This morning at 07:15, my alarm went off so that I could get up for circuits at 8am. Except I didn’t get up, I had no energy, couldn’t open my eyes and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. Which is what I did.

When I finally woke up the first thought that went through my head was ‘I must be coming down with something’ until seconds later my stomach started rumbling. Painfully. Ah ha, I thought, I hadn’t eaten enough after circuits and boxing last night. That bowl of tomato, lentil, leek and cabbage soup just didn’t cut it.

And this made me think. I spent years of my teenage and early-twenties life equating feelings of hunger with something to be proud of. A rumbling stomach meant that your body was burning fat rather than food and was therefore making you skinny. When I was dieting I’d skip breakfast, have vegetables for lunch and a small dinner, keeping myself going with caffeine whilst trying to exercise and ignore the feelings of dizziness. Yes I was skinny but I wasn’t healthy….

Fast forward a few years to my realisation that I hadn’t eaten enough. It’s a very fine balance for me at the moment as I am still trying to lose the last 5lbs whilst reducing body fat and increasing muscle definition. However, if I don’t eat enough food then I don’t have enough energy to work out efficiently and build muscle.

It’s all a learning process at the moment while I figure out what I need to put into my body to get out of it what I want. And my brain needs to go through an advanced training programme where I work on the fact that when it comes to food, less is not always better. Watch this space…