Helen Glover: âIâve never demonstrated self-restraint with ice-creamâ
My dad has an ice-cream shop in Newlyn, Cornwall, called Jelbertâs. Itâs been in our family for about 100 years. I remember when my dad would go to work and we were getting ready for school, we had this ritual of running to the window of our house and shouting: âBring us back some ice-cream!â Later on, I worked in the shop for a bit, but I mainly ate the ice-cream.
Jelbertâs only sells one flavour: vanilla, in a cup or cone, and you can add a Flake and clotted cream. The recipe hasnât changed in years. My dad doesnât like to change anything â I think Cornish folk donât â and heâs very low-key, very understated. When I won the Olympics in London, everyone was going past the shop beeping their horns. And he just got a Weetabix box, ripped it up and wrote on the back, âItâs gold!â and he stuck it in the window. Thatâs a perfect representation of my dad.
Iâve never demonstrated self-restraint with ice-cream, or anything else. I was one of five siblings and if something was put down on the table, you grabbed it and ate what you could, because it was always a fight for who was going to get it first.
Everything tastes better outside. As a teenager Iâd go out with my friends on kayaks with a fishing line behind us and catch mackerel. Then we would cook them on the beach over a fire. A lot of the best meals Iâve ever had were sat on a cliff eating a picnic or on the beach, on the sand dunes.
My gold-silver-bronze of chocolate bars are Boost, Dairy Milk and Wispa. I donât need anything fancy.
I routinely have four full meals a day when Iâm in full training: breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, dinner as standard, and then snacks throughout the day and sometimes a reasonable sized meal before bed. It becomes automatic and I wonât feel hungry because if I feel hungry thatâs my body telling me I need to feed up and I have a snack.
A second breakfast is the best meal of the day. In the morning, I get up and Iâm thinking about the first training session of the day so Iâll usually have something like porridge. Second breakfast, youâve got more time, youâve woken up a bit. Youâve done a session, so you can have eggs, bagels with peanut butter and a bit of jam, which is pretty much my favourite second breakfast. You can have whatever you want for that one.
After the Rio Olympics, I left the sport and stopped training. I very quickly realised that I had to think more than Iâve ever done about the amount I was eating. With a more sedentary lifestyle, you canât eat the same as you would for 5,500-calories-a-day rowing lifestyle. So now Iâm back doing it again I just really enjoy the fact that I can have the freedom to just eat as I feel.
If I need more fuel, thereâs always the childrenâs leftovers. The other night, the three of them had chicken breast and some pasta and I had my dinner, then an hour or so later finished off theirs. Then again, I donât think thatâs unique to athletes: probably a lot of parents end up with dinner being the leftovers of whatever the kids didnât want.
I probably eat more than my husband [naturalist and presenter Steve Backshall] when Iâm in full-time training. But heâs a good cook; heâs much better than me. Often Iâll do the cooking for the little ones when I can, then when he can heâll do the cooking and thatâs when most plates are clean.
In the Olympic Village, you can eat whatever you want, anytime, day or night. You could go to the British section and get a roast dinner or you go to the Chinese section and it will be catered really specifically for the Chinese athletes. And youâve got basketball sat next to judo sat next to a weightlifter sat next to marathon runners. So everybodyâs calorific needs and physical needs are all so different that I think they just cater to everybody as much as they can.
When Iâm feeling homesick, Iâll have a Cornish pasty. Whenever I go home, I come back and my boot is pretty much smelling like a Cornish pasty because I just fill it with as many as I can and put them in the freezer.
The most memorable meal of my life was my wedding. It was on a clifftop in Cornwall, overlooking the sea and St Michaelâs Mount. The meal was amazing and all local: freshly caught crab and my dadâs ice-cream for pudding.
MY FAVOURITE THINGS
Food
Ice-cream from Jelbertâs. Not always with the Flake, but always clotted cream. And I always go for a cone, rather than a tub, because I figure itâs just an extra biscuit.
Drink
Oh, coffee. I wasnât much of a coffee drinker till I had children but now I have my first cup by 5.30am, then by the time Iâve left the house at 7.30am, Iâve had another. I have about three cups a day.
Restaurant
Anong Thai, near where we live [in Cookham, Berkshire]. Thereâs a sea bass dish thatâs amazing.
Dish to make
Spaghetti bolognese. Itâs the best of a bad bunch from my repertoire.
Helen Glover is a Whole Earth peanut butter ambassador and backing Jamie Ramsayâs Whole Way to Stokeyo challenge, to rally support for Team GB. Visit wholeearthfoods.com/teamgb /wholewayjourney