Katie Archibald column: ‘I managed to avoid cooking a single meal for three months’
Katie Archibald reveals her new-found love of dark chocolate and how she avoided cooking for three months
Olympic and world champion, Katie Archibald got into cycling after winning handicap races on a Highland Games grass track. She writes a column for Cycling Weekly each week
"Children aren’t supposed to like dark chocolate. It’s one of those bitter things that you are meant to acquire a taste for later in life, like olives and self-pity.” The words of Emma Jane Unsworth written in Hungry the Stars and Everything.
When I first read them I was still a child, aged 21, who crinkled her nose at dark chocolate. Aged 22 I forced myself to eat it as a healthier indulgence than milk chocolate. Healthier not because of the lower sugar or higher cocoa content but because I couldn’t stomach more than a few chunks.
>>> Katie Archibald column: ‘My road season ended with my head in the toilet’
Aged 23 I’m now through the other side and caning entire bars of the stuff like I’m trying to find a golden ticket. My dark chocolate diet plan needs refining. Luckily I’m aware enough of my vices to avoid starting one healthy glass of wine a night.
My bigger dietary issue is that I enjoy cooking like I enjoy baking: as a project, a mission, the sort of thing you make a Pinterest board for. And once a month. Not something you have to do three times a day to stay alive. That’s simply too much.
In 2016 I managed to avoid cooking a single meal for three months. Made possible by a combination of moving house via a hotel, pre-Olympic camps and a very long post-Olympic holiday, everything I ate was either cooked for me or put in a microwave. The British Cycling nutritionist even approved. Boy, life was good.
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This week, a year after my cruel return to cooking dinners, I start on a new BC nutritionist-approved scheme; build it yourself meal deliveries. That’s not their advertised name but it’s the idea. A company that delivers all the ingredients you need for dinner, pre-measured and ready to cook.
Am I pathetic? Almost certainly. Am I willing to accept that label in order to avoid the incredible mental struggle involved with both planning and shopping for a meal for dinner EVERY SINGLE DAY?
I’m having a pin badge made up to say as much.
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Nigel Wynn worked as associate editor on CyclingWeekly.com, he worked almost single-handedly on the Cycling Weekly website in its early days. His passion for cycling, his writing and his creativity, as well as his hard work and dedication, were the original driving force behind the website’s success. Without him, CyclingWeekly.com would certainly not exist on the size and scale that it enjoys today. Nigel sadly passed away, following a brave battle with a cancer-related illness, in 2018. He was a highly valued colleague, and more importantly, an exceptional person to work with - his presence is sorely missed.
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