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Post by shades on May 21, 2019 12:09:45 GMT
Basically, carbs need to be considered along with dietary fiber, so a food with 45g of carbs, and 12g of dietary fiber, is considered to have 33g of carbs. High fiber foods help counter the hit from the high carb foods. Unfortunately, hubby loves pasta, potatoes and bread, and would live on it, if I didn't stop him. He totally doesn't understand why I put chia seeds on his toast and jam, or put them and ground flax seed in our smoothies. I've recently discovered flax seeds. I didn't think I'd be able to buy them but you can - they grow the plants in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. I also bought a manual coffee grinder for them. It's hard work! Have you tried flaxseed oil as a salad dressing? You can use it alone or with olive oil. It tastes OK.
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Post by shades on May 21, 2019 12:48:57 GMT
The book has a really nice tone, and what I like about it is that it's pretty much confirming that while there are things that tend to be really good for our health, and things that tend to harm it, especially in larger quantities, there isn't one perfect diet or lifestyle that would suit everyone. If you look at the groups of people who are healthiest in our world, some eat plant based diets, some eat loads of fish and fat, some eat lots of whole grains. Yet they all manage to avoid the multitude of diseases that plague us. In the examples you mentioned, none of these groups seem to have a sugar-laden menu. That's the key.
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Post by 3piggles on May 21, 2019 18:49:55 GMT
Because hubby is borderline diabetic, we have to eat a low carb diet, which hubby hates. He's a sandwich, potatoes, pasta person. I try to reduce that to one carb per day, so sandwhich, potatoes or pasta, but never two in the same day. I will do it with pasta and potato salads, but I give him one/half serving of each, instead of a full serving of each. I eat the same.
We always have a green leafy salad, with tomatoes, cukes, celery, endive, sprouts and anything else we happen to have. I make a grain side dish, usually as a pilaf, mixing quinoa, farro or whatever green with veggies and spices. Meat/poultry takes a back seat to the salad and side dish.
Hubby bought some pretty stripped bell peppers the other day, so I cut them in segments, filled them with a tuna salad mix with lots of other veggies finely chopped, and served that for lunch. We had a hard boiled egg each, and a drink.
We eat a lot of fruit, which helps me avoid the chocolate I generally crave. I make a regular breakfast smoothie out of almond milk, vanilla protein powder(yes, it's a good one), bananas, strawberries, blueberries, chia seeds and ground flax seeds, with some ice added.
If he wants something sweet, like a waffle with jam, I put chia seeds on the jam, to give him the fiber to help counter the jam. That's pretty typical of how we eat.
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Post by shades on May 22, 2019 0:28:23 GMT
Oh, it's extra hard for you when your husband hasn't embraced new eating habits. But you're doing a great job managing his dietary needs and keeping him from falling off the rails 👏
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Post by Bean on May 22, 2019 7:13:30 GMT
I'm eating very well, thank you Haha! I'm sure you are, I'm just curious to know what the day to day reality of different diets looks like. I'm always up for making tweaks to my eating habits if I enjoy them and they do me good. In the examples you mentioned, none of these groups seem to have a sugar-laden menu. That's the key. Totally agree on that - that and processed foods have been our downfall. I used to eat more bread for breakfasts and lunches, and as I ate loads and didn't have an issue with my weight, I thought there was no problem. But now I know that if I up the protein, I feel fuller for longer and am getting better nutrition, even more so if I fill that gap with veg. I'm sure my blood sugar levels look healthier too. I've recently discovered flax seeds. I use flaxseed in my granola and often put some in baking too, it's good stuff. I buy it pre-ground, but I'm sure it's great exercise for you to do it yourself! 3piggles, it sounds like you've improved hub's diet loads, and I hope as those changes become accepted as the norm, you can sneak even more changes that will help him stay healthy for longer. Diabetes can be a hard disease to manage because of the health problems it creates, and being able to stave it off is a fantastic opportunity. It's great he has you on his team.
