Food Diary – June 29, 2011 – and… the virtues of working in an office

Principles of working in an office environment:

• You will start the day pretending you are a yuppie in the Eighties, but with a girly side.

Coffee, buttered bagel, brownie-muffin.

• You will measure your daily intake of provisions carefully as not to oversnack. Pardon me – ‘overeat’.

Bottle of squash, tea, sandwich (defined later), two clementines, brownie-muffin, banana.

• You very much WILL eat peculiar combinations of foods.

Tripledecker on oat bread, with cheese, Brussels pate, margarine and avocado.

• You will fail to count calories towards mid-afternoon.

Mars-bar cake. Yes. "OMG" is the right reaction.

• You will need a pick-me-up. Though being responsible, not an alcoholic one.

Cereal bar with raisins and doused in chocolate. (For those who do not live with BrunchBars.)

• You will eventually find that fibrous foods are indeed good for you.

Prunes!

• You will learn to cook fast meals, in order to avoid fast food.

Spinach, spring onion and cheese omelette, with - what else? - ketchup.

• You will adjust your snacks to suit your fast meals.

Honey-nut shredded wheat. Good snack. Obvidently. (Portmanteau for obviously and evidently, sort of reinforces what you are trying to say.)

• You will drink a lot of water. Water count: ~2l.

Should have mentioned, I sit next to the actual water-cooler in the office. It is truly a common conversation place. Today, the conversation was about getting £5-notes out of cash machines.

Food Diary – June 28, 2011

Quick one!

Breakfast.

Brownie-muffin, a whole buttered cinnamon and raisin bagel, coffee.

Then I went outside, and was amazed to be able to hear lightening and SEE fork-lightning, whilst basking in temperaMENTAL sunshine. Though it was very warm.

Ice cream split. Interpret freely.

Lunch!

Orange juice, pan-friend seafood sticks (ha!) with spring onion, pear pancakes, prunes.

Post-running treat.

The last of the low-fat chocolate orange yoghurt!

Yoghurt is awfully filling, so the dinner was light.

Avocado, tomato, ham, cheese and black olives in a garlic and coriander tortilla; honey-nut shredded wheat and a banana.

Water count: ~2l. Warm days.

Food Diary – June 27, 2011 – and… science on the radio

Well, radio and podcasts too I suppose. Considering I need a form of official licence if I wish to survey people on a large scale for my current project, I was hoping that those who read this little blog are willing to provide snapshot versions of opinions. Personally, I seem to get most of my audio-science fix via podcasts, as the usual science time-slots seem to be scheduled when I am either at work or too tired after work to fully absorb the goodness.

Do people still listen to radio? Do people listen to the science programmes on radio? If you are already listening, and a science programme comes on, will your ears perk up? Do you actually hone in on the science programmes, and select your listening times per se? Do you follow any science podcasts? What do you like to hear about? How long should the programmes be? Should they be funny or serious? Ought they contain music? … I hope these questions can stimulate some thoughts that you are willing to write about in the comments.

Buttered toast with ham, banana, coffee.

Soon enough, it became very hot. Especially after I cleaned the house.

Skinny chocolate brownie ice cream.

Ice cream and sunny weather. I have learnt from the previous day’s escapades. (Decking on my bed at 2230 hours from headachiness and being out cold until my alarm went at 0830 hours the next day, to be precise.)

Orange juice, cinnamon and raisin bagel (buttered), fish fingers and two plums.

Mid-afternoon snack.

Honey not shredded wheat. No milk.

Upon realising I had not used my lazy girl’s dinner “tickets” much in the past week…

Prunes (about 8, not the whole box), pizza with fresh tomatoes and olives.

Then, silly as I am, I decided to bake late at night.

Chocolate brownie muffin.

Just right and chewy. Water count: ~2l. I know what to do when it is hot. Hope you are enjoying some good weather too.

Food Diary – June 26, 2011 – and… heat exhaustion

So, I have been ridiculous again. Against my better scientific judgement, I was lured outside by “it looks so nice out there”, to go for my run in the middle of the afternoon. Already halfway through I was feeling “THE BURN” (say that with imagined reverbaration) an awful lot more than usual, but absolutely wanted to push through. I returned back home with a pounding headache, mild dizziness, super-dry mouth and throat and being able to hear my heartbeat in my ears. And generally feeling very warm. The saving grace would probably be that I put suncream on before I ventured outside.

Heat exhaustion is when your core temperature rises to 37-40°C. Levels of water and salt in the body starts to drop, and you will feel faint, nauseous, and sweat a lot (I did not mention that above, but given that I had been running outside, you may have guessed). If you take a person with heat exhaustion to a cool place, and give them plenty of water to drink, they should start to feel better soon enough. Even if some symptoms may linger.

If left untreated, heat exhaustion can develop into heatstroke. Heatstroke is when the core temperature rises to above 40°C. Then, cells will begin to break down, you will feel confused, hyperventilate, and maybe even stop breathing. This is a medical emergency, and the sufferer will need to be taken to A&E. [Source]

So DO exercise, but DON’T go when it looks nice outside. In fact, if it is cold and wet, you will have to work harder to stay warm anyway. Win-win.

Buttered oven bottom muffin with ham; tea and honey-nut shredded wheat with semi-skimmed milk.

This has gradually become my “accepted” breakfast size. Thoughts? Too much? Too little? Just Right?

Spanish-style spiced potato wedges with ketchup. Last portion of raspberries, whipped cream and toasted chocolate dessert buns.

This is when I went for that run. Came back and necked an incredible amounts of water, and tried to find things in the larder that would help me feel better.

Olives and low fat orange chocolate yoghurt. Then a crispbread with brussels pate.

I did not feel that much better after the food, or even after a shower. So thought that maybe a proper supper would help.

Lots of sliced cucumber with the last of the pork and apple (and black eyed beans, yellow pepper, sundried tomato, onion, etc.) stew. Oat-bread toast with marmelade. Some squash.

Water count: ~2.25l. Look after yourselves out there in the heat! (However, being on British soil, the heat will probably depart soon enough, sadly.)

Food Diary – June 25, 2011 – and… job cuts in the emergency services

Stepping outside my “comfort zone” if you like: I know that 900 jobs may not be THAT many, but something about the cuts made to public services is making me feel a bit nervy. We know that corporate fat cats work for their bonuses, but there is something about cutting expenditure within health, education and emergency services that feels wrong. Would a fat cat ever consider trying out being a PCSO for a week? To see why they are needed? Is there a charity for this? I feel confused. Help me (in the comments please).

Apologies for falling behind in the food diary – suffered quite a bit of heat-exhaustion yesterday (26th) after running int he mid-afternoon sun. My bad.

Honey-nut shredded wheat with semi-skimmed milk; cup of coffee.

Managed to keep going until lunch.

Cuppa tea, banana, apple and pork stew with olives, toasted oven bottom muffin.

After which I did not manage to keep going until dinner. Oh no.

Raspberries, chocolate buns (diced and toasted) with whipped cream.

You know when you buy something new? And you have to try it out straight away?

Low-fat chocolate orange yoghurt. A beautiful thing.

Same applies for the next one.

Slice of toasted oat-bread. Eaten.

Then I felt that I could only allow myself a small dinner.

Spanish-style spiced potato wedges, wilted spinach and spring onion. With tomato puree and mayonnaise.

With post-dinner sweets, of course.

Two small plums.

Water count: ~1.5l.

Been listening to the radio a lot more recently. Could it be a summer thing?