Best Rowing Coach on the Thames?

Getting back to training after a weekend end away certainly feels better when the sun is shining, the water is beautifully flat, the first baby goslings are bobbing around and.................our coach cooked us all breakfast!

And not just any old breakfast either - sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, black pudding, grilled tomatoes and, after a special request from me - smoked salmon!!! How amazing is he?! No wonder our membership is growing (just a shame most of the girls are training to race as lightweights!).

Interesting too so see what others brought to the table - home-made rye bread from one, Nutella from another (has she not been listening to a word I say??!!) and obviously from me it had to be something to add a touch of health to the proceedings - a shot of Cherry Active drink to top

up their antioxidant levels after a hard workout!

Cheers George, you're a star!

A Costa Rican Start to 2010

Well, everybody else is doing it so I thought I should join in (I've never been one to miss out on anything). Let's hope it's not like most of the diaries I have started in the past that haven't made it past Pancake Day!

What a way to start a healthy new year. Costa Rica promised great food and I was not disappointed, but what a shock - some of the biggest women I have ever seen! Or maybe they just all buy clothes that are 3-4 sizes too small, then squeeze their enormous bodies into them? Either way it was a constant reminder to eat healthily at all times.

But as it was Christmas and New Year I had to have a couple of little treats, otherwise what's the point of being alive?! My advice to all my clients is to be 80% good and 20% naughty - this seems a good balance and prevents craving things you think you can't have! Just have them and get over it!

So what treats did we experience? Well the highlight has to be dessert for dinner on Christmas Eve. In a hotel resembling something from The Shining, high on a hill with a view of Volcan Barva, we were served fried banana with grated cheese!

A few of us were brave enough to sample it, thinking this could be the next big thing and why had nobody thought of it before? One mouthful was enough to realise why nobody had thought of it before!

What else was on offer to test our taste-buds? Quite a lot of great food

actually, and some of it not to bad on the health front, if only they didn't fry everything. They certainly have one of the best breakfasts ever - rice and beans with scrambled eggs. Really quite healthy - full of protein and a great way to start the day. A few of the athletes I advise would do well to have this as a second breakfast after their first training session. Of course the Ticos (locals in Costa Rica) add fried plantain, soured cream and a tortilla which then takes it a little over the top!

Another favourite breakfast was banana pancakes, again pretty healthy and nutritious, but then along came the best bit - the richest, creamiest cream cheese you have ever tasted - like a cross between cream cheese and clotted cream - pure heaven, but also heart attack on a plate!

But we did have some great healthy food and luckily we were extremely active for the whole two weeks, so I did return to the UK a little lighter!