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Post by jolovespiggies on May 22, 2019 19:04:15 GMT
Most of us eat far too much for our teeth and body to be really healthy. I had a friend who had blackheads all over her nose at the age of 8.
hugs jo xx
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Post by 3piggles on May 22, 2019 21:15:24 GMT
Hubby is definitely getting better about the diet, even if it's not what he'd like. We're having a dinner salad of greens, sprouts, veggies, hard boiled eggs and cut up chicken he cooked last night. He was fine with the idea. He will, obviously, want a piece of bread, if the loaf from the new bread machine is any good, and that's fine. It's just not fine to eat nothing but carbs, and he was doing that with the bread, pasta and potatoes. I was, too, since I cook
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Post by shades on May 23, 2019 4:46:28 GMT
I've talked about how I changed my eating habits upside down, but there's one another thing I changed too. Didn't want to shock you too much at one time
When I started considering how to have a healthier body way back last August, I was eating three meals a day, with ample snacks before and after. Ultimately, I was eating far too often every day. The first thing I did was cut back the snacks to zero. That was really hard because I still had a carb heavy menu and, as expected, I was hungry soon after each meal. I really needed this stomach fillers, trust me Ditching the snacks helped me lose some weight but nothing spectacular. After a few months I'd kinda reached a plateau - I'm sure because I've got all my weigh-ins in a nerdy spreadsheet, haha. By the end of October, I'd lost a miserable 3kg/nearly 7lb....
But don't forget that I was still researching, and hadn't yet started out on the LCHF approach. In December, I decided to stop the rice, the pasta, the noodles and other high carbs I'd been inadvertently taking, and at the same time upping my fat intake. That month I lost 2.5kg easily. I felt happy with myself, maybe even smug
So, what else did I do? While reading about LCHF, I had learnt that every time we eat, our insulin spikes regardless of the food type. I accepted that I hadn't been giving my body a rest with my constant eating. By not eating, I could allow my body to "have a rest" and keep blood insulin and sugar levels low - essential to managing my weight.
What is there not to like about eating less often? So with that in mind, I decided to reduce my eating window to 8 hours a day. Actually it wasn't that difficult. Cutting out the carbs had reduced my hunger pangs enormously, and I found that I could skip breakfast and just eat lunch as the first meal of the day. Outside of my eating window, I'm able to drink water and black coffee, so no worries there
Once I got going, and settled into a regular routine of forgetting about breakfast, I've continued to lose weight even though I am not skimping on food. Magic! I'm not counting calories, I'm just having two LHCF meals a day between 12 noon and 8pm - I no longer snack. I'm planning to continue with less mealtimes (and less cooking and washing up). Intermittent fasting is very flexible. If I have to eat at 8am, that's no problem. I can play with the clock to keep my eating window short, or I can miss lunch.
When you begin fasting, it's a bit like running. When I started running my head was telling me my legs wanted to stop Now I know my legs can go on. At the beginning, your head has been conditioned to keep your stomach topped up, but actually we don't have to eat 24/7. I regularly go to the gym at the end of my fasting period, and I'm not struggling for energy.
Again it's not just about losing weight, but maintaining a sensible weight and allowing the body to grow and repair itself without having to deal with processing food. Eating in the morning is a relatively new idea
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Post by shades on May 23, 2019 4:46:53 GMT
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Post by shades on May 23, 2019 4:47:10 GMT
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Post by Bean on May 23, 2019 7:25:46 GMT
I can't watch the videos now but have read quite a bit about the health benefits of having a smaller eating window each day, and how it can improve your health by giving your body a break. It ties in nicely with my ethos of looking after the microbiome. There's loads of research showing the exact same food eaten over a longer period can lead you to put on more weight and experience more physical stress than if you consume it in a smaller window and allow your body to rest.
Even eating all your meals within a 12 hour window is supposed to be pretty good, so your body then gets 12 hours rest. I do know of one (very healthy) person who only has one very large meal a day! It goes against all that 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day!' stuff, and trying to force people who simply don't wake up hungry into eating early.
I probably have breakfast at about 7.30 and my ideal time for eating my evening meal is 5.30-6. It's not often I eat after that, so I usually have 12-13 hours of rest covered.
I do always snack in between meals during the day though, and even though they're healthy snacks, I'm trying to change that. Not to lose weight, but more just to not be a slave to my hunger (which I appreciate my be affected by blood sugar levels dipping). I've been upping the protein with breakfast and lunch to keep me fuller for longer, but I think overriding the habit element is far harder. I shall persevere anyway. And then people will have to find something else to make fun of me for besides the 'emergency banana' or 'peanut bar fix' I always have in my bag!
Glad hub is coming round 3piggles, that looks like a tasty meal! It's hard to change habits of a lifetime, but we should all do it if it improves the quality of our lives.
