A cramp in my shin?

There isn’t any flesh there, for god’s sake.

I’m used to foot cramps but these shin cramps brought tears to my eyes. I couldn’t find any way to ease the pain.

They came out of the blue earlier this year, at night, exactly when you think your body should be relaxed.

At the time, I was training for the state champs and training harder than I had ever trained. That’s all I can put it down to.

A Pilates instructor told me it was a magnesium deficiency and suggested I try raw cacao powder – I am reluctant to take supplements and prefer to try and get my dietary needs from food. So I gave it a go.

It worked! And immediately.

In 6 months I have not had a single cramp.

It’s winter here now so I add a dessertspoonful of cacao powder to my porridge. With some dried cranberries and a drizzle of manuka honey, breakfast has become like a dessert!

In summer, I blitz it up with some fruit and yoghurt, or ice-cream. I need all the calcium I get too.

The taste is not overpoweringly chocolatey so I haven’t got tired of it.

But, to be honest, at 3am I would’ve swallowed the gonads of a cane toad.