Day 1: 7th April

Well it's day one and obviously today is going to be totally focussed and probably a little OTT and certainly hoping for more real food tomorrow. Not sure how accurate all the measurements are and there is some proxy stuff in there, here goes:

1. 3 double espresso coffees, woops at local farm shop (4cals*3 & 0.28kgs*3 Carbon)
2. 50g Kate's muesli (231cals based on Jordans Nut & Seed & no added salt) + 100ml semi skimmed milk (52cals, sodium 42mg) (carbon assumed at 50g for muesli proxy, and 0.12 for milk)
3. One pot of Veggie Curry 390g, from those nice folk at Fruit Towers (234cals, 0.7g sodium) (carbon proxy apple juice 0.62)
4. Another  pot of Veggie Curry 390g, from those nice folk at Fruit Towers (324cals, 0.7g sodium) (carbon proxy apple juice 0.62)
5. 5 water biscuits, circa 25g (14cals*5, no salt? based on Carrs) (carbon 0.06)
6. 1 orange circa 200g (94 cals no salt) (carbon 0.10)
7. Loads of tap water (nil)

The targets:

• Calories 2300 - actual 1017
• Carbon 5kgs - actual 2.41
• Salt 6g (2.4g sodium) - actual 1.442g sodium
• Meat 54g - actual nil (weekly cumulative nil)
• Fruit and veg portions 5-8 - actual circa 7
• Fish 2 portion per week - actual nil (weekly cumulative nil)
• Cheese and butter below 50g - actual nil (weekly cumulative nil)

Well assuming supper goes as planned that's as expected, over shooting the targets a little!
Measuring most of this stuff was OK with the help of some proxy data, hopefully we can get the carbon a little better as time goes on?

On the rest of my targets, the milk was nothing special, just from the local store, the coffee was faitrade (I think, so must check), no airfreight and most of the packaging will be recycled.

The start & targets

Maybe it's really is time to take the holistic approach to my diet and health and practice what I preach in full. For years my work, campaigning and social life has been focussed on great food which has been sourced properly with utmost care for the environment. For anyone who knows me, just maybe I've sample a little too much of that great food!

When looking to see who is out there to help set measurable targets for a healthy diet for people and the planet the resources seem somewhat limited. One thing is for sure there's more than one expert happy to talk about healthy eating, consuming less fat, less carbohydrates and no this or that (usually the stuff I like). Unfortunately more often than not they're sending us in the direction of absolute culinary boredom. Then to make it worse no one is really linking this purgatory to the environment in any way measurable: why I cannot understand, government, campaigners, academics and nearly everyone I've worked with has an opinion (myself included), but then no measurements for the environment.

That is until the angel arrived, praise be to WWF-UK, since they have published the WWF Livewell Diet 2011 with what appears achievable health targets, some great ethics, some carbon targets (my heaven) and very occasional treats and with some real food. So now it's time back up all that talk and set my targets:

On April 6th, 2011 I clocked in at 173cm tall and 91kgs, frighteningly I know that's on the edge of obesity with a BMI of 30+. So by Christmas Day 2011 the aim is hit 200cm tall (achievable?), 75kgs, a BMI of 25 and with a much lower environmental impact.

The plan is to follow the outline the angels at WWF have set with the LiveWell Diet and they've calculated if I'm a typical Brit (let’s just assume I am) my daily consumption is:

Calories 3500: apparently we need no more than 2500, so to lose some weight the target is 2300 calories - Fat Secret agree so will use their tools to check the nutrition (thanks guys)

Carbon Dioxide equivalent (Carbon) 7.8kgs: to meet the UK governments target for 2020 that has to be reduced to 5kgs of carbon - so that's the target, maybe there’s a need to allow for wastage? 

Salt 9.7g (men): the target is 6g – keeping an occasional eye on this

Meat 216g: to hit the carbon target this needs to be cut to no more than an average of 54g

Fruit and veg portions 3.5: their diet suggests 8, but let’s make it 5 for now

Fish 1 portion per week (a guess): the target is 2 portions per week, 1 of which is oily

Dairy 600ml liquid equivalent (an estimate): the target is the same, so to keep things simple maybe target the cheese and butter at below 50g per day and maybe revisiting later

There’s an aim to reduce all those bad fats, but the assumption I’ve made is that by reducing hard dairy and meat that should be covered.

In line with the WWF LiveWell diet I'll also consider: Biodiversity, our eco systems and forests, Water and other finite resources and the social well being of others.

May be I'll also talk about some of the other big issues they have highlighted like population growth and potential land shortages, fairer distribution of food (1.2bn hungry and 1.2bn overfed), food prices and the cost of my diet.  But let's see how it goes and what I can report back on.

Best for now, Tom (follow the blog)