I was at Costco today and I was noticing that people who have carts filled with pasta products. cereal (“healthy” or unhealthy versions),  and juices–are bigger people.  The smaller people were buying cheese, nuts, meats, and fresh fruits, greek yogurt and vegetables.  Remember, if you are eating cereal or any wheat products daily, you probably have a weight issue.

So, anyway, I was looking at the low carb bread area for ideas…..because I realize that people have carb cravings beyond the usual carbs in yogurt, fruits, veggies and nuts!

CHEAP AND EASY!

Costco doesn’t have much of a choice there, but there are a few options, but my favorite is their low carb tortillas!  Everyone can afford these.  They are sold pretty much everywhere, even Wal-Mart.  I told a woman who was looking at them, that they were really tasty.  She couldn’t get over that they only had 80 calories (6 net carbs).  She remarked that I didn’t need them because I was small.  But, she looked stunned when I told her that I was not always small and I  lost 40 pounds eating low carb stuff like these tortillas.

Don’t be silly!  Why eat a tortilla that has 30g more carbs when  you can eat this for 6g net carbs because it has 12g of fiber?  They are delicious too.  I saw her put them in her cart after we spoke.

For all of you carb junkees:  These will save you from yourself!  THIS IS A GREAT REPLACEMENT AND SO SATISFYING!

Forget bread, unless you get the Julian Bread or the Sara Lee 45 calorie bread with like 7g of carbs per slice–these tortillas are easy and satisfying.

For dinner tonight, I ate a burrito/enchilada that I made 4 days ago.  I put it in tupperware, it saved and I heated it up in the microwave and it was good.

So, here is my advice.  Make the burrito/enchiladas by making quite a few, put them in the fridge and you can nuke them for dinner or lunch anytime you are hungry or in a hurry and it is so much better for you than a stupid burger with white bread at Wendy’s.  You will save money and they are better for you!  The side effect is that you could lose weight on these suckers!

Look at the picture of the two I made!

Again, my recipe for this, as follows:

(and shout out to my girl, M.O.~who wrote me and told me how much my blog is helping her and how she lost 5 BIG pounds this week from using the skinny-rules.  Keep it up, Girlfriend!  WHOO HOO!)

On September 18, 2012, I wrote a blog, Emergency Food Supply.  In that blog, I wrote about what things to bring with you when you go out of the house.  That brings me to today’s blog.

Today, I went to my usual Friday morning class 25 miles away.  I get ready for that class the night before with food (doesn’t take long! because I don’t want to be stuck out somewhere and only have access to carbs for food and SABOTAGE my eating plan.

PACKING THE NIGHT BEFORE:  Think about the low carb food pyramid and not the regular dumb food pyramid that you were led to believe is good for you.

What I packed today was my Sunflower seeds in a measured out bag, a salad with protein, and a protein bar (usually my favorite, Nature Valley Protein Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter.  I also bring a Vitarain no carb flavored drink from Costco and my coffee.  I sometimes buy coffee at the cafe in the building too.

I have seen some fellow students coming in, UNPREPARED, and they buy a coffee and a muffin (not on the low carb pyramid).   Those muffins are large and about 50-60 g of empty carbs.  And I can assure you that they will eat that muffin, get a sugar spike, feel hungry and crappy later–not to mention that they will eat more carbs and not only NOT lose weight that day, but probably gain.

I ate a hard-boiled egg as I ran out of the house.  My salad was 11g of carbs, my protein bar was 14g of carbs, my seeds were 3g of carbs, totaling 28g of carbs and I spaced it out over 5 hours.  So, half of my day as gone and I ate about half of what that lady ate at 10am, and she was probably starving by lunch time.  I feel good.  In the past, I have also brought along low fat cheese, Dannon Lite and Fit Greek Yogurt, nuts, cheese and meat slices, etc.  No bread, other than perhaps LOW carb tortillas or bread NOW and THEN (not every day!), mentioned in my previous blogs and can be found in normal market places, if you look for them.  I have also made low carb pizza and brought it along if a microwave is available.

MORAL OF THE STORY:  Don’t be lazy.  Prep what you will eat for the next day the NIGHT before.  You have to plan.  No planning leads to temptation. Pack a freakin’ lunch and don’t run out the door without eating some cheese, an egg or some meat.  That is why I have hard boiled eggs from Costco at home, for my running out the door!

**This reminds me that I wrote that I gained 2 pounds after having half of a waffle on Sunday.  I lost those two pounds by Wednesday, thankfully–by watching my empty carb intake and watching wheat products and products which spike your glucose, like potatoes and rice.  Some of us just gain more easily than others and this is what we have to do.  I would rather be thin than eat something that feels good to me for about 5 minutes.  And I can find alternatives that I enjoy anyway, like low carb pancake mix, low carb frozen desserts and nuts.  I can’t wait to try my new low carb recipe book for some great dessert items to report.

My hairdresser, Leah, is thin and always has been.  I found out why today and it kind of blew me away.

Her father taught her since she was young that you have to limit bread, wheat products, as empty carbs (cereal and bread).

