Yes, I like the protein as well and I'm not missing the carbs with afternoon snack, dinner and supper like I thought I would.

As you say, though, life is too short to get too hung up on what JB says. I'm still trying to work out where sweet potatoes come in to the grand scheme of things - I love them but they don't seem to appear as a good carb on the website.

The internet hasn't been working all morning so far, we'll see if it works long enough to post this.

Rather than a low carb/protein/fat diet, my diet consists of eating healthily and I'm also trying to avoid foods that come from a long way away. Problem is that I don't have a local greengrocer or farm shop anymore (thanks to Tesco) so I'm having to look for British fruit and veg in the supermarket - and there is surprisingly little. Local farmers are growing broadbeans and french beans, but tescos seems to bring them in from Kenya or Thailand My veg choice is therefore very restricted at the moment. Salad stuff is mostly European at the moment, so I'm OK with that, and the aubergines - I love stuffed aubergine....mmmmm

Anyway, do you think malt loaf would be ok as a pre-run snack (I've got lots in the house) or should I go and get some cereal bars and bananas?

malt loaf is good as pre-cardio snack. Just try to limit yourself to 1 piece though

Methinks sweet potatoes are ok in JB's book!

Having wierd lunch - didn't have time to cook rice, so have chicken "stir fry" with brown pasta instead of rice!!!!

Does he class them as a veg or as a carb? Oh well - I shared a brie and bacon panini and salad with DH for 3rd meal - it was the least fattening thing on the menu at the coffee shop we were at.

Just picked up the new car and the alarm is so delicate that it goes off every time another car goes past (sort of sexy, growly honking noise)!

Pachyderm - I like the idea of eating local produce - and do as much as I can - but its very restrictive, especially as PN expects us to eat 10 portions of fruit and veg each day. I try and balance long distance veg off with the veg I grow in my garden. Have you thought about getting an organic veg box delivered? Where do your bananas come from?

I've got my application form

But I've decided I'm not going to fill it in for another 2 months . Such restraint (entirely unexpected!). I just want to be able to fill in the box that asks you your best previous marathon time, and as the closing date is only the 20th October (now marked in my diary...) I figure I've got time to wait before sending it off. Plus there's still the remote possibility I'll qualify for GFA in Berlin, and you can't apply through the ballot and for GFA so I'd better wait and see, just in case. I almost certainly won't be quick enough, but you never know (and if I send the form in now it would just be typical that I do run fast enough!) Apparently some people do get in first try, but I'm not overly optimistic I have to say.

I bought shoes at lunchtime, I'm so happy. I've been having to wear flip flops to work for months because I just couldn't find any work shoes that would fit me and looked remotely decent. But I was in Long Tall Sally at lunchtime (for an ego boost to see if I fit in a size 10 there - verdict pretty much, although 12 is more comfortable) and I noticed they do shoes now, and there were some I really liked so I tried them on (they only had one pair) and they fit perfectly. However, it explained why I've been having such trouble elsewhere, they were a size 10 . I swear I'm a freak, I seem to be the only person in the world who has bigger feet than when they started...

YP1 - I'm a freak too started off with size 7 feet and now have 8's ... confused or what?

I've not been to LTS for ages, nearest is in Brum or Leicester, I only tend to buy skirts and the odd pair of jeans from there, the tops and that are a bit blurghhh and far too expensive. Primark, Peacocks and Ebay for tops

I'm using the internet at home, I never do that, it is so slooooooowwww. No internet at work all afternoon, how can I cope!

Bananas come from wherever Tescos gets them from , but I don't eat many as I'm not usually a big fan. They always seem to be under or over-ripe I haven't looked into Organic Veg boxes, but an old neighbour had them and got such wierd selections of veg (no choice apparently) that she eventually decided to stop getting them.

It has been so hot today that I'm stressing about my run tomorrow. How can I run for 20 minutes when 1) that sounds impossible at the best of times and 2) today I felt like I was going to die with the heat while sitting still!

Hope everyone is having a good evening

p.s. Sarah, like the sound of your growling car, but perhaps the neighbours won't after a few days!

Oh but was I in a mood this morning? Not looking forward to coming to work to sweat it out in the airless air conditioningless office. I was sweating before I got dressed! I was running late. I'd lost about half the stuff I usually bring with me, like my wallet! I almost forgot my keys, I couldn't find the bungee to fasten my bag on the bike and then I couldn't get out of the car park!!!!! I was screaming at myself and DF got all huffy and "stressed" Why's he stressed - I was the one who couldn't find anything and was running late!!!!!

