Thursday 18 August 2011

Dairy free diet and number counting

As a quick recap: 2009 got psoriasis on sole of foot, ruined my running, tried multitude of creams and potions, finally saw specialist May 2010, Sept 2010 tried new cream, Oct 2010 went vegan (decision was unrelated to foot), got the "all clear" early 2011.

In May this year I gave up veganism and "downgraded" to vegatarianism. Then my psoriasis returned. First to my fingers, then my scalp and finally my foot. I reduced dairy for a month or so (to no effect) but when I had to superglue my foot in order to run I decided that I needed to cut out dairy altogther. Within a week of
becoming vegan again my psoriasis had 100% vanished from my fingers and had almost gone
from my scalp and foot! That may not be a fool proof conclusion in scientific terms but in my eyes: eating dairy=get psoriasis=no running.

That's been 4 weeks now and I am used to the diet again. In fact I quite enjoy it especially working out the cal/carb/protein amounts required for the training I do. I run 10 miles every day except Sundays where I run a wee bit more. Average is about 70-80 miles per week. Food wise I average about 2500 cals a day with 400g carbs and 100g protein. Additional cals/carbs tend to come from beer! I take 2 vitamin supplements daily, mainly to cover B12 requirements.



On my previous vegan phase I did get asked what I ate from other runners so here is a breakdown of yesterdays menu:

1 litre Soya milk throughout the day
breakfast: massive green salad with nuts and cranberries
second breakfast: Chick pea/pea/olive oil/chilli/lemon salad
snack: bagel with jam
snack: banana
lunch (after run): porridge with sugar followed by 2 mugs of sweet tea
snack: apple and a pear
tea: chili with rice and extra kidney beans followed by 2 mugs sweet tea
snack: porridge with sugar
supper: toast with peanut butter and jam

Anyway, here's hoping the psoriasis is gone. Then I'll probably stop bloody banging on about it ALL THE TIME ;-)

5 comments:

  1. Really interesting the read that Dave. Seems like you're gonna have to stay off the dairy!

    Can I ask why so much sugar in your diet?

    Paul ;)

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  2. good mileage Dave, diet is tough one, salad for brekkie, couldnt do it. My big bro has been Vegan for about 30years now so i'm used to eating vegan food, he cooks everythig from scratch and his foos is always really tasty with all the herbs and spices he uses. You doing Ness again?

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  3. pyllon - I do have a sweet tooth!

    Santa - I am going to give the LochNess marathon a miss in order to do the River Ayr Way race the week before. Looking forward to that one - I think Vikki is keen as well.

    Thanks for the comments :)

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  4. Don't stop banging on about it; it's interesting. One thing I'm curious about is how the vegan diet meshes with your family. Do they eat vegan as well? I'm considering giving up meat for a while for my own reasons, but I don't want to drag my wife and kids along with me. I'm the cook of the household, so I could manage it, but the effort of cooking two separate dinners each day seems annoying.

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  5. I cook all my own stuff. I think Carole found it pretty annoying to start with but it is routine now. We all still eat together though. A lot of the time we will have something that can do both sets of meals (rice or pasta).

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