LE - Carbs

I've been dreading attempting to write this post all day. There is so much information I want to share about carbs that I know I am going to forget something. But I guess the only thing to do is start writing so...3...2...1...

Most people who recommend high protein diets also recommend not eating carbs (including fruit). On the other hand, I think eating carbs is ok, as long as they are the right carbs. I am going to discuss carbs in two categories. I am not going to use the scientific categories, just the categories that I have in my head :). I will also include my recommended daily serving with each category.

Fruits and Vegetables
Recommended daily serving: Unlimited! (I like this one!)

All of you know how good for you f&vs are, so I'm not going to go through that whole shpeel.  My advice for you in this category, however, is to get creative. There are tons of great ways to incorporate these into your diet ( see here, and here, and here for just a few examples). If you are not a fan of fruits and vegetables? Don't worry. Bryce wasn't either. Then we learned the art of making your f&v's appealing. Doctor them up! For example, Bryce always says he doesn't like salad unless it is "loaded," meaning that it has tons of "toppings." Remember from the last post that we aren't afraid for protein and fat. So toss that salad with cheese, crumbled bacon, meat, eggs, creamy dressing... whatever it takes to get you to eat it. Now go grab some apple slices, celery stalks, and a bowl of peanut butter for dipping and then keep reading...:)

Grain
Recommended daily serving: 3

This is the category that I am going to crack down on. I want to start this category by telling you that, as soon as you finish reading this, you should go to your kitchen and look at the ingredient labels on all of your grain products. If it has the words, "Bleached," "white," "enriched," or any other word that makes you think the product is not 100% whole wheat/grain, THROW IT AWAY. There are no natural nutrients in those products. They are doing nothing for you except making you weigh more than you want. Noodles, crackers, flour tortillas, white bread, etc, are all junk food, even if they might not seem like it.

Esh, doing (and saying) that was the hard part. I remember after I first took this step, I looked in my cabinets and thought, "I have nothing to eat!" But before you feel like this is unreasonable, let's talk about what to fill those shelves with. Examples of "good" grains would be.

100% whole wheat bread

Whole wheat pasta

Oatmeal

Whole wheat tortillas

Quinoa

Popcorn

Grapes Nuts, Whole-Wheat-Shredded-Wheat, and other cereals

And many more

The foods in the list above actually offer nutritional value. Some of them are sources of fiber, b vitamins, and iron. Soluble fiber (found in oatmeal) can not only reduce heart disease but can also lower the accumulation of belly fat! Wahoo! Others of these foods are good sources of insoluble fiber which decreases the risk of colon cancer and other GI diseases.

So if these foods offer these benefits, why only three servings a day? Well, grains are tricky. Almost all the benefits derived from eating these foods (soluble and insoluble fiber, b vitamins, iron) can be gained from eating solely protein, fats, and f&vs. On top of that, as I mentioned in the previous post, you have to eat carbs more frequently than proteins to stay satiated.  

Thus, I must admit that the real reason I keep grain in my diet at all is that it is very difficult to eliminate it completely. Remember how we want to be PRACTICAL and SUSTAINABLE? An example of how this plays out for me would be that I have oatmeal for breakfast and a sandwich with 2 pieces of bread for lunch.  Allowing three servings usually lets me eat grain twice a day. And I am simply not at a stage of life where it is practical for me to abandon grain completely. So for now, I am letting it hang around. Maybe someday I will be able to phase it out completely, but for now I am able to maintain my desired weight and still eat 3 servings per day. So really it is no big deal.

I think that's all I'm going to write about for now. I was going to go into starches, but I don't think I will except to say that they are controversial. Some people say they make you accumulate fat, others don't. If I eat them, I count them as one of my 3 grain servings, but I try to avoid them for the most part.

This really is doable. I know this can be a huge change to start with. It was for me. It might not sound practical and sustainable, but it really can be! Keep in mind that you should be eating enough protein and f&vs that you don't feel hungry, even with only eating 3 servings of grain a day. I can honestly say that I don't miss eating all the grain that I used to.  In fact, I will leave you with the example of what I ate today so that you know that this is possible:

Breakfast at 10:

Two eggs

Two pieces of whole wheat toast

Coffee with whole milk

Lunch at 1 (which I wasn't even hungry for):

Open face tuna sandwich on whole wheat

Baby carrots

Coffee with whole milk

Dinner at 5 (not hungry again, but Bryce had to leave early):

Steak

Grilled onions

Cauliflower mashed "potatoes" (see link above...they aren't actually potatoes)

and Banana "ice cream" with peanut butter mixed in for dessert (see link above...its not actually ice cream)

*would have added a salad, but I didn't have any lettuce or spinach

Snacks throughout the evening:

An orange

Cheese

Decaf tea with whole milk

I feel like this was...wordy. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Check back for another LE post soon.

P.S. When I wrote out "orange" as an evening snack above, I typed it too quickly and spelled it wrong. The suggested replacement word was "organ."