Never mind, it's not TOO hot today and I have brought ice packs and an ice cube tray for the ice box in the fridge. I was in Waitrose last night and I bought the most expensive frozen veg ever!!! It's some bird's eye stuff in little individual portions that you can microwave Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Unfortunately £1.50 for 4 little bags, that are about half a PN serving!!! Do they think people don't like veg or something??? It's not as if it's expensive - it's all the bloody plastic they put it in that's expensive! BAH! HUMBUG!

Anyway - oh yes I made turkey burgers last night too They were tasty. I've cooked some more for lunch today and put some Worcester sauce in them since they were a tad bland yesterday.

I had a nice carby day yesterday - I ate 2 biscuits!! I'm not feeling like tracking in fitday, but I suppose I should try. Oh yeah, I made banana and peanut workout bars too. They are like rocks. And stupidly high in calories, but never mind - during kickboxing I probably deserve them! I ate 2 last night though. Whoops!

Its drizzling slightly here - not too sunny and not too hot right now. We had the weirdest thunderstorm in the night - all flashes and bangs but no rain. It was SO hot (in the night) that we kept the fan on all night and the noise from it gave me the strangest dreams - nightmares, really.

My elderly neighbour who lives opposite (lovely couple) - the husband had a stroke last night. Poor man - he's been fighting cancer for the last year and now this.

I've spent all morning trying to work out some kind of menu plan for this PN - talk about complicated - especially trying to fit in the PN protein/carb requirements in with my personal need to be accountable by counting calories. I'm trying to work out if there will be enough variety in it for me to carry on with it after my week's try out. It certainly takes more kitchen work in the day than I'm used to (and I'm getting a lot tired of spinach salad!)

Pachyderm - I thought I'd give a banana instead of my normal cereal bar a try out as a pre-walk snack this morning and it definitely doesn't have the same ability to keep my tummy from rumbling as the cereal bar does. Maybe if it hadn't been such a ripe banana it might have been a bit more satisfying. I shall try again tomorrow with a 80 to 100 cal slice of DH's malt loaf.

Oh PN IS a lot of cooking and washing up and a royal PITA today! Partially the reason I was annoyed this morning - I'd cooked turkey burgers, whizzed CC, cooked omlettes etc etc etc!!

We had thunder flashes at 4am, but no rain.

How are you finding PN complicated? I'm just aiming for protein and veg at every meal and no starchy carbs till after workout. I'm not too bothered about the EFAs and fish oil supplements, but I'm eating more nuts and avocados than usual, since the "just protein and veggies" seem to be keeping my calories REALLY low! I mean I had a 1200ish day I NEVER eat less than 1600, but I was really full and feeling sicky so I couldn't eat more. Although maybe I could've squeezed cake in, but that's not on plan!

I ran for 20 minutes this morning with no breaks . Frus is right, it is possible, but I still felt like dieing - or more accurately, just lying down and giving up. I now have to work out how far I went, because I want to run the whole of the 5k race if I can I can't say if the malt loaf helped really, but we shall see.

Sarah, shame about the storm, thankfully we did get rain and it did cool down a lot in the night, but with an east facing bedroom and the sun blasting in this morning, I was hot before I even got up
I hope your neighbour's stroke wasn't a bad one, and that he can recover in time. It is so sad that they have to deal with this on top of cancer.

Frus, those bars sound good

By the way, I don't want to sound thick, but what is PN?

PN = precision nutrition - it's a nutrition plan, which IMHO is a bit like Atkin's but you get to eat carbs, but only after you've worked out. It's quite good, but it's turning out expensive (so much fruit and veg) and a bit time-consuming but I think I just need to be a bit more organised, or get up earlier!

Helen, maybe your feet have flattened out a bit with all the running. That would surely make them a bit longer and wider??

Early mornings do not sound good to me!

I like the sound of all the fruit and veg, but I thought general wisdom was to eat carbs before exercising and protein afterwards??

You don't have to eat carbs before exercise, but it's a good idea for long bouts of exercise - he also advises a sports drink during exercise, but I think they're ikky.

Studies have found that protein and carbs are good recovery food. I think the thinking behind having carbs after exercise is that they'll be "soaked up" by your muscles and not stored as fat - since you've just depleted your muscles of carbs. Eating carbs before exercise, you probably just burn the carbs up straight away.