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Post by jolovespiggies on May 23, 2019 7:50:37 GMT
The only thing that seems to work for me is to stop eating altogether and I know how dangerous that can be.
hugs jo xx
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Post by shades on May 23, 2019 14:54:02 GMT
BeanI do know of one (very healthy) person who only has one very large meal a day! It goes against all that 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day!' stuff, and trying to force people who simply don't wake up hungry into eating early.I believe there are many people who do 20:4 fasting but it's not for me. It's really hard to fit that around family life. I'll stick with 16:8. I probably have breakfast at about 7.30 and my ideal time for eating my evening meal is 5.30-6. It's not often I eat after that, so I usually have 12-13 hours of rest covered.I know you're not trying to lose weight but it's around 13-18 hours into a fast that fat burning is at its steepest increase before it levels out. That's why I like to do my exercises then.I do always snack in between meals during the day though, and even though they're healthy snacks, I'm trying to change that. Not to lose weight, but more just to not be a slave to my hunger (which I appreciate my be affected by blood sugar levels dipping). I've been upping the protein with breakfast and lunch to keep me fuller for longer, but I think overriding the habit element is far harder."healthy snacks?" Are you sure? If you're feeling hungry, I reckon it's because you're eating two many simple carbs at breakfast and the dramatic drop in your blood sugar/insulin levels is making you crave more carbs. You could reduce your breakfast carbs and eat some high fat nuts instead.
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Post by Bean on May 23, 2019 18:01:02 GMT
"healthy snacks?" Are you sure? I'm sure that I think so, but also that you wouldn't! But you'll have to prize those bananas from my cold dead hands... If you're feeling hungry, I reckon it's because you're eating two many simple carbs at breakfast and the dramatic drop in your blood sugar/insulin levels is making you crave more carbs. You could reduce your breakfast carbs and eat some high fat nuts instead. My typical breakfast is a bowl of homemade granola which is more nuts and seeds than anything else - I have that with kefir (are you still making yogurt by the way?) and an omelette, usually with spinach and mushrooms or something like that. I feel like it's a decent load of protein. I know I could have something meaty, but since, for ethical and environmental reasons, I'm cutting my meat intake right down, I'm not looking at that option. Missing my mid-morning snack was easier today than the last few days anyway (and it was a swimming day which always makes me feel like I need that snack even more!) - I'm sure I can crack it! Jo, I know someone who has hardly been eating a thing trying to lose weight. I'd be a skeleton by now if I ate as little as she does. But alongside there not being loads of veg and good nutrition in her diet (she has diet foods which are low fat but often sugary...) which just makes your body work more efficiently, she doesn't do any exercise. Movement makes your body metabolise everything much more efficiently and build muscle which helps even more - for her it's a choice, but with you having health problems that restrict you exercising, it certainly makes it harder for you. I think you're definitely best off eating the things that will help you be healthy and feel good rather than worrying about weight.
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Post by 3piggles on May 23, 2019 18:43:53 GMT
Hubby likes bacon, eggs and potatoes for breakfast. I have limited that to Saturdays and Sundays, and not even to the Mondays of long weekends. It's not my favorite breakfast, but he's part of this couple, so has to be considered. If I have a smoothie for breakfast, whenever breakfast is, it holds me for hours. I could skip lunch, and probably eat dinner. I do have a problem with low blood sugar, so have to be careful how far I push not eating. I've skipped lunch because I was busy, and by late afternoon, I was so shaky and sick, I couldn't eat anything. I don't see hubby going with skipping a meal. He has to wrap his brain around things, and with both Dyslexia and ADHD, that's a slow and painful process when it requires a major life change. So for now, I'm happy to have him eating healthy foods far more often than he's eating unhealthy foods. Speaking of healthy foods, avocado is a super food, and I don't like avacados, so I miss out on the health benefits. I finally found a way to make an avocado spread I not only like, but really like. It can go on anything, be added to eggs, or have oil and lemon juice added to make a healthy salad dressing. It's basically mashed avacados with finely chopped mushrooms, celery, tomatoes, bell peppers, pickles, sprouts and sweet onions. Those are things I add to omelets, so I keep containers of them in the fridge, and add them to salads and anything else that strikes me. I find if I put enough veggies in omelets, hubby doesn't notice there's no meat in it So I've mastered another super food. Now to figure out how to like cauliflower!
