Coming full circle with the Carbs

I am choosing to change the day I 'un-officially' weigh myself to a Saturday since I know that weekends are not good for me. I am looking at this as a forever thing and don't need to beat myself up if I had a slice of Divine Dessert Chocolate Mudcake last night after eating really well all week.

I feel like I have come full circle with the whole 'carbs' thing ... I spent a bit of time online this week looking for information about some of the popular low carbs diets out there at the moment - Cohens, Dukkan etc.

Many people on forums has discussed their anecdotal stories of using these popular diets. Everyone agrees that they have (or they know people who) followed these diets to the letter and lost huge amounts of weight - 40kg here, 25kg there.

But, equally, there are stories of people ending the diet with a sluggish metabolism, the same previous habits and putting all of the lost weight - and some - back on.

People talk about this being their own fault for not doing 're-feeding' training - learning how to eat enough to maintain the new weight.

Trying to find a balance where I am eating healthy food that is best for my Diabetes, while trying to make sure my choices don't inadvertently screw with my already-sluggish metabolism ... and somewhere along that line, I am hoping to safely lose weight to help minimise my Diabetes in the long-term.

The speed of that weight loss is becoming unimportant as long as I continue to trend downwards.

I am going to allow a small amount of quality carbs back in ... Divine Dessert Chocolate Mudcake is not quality at all in terms of my health - it did meet an emotional need after a rather stressful week but I had the sugar hangover to prove it.

I have bought a loaf of low GI Cape Seed bread and will allow myself the occasional slice.

See how human and imperfect I am? Emotional eating and indecisiveness, but I just need to keep getting on that horse and making this thinking a habit. By the way, my weigh-in yesterday morning - 87.5kg. Good.

Image: divine.co.nz
Image: diaryofaladybird.blogspot.com

Beef Salad in 12 minutes or less

I've been fascinated for a while now about how different fruits and veggies are processed by the body.

Especially how the pancreas deals with them, since many are low in carbohydrate and high in fibre.

And some even have no discernible effect on blood sugars: courgette, cucumber, green beens. Mushroom, capsicum, brocolli. Tomatoes, celery, onions.

A typical meal for me at the moment is a plate of veggies with some protein.

Ingredients
100g Steak or Chicken Breast
4 Button mushrooms
1/2 a Courgette
1/4 of a Capsicum
1/2 a stalk of Celery
Coriander
Garlic, Ginger, Cracked Pepper, Chilli Flakes
Lemon Juice, Vinegar

Directions
Usually I prepare (maybe a shake of lemon pepper and a spray of oil) and start cooking the steak or chicken.While that sizzles on the hob, I chop up my veggies: sliced mushrooms and celery. Maybe a handful of cabbage. Or small amount of chopped onion or spring onion. When the meat is cooked, I put it out to rest and put the veggies into the same pan. Stir over a high heat for a few moments then put in 1/4 cup of water. I often add a splash of lemon juice and/or vinegar and/or a twist of cracked pepper too ... top with coriander. Slice the rested meat and serve warm over the stirfry.

Serves 1

But some play foul of that rule, for example pumpkin and parsnip are both high GI.

And sweet corn is a really good example. On a cob, boiled and eaten from the cob, corn is really good for you and low GI, but taken off the cob makes them higher GI.

Varieties and preparation change this too. Old floury potatoes can be high GI and new potatoes low GI. Boiled kumara has a lower GI then baked kumara.

In the meantime, I am enjoying a food plan of all the veggies that will benefit my blood sugars. Which is the goal. And who doesn't have 12 minutes or less to create a delicious healthy meal?

Another conscious decision I have made is to limit my intake of veggies as part of my plan. And it's working ... this morning's weight was 89.0kg. Yay.

Kiwifruit and Yoghurt for Breakfast

On most mornings since I have been following my food plan, I have been have been having low fat unsweetened yoghurt and fruit for breakfast. The quantity of yoghurt I have been eating is about four good spoonfuls over one serve of fruit.

I am happy with a chopped-up kiwifruit or some mango or paw paw. My friends prefer the yoghurt sweetened with sugar substitute.

Clearwater's Organic Dairy Yoghurt

Comes as several choices including the fabulous Cream Top Yoghurt, but they also have a low fat unsweetened version that they claim is milk and culture and nothing else. This yoghurt is mildly acidic and quite loosely textured. The Clearwater's website has some fantastic recipes using their products as well.

Cyclops Organic Low Fat Greek Yoghurt

This one is a lot thicker and and a lot more acidic. I really like the texture of greek yoghurt, but I know that my friends prefer it whisked a bit to smooth and loosen the texture.

Biofarm Low Fat Yoghurt

I haven't tried this one yet so I am not sure about the sugar content as low fat does not necessary mean low sugar, so I'll update this post when I know. Their website looks like it has a nice selection of recipes too.

EasiYo Low Fat Yoghurt

Has a range of low fat and low sugar choices. The Berry version has 7g of sugar per 100g, and you could sweeten to task with a substitute. I don't have an EasiYo maker at home, but think I need to borrow one and try these out.

DeWinkyl Natural Unsweetened Yoghurt

This is a mild yoghurt with a firmer texture than the Clearwater's but not as firm as the Greek.

Recently I bought a six-pack of a new dairy dessert range and discovered that these pots had a ridiculous amount of sugar and fat. Maybe okay occasionally for the kids, but I am finally beginning to realise that some foods may as well be poison to me.

Jenny recommends a smoothie with banana, low fat milk and protein powder. Yoghurt, berries and low fat milk would make a great smoothie too.

Other ways you could have this breakfast could be flavoured with cinnamon, grated apple and sugar substitute to taste or with mango microwaved with a bit of water and mashed, then stirred through the yoghurt.

Remember that low fat dairy has been shown to help reduce the risk of all sorts of bad stuff and may help carry fat away from the body. And a protein-rich breakfast will reduce your hunger. Low fat yoghurt is also low GI, which means you won't be spiking your blood sugars, which will help stabilise your blood sugars for the day. And did I mention the calcium in the yoghurt and the fibre in the kiwi?

So get some today.

Food as Medicine

Since I have Diabetes, I am going to try starting with a food plan that addresses the main concerns of my Diabetes: sugar and anything that my body converts to sugar.

As you probably have too, I have seen many diets. Enough that I could probably create one myself. But I will start with something simple based on minimal carbohydrates with protein for every meal.

My plan is to mix low GI foods with proteins. Since vegies are carbohyrates too, that means staying away from root vegies etc. If I can eat low GI vegies, then it should cause a more gradual rise in my blood glucose levels.

So a serve of lean protein (including low fat cheese or yoghurt) with each meal and a combination of at least five vegies a day, plus two serves of low GI fruit a day.

Additionally I intend to have a few low fat crackers during the day as well.

So that's going to be my meal plan.

Image: Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net