chickpea-rice mix 125gr
Avocado 70gr (half)

483kcal, 36gr HH

Using leftovers form the freezer ;)

SNACK
1/2 protein cookie
190kcal, 19gr carbs

Rest of the cookie. Blood sugar decides to go down, probably the workout is still working in my body and I took too much insulin on lunch. The cookie brings it up slowly but surely. 

Dairy Milk Chips Ahoy
2 pieces (one row has 3 pieces)
56kcal, 5gr carbs

I bought this for my boyfriend :) We were travelling to Dublin, this time first to Ikea and then to ENFUSION martial arts fightr & show. 

DINNER
Roast beef & Egg on Flat Bread
444kcal, 38gr carbs (--> estimation!)

*Exceptional situation*, aka on the road. I was lazy, and we just bought ready made stuff from the garage. Sometimes I just can't be bothered to cook dinners to go, like I usually do for gigs. Here you can see how difficult it can be with diabetes if you don't know exactly what you're eating. There can be something surprising in the sandwhich and it can be difficult to assess how much insulin to take. In this case I got it pretty much right. 

SNACK
340kcal, 38gr carbs

I tried a new bar, from the same cookie company. Tasted good, but was heavy in calories. 

NIGHT SNACK
1/2 cookie
190kcal, 30gr carbs

It was a very late evening so I needed some extra food. 

Raw Chocolate Cups

This is a classic recipe that as far as I know is probably originally from America. The land of all sweet things :) I used three different favorite fillings of mine, but you can choose your own flavors and favorites - only the sky and your taste buds are the limit! 

Peanut Butter, and other nut butters are a fairly new thing to me. They are not nearly as known or common in Europe than in America. But my god have I fallen in love in them! The saltyness of the peanut butter is just perfect with chocolate. 

Orange and chocolate. Do I need to say any more?! If I had to choose one chocolate flavor over the others, I would say orange. I'm just obsessed with it. For example when travelling, everytime I see a new chocolate bar or a cake with orange, I just have to buy and try it! 

White Chocolate for some reason links to luxury in my head. I eat it quite rarely actually, but I really love it. I stumbled across Keen Nut Butter's White Chocolate & Macadamia recently and it's just heavenly. I'm eating it straight from the jar sometimes. Also it is a local Irish produce! 

I can say with all honesty that these chocolates are super yummy, and kick the asses of Dairy Milks and Twixes in the confectionary aisle in the shop. It's really worth trying these out! 

METHOD

1. Melt the cocoa butter in a water bath: For example in 2 saucepans, a smaller one where you boil 1 liter of water, and set the bigger one on top of that, and let the butter melt over the boiling water. 
2. When cocoa butter has melted, mix in rest of the ingredients and whisk lightly 
3. Pour a little bit of melted chocolate on the molds
4. Let freeze in the freezer for about 15 min or until they're firm
5. Place 1 tsp of the filling (PB/Orange Choc/White Choc) on top of the frozen chocolate and make sure it's nice and even 
6. Pour a thin layer of melted chocolate over the fillings, and let freeze & settle in the freezer until firm 
7. ENJOY WITH CLEAN CONSCIENCE! 

Coconut Banana Pan Cakes

Today's recipe is light, healthy and super tasty! The pan cakes are also very low in calories, so it's OK to eat them as much as you want. The recipe below is quite a big portion, since I myself tend to eat A LOT on every meal :D 

Baked Flat Protein Pancake & Healthy Berry Crumble

This morning I was inspired to try a few new recipes again. As a result I ate way too much, but wasn't as stuffed as I would have been after a full Irish breakfast lol ;) 

I loooove berries and a good crumble. All kinds of pie and cookie doughs have always been my weakness, even as a little girl I remember making a dough and just eating it raw! 

The pan cake ("pannari") in the recipe is actually a very traditional Finnish thing. It's a flat cake-ish thing that you bake in a pan in the oven, and it's usually made with white flour and whole milk. Proper pan cake is really moist and thick inside, and it's so delicious! 

I found a recipe for a very good pannari online, it's from a Finnish fitness blogger girl. I subbed a few things in the recipe to suit myself better, and I can warmly recommend this recipe! It's super healthy, low in calories and only good stuff in it. And anyone who has prejudice about bananas; you can't taste it at all! 

Finding a healthy crumble recipe had been a task of mine for a while as well. This crumble goes gluten free very easily too, just sub the regular oats with gluten free ones. The secret to the crumble was to use a tiny bit of coconut oil, which seems to replace the normally used butter perfectly! Enjoy :)

BAKED FLAT PROTEIN PAN CAKE
200 gr natural soy yoghurt (orig.; Quark)
1 Whole egg (orig.; 3 eggs, no egg whites)
4 Egg whites (90gr)
2,5 dl (120 gr) Fast Protein Pan Cake Mix (or any protein powder)
220 gr Banana
2 tbsp (12 gr) Rolled oats
Bit of almond milk (or any milk)

I mixed everything together with a wooden spoon and baked them in 2 small pans. The pan cake can't be too thick, so if you don't have a big enough pan, divide it into more dishes. 

HEALTHY BERRY CRUMBLE
Strawberries
Raspberries
1 Apple
1 tbsp Rolled Oats
Vanilla

CRISP TOPPING
2 tbsp Almond flour
2 tbsp Rolled oats
1 tsp Dessicated coconut
1 tbsp Raw coconut sugar
1 tsp Coconut oil
Cinnamon
Vanilla

Chop the apple and mix with berries, oats and vanilla. Put them into the pan. Mix the crisp ingredients together and place on top of the berries. Bake in 200c for about 20 or until the crisp is golden brown and berries have darkened a little.