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Post by Bean on May 24, 2019 7:21:39 GMT
Glad you found a way to enjoy avocados. They're grown on me loads and as well as enjoying guacamole, I now pop them in salads and like eating them straight. There's no challenge with cauliflower for me! Weren't you going to try the 'rice' you can make with it? We love it roasted, boiled, in cauliflower cheese, stir fries, curries and pakora. A gym-loving friend of mine was saying she has a smoothie for breakfast and it lasts her until 1-2pm. I should give it a try, at least when I find a non-dairy milk (I'm not great with lactose, hence why I have kefir, but I'm not ready to drink a full glass yet!) I like that isn't loaded with emulsifiers and other strange additives! All the research points to the variety of veg and fruit you eat being the key to good health. So I aim for us to 'eat a rainbow' every day (I don't use this chart, but it gives you a good idea of what's involved) and also make sure I pick a few vegetables in my supermarket shop that we haven't eaten the week before. If you can eat local or homegrown, even better. I'm also enjoying reading about how our sterile environments damage us in terms of not giving our immune system a constant workout against tiny amounts of all the pathogens in our environment, meaning we're more likely to get floored when we do meet something. It gives me a good excuse for being slack about cleaning...
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Post by 3piggles on May 24, 2019 18:11:42 GMT
That chart seems like a good one, but since we all pick the veggies and fruits we like, it's really about using those to full advantage. I've always tried to cook colorful meals. Decades ago I watched a Japanese cooking show, and the chef was talking about presentation being more important than the quality of the food. If people like the look, they assume it will taste good, and to them, it does. Obviously not terrible food, just 1 star versus 5 star, that kind of thing. So I've always tried to keep as many different colored veggies and fruits around as possible, within seasonal and budget restrictions. There are veggies and fruits that are much better for us than others, so it's not just about the color, but about getting the right colors, the right fiber, etc. I made smoothies for us this morning, and it's now passed 2 p.m., and I'm still not hungry. Smoothies have to have the right ingredients, protein, fiber, etc., to keep us full, but I find them very successful, without having to drink kale and carrot smoothies, lol
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Post by Bean on May 25, 2019 7:15:47 GMT
Yes, it'd be a no thank you from me to kale smoothies! I'm not really a big fan of kale in any form. It's okay and I eat it occasionally, but always think I could have enjoyed something else a bit more!
My home economics teacher at school always said you should aim to have a minimum of 3-5 colours on a plate (both so it looked appealing, but also to help you avoid choosing veg with similar nutritional content), and I often think of her when I'm deciding which veg to cook with a meal!
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Post by 3piggles on May 25, 2019 17:21:08 GMT
Not implying you're old in any way, but your home ec teacher was ahead of her time, teaching that back then. You were lucky!
I think the first thing is to pick a variety of veggies we like, so we're more likely to eat them. Once we do that, and even if we tend to stick with the same 3-6 veggies all the time, we know we're getting the variety we need, we limit our food budget by not buying lots of veggies, trying them and not liking them, and we develop favorite recipes that include those veggies, and are good for us.
I always have broccoli, carrots, celery, mushrooms, lettuces, sprouts, tomatoes, cukes, peppers, endive and fennel on hand, plus other things we buy when they're on sale. I have a lot of choices, between the main meal(if it's one dish), side dishes and the side salad. I even include them in omelets, which can have just about anything in them.
Hubby loves an eggplant, red bell pepper medley he buys at the store. It's great on sandwiches and burgers, in eggs, on salads, so we add that periodically, too.
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Post by Bean on May 27, 2019 7:19:31 GMT
I agree it's better to eat the same 6 veg over and over than eat none at all!
I enjoy shaking things up though and see if there's anything new out there I'm missing, or that I thought I didn't like but have developed a taste for (my husband is very much a 'stick to what you know you like' kind of chap). I try to do that with meals too, try something new reasonably regularly. Although last night I tried a new pasta recipe that had been recommended to me, and it was nice enough, but a bit boring, so I won't be cooking it again.
Another thing that came up with the stuff about the microbiome is how many chemicals and perfumes we use for cleaning ourselves, our clothes and homes. It's not something that would cause ill health in most (although I know it's a problem for you 3piggles, so you're already on top of banishing the unnecessary potions and smells!) but it's an extra thing for our bodies to have to process. And for someone not in great health, it's an extra insult for our immune systems to work on.
By most people's standards I'm not too bad with using products, but decided to have a week where I only used the Dr Bronner's castile soap for showers (including hair) and only coconut oil for moisturiser. I did a similar thing with laundry and anything I used for cleaning.
Anyway, I got some good things from it which I will keep up, but the bad thing is that taking all the fragrances from my own environment, I now feel like I'm being assaulted by perfumes when I go out - so many people just honk! I did notice some perfumes before, but never on this scale! Each time I'm sitting next to someone on a bus or at the cinema and their perfume is knocking me out, I've been thinking of you 3piggles - for that to affect your breathing and skin too, it must be such a frustrating barrier to joining in with things.
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