She knows how to make cauliflower mashed potato-type food and she knows how to order food.  She said she went to Vegas with some friends and while everyone had the adult portion of french toast (which involves about 6 slices of bread at probably about 90 g of carbs–with regular syrup, making it like 150 g of carbs, she ate the kid’s portion of two slices, with limited syrup and wound up leaving two bites over because she is used to eating smaller portions.  She said that her friends were making fun of her (sabotage), but this is why Leah is thin and she is extremely healthy and looks great for her age.

It took me until my forties to learn this way of eating and it should be the way everyone does it.  It is ridiculous that we think we should have wheat products with every meal.  Cereal and pop tarts (loaded with empty carbs and sugar) for breakfast, sandwiches, burger buns for lunch and pizza, pasta or dinner rolls for dinner.  No wonder why America is so fat, anxious and attention-deficited.

I found an article that explains why we gain weight from eating too much wheat.  I really suggest you read my nuts and bolts of it.

Explanation of why your belly is bulging:

“Conventional healthy eating wisdom tells us that toasting a slice of whole wheat toast is a healthier choice than grabbing a Snickers bar or gulping down a sugar-laden soft drink. However, when eaten by itself, bread spikes blood sugar more than candy bars and soda. It has a higher glycemic index (GI)—the extent to which a particular food increases blood sugar relative to straight-up sugar, or glucose—of 72, while a Snickers bar has a GI of 41 and sucrose a GI of 59.

One explanation for the differences in GI can be explained by the fact that combining a high-GI food, like whole wheat bread, with low-GI proteins and fats, like slices of ham and cheese, lessens the food’s effect on blood sugar. Still, better is not necessarily good, argues Davis. “Sure, blood sugar is better, but it’s still high enough to provoke the entire constellation of undesirable phenomena associated with high blood sugar, including growth of visceral fat,” he says.

Why belly bulge? Because where there’s glucose, there’s always insulin, the hormone that allows entry of glucose into the cells of the body, where it’s converted to fat. It works like this: When you eat wheat, your body gets a huge helping of a blood sugar-spiking carbohydrate called amylopectin-A. To move the sugars from the wheat into your cells where they can be used for energy—or stored as fat, the pancreas responds by releasing insulin. The higher your blood sugar is after eating, the more insulin that is released—and the more fat that is deposited in the abdominal area. When belly fat builds up, it floods the body with inflammatory signals that cause energy-requiring tissues, like muscle, to stop responding to a proportional amount of insulin. As a result, your pancreas churns out more and more insulin to help metabolize the carbohydrates you eat. Years of running your body through this high-blood sugar, high-insulin cycle result in the growth of visceral fat, or what Davis has deemed a wheat belly.”

http://fitbie.msn.com/eat-right/tips/8-reasons-wheat-making-you-gain/tip/2

The carbs create cravings that lead to a vicious cycle and you are now a Carb Addict!

Carbs Create Cravings

I have heard a lot of great reasons for not losing weight.  Heck, I have had a few myself.  I have heard things like, “I don’t have time,” “I will do it tomorrow,” “I am going on vacation and have to enjoy myself,”  or “I am too depressed.”  My question:  Do you really enjoy or feel better being heavier than you want to be tomorrow?  So, how is eating whatever and not losing weight going to make you feel tomorrow?  Pretty crappy, right?  There is a sense of accomplishment when you get on that scale and you see it move downward!  You have to have positive thoughts that you will stick to your plan, no matter what or you can derail your diet. When you catch yourself making self-defeating excuses, shoot them down by saying, “If I want to be healthier, thinner, and more energetic, I have to follow my diet-and-exercise plan.”  You can go to events, but bring  your own snacks with you or find healthy things to eat there.

I can tell you this!  Many of us are more carb sensitive than we realize.  I had NO idea that it was carbs that were packing on and keeping the weight on me until I went on the Lindora diet of low carbs.  I have to stay low on carbs or I will gain.  Here I lost all of the weight after a lot of effort and when I go out and eat only HALF a waffle with lite syrup, I get on the scale the next morning and I am up 2 pounds!  Seriously, 2 pounds?  Then, I have to watch the food I eat and stay away from breads, rice, etc and it goes back down about 2-3 days later.  Could you imagine if I was eating a carb like that every day.  I would put the 40 pounds that I gained back on.  So, you have to realize that your body cannot handle the white breads and some of us can’t handle any breads or rice or we blow up.  We have to learn how to get around it.

I have switched to having the low-carb crepes from Trader Joes and Costco and I am doing great and with the stuff that I cook in them on the stove, I really feel like I am having a delish burrito without all of the carbs and the scale guilt the next day.  We don’t have to give up carbs, but we have to learn how to eat them differently.  We have to get the special low carb versions of items like tortilla shells, bagels and bread.  I have done blogs on those items and what to get.  But, we still have to count carbs daily and keep it in the range of 50 to 100 to stay slim.  I am back down to my normal number now, but thank goodness I have this knowledge about getting the right kind of carbs, I would be ballooning up again.

Stop making excuses and just admit that you have a problem and go with the advice that works for others!  Remember, once on the lips, a lifetime on the hips!

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Too many people get their calories and carbs from drinks.  And I think that is a waste.  I rather eat something tasty if I am taking in carbs.  So, I am always looking for lite versions of tasty beverages because I am not the biggest fan of plain water.  So, my suggestions are usually not the healthiest, like Diet Soda or flavored beverages with ZERO carbs.  My sister- in-law turned me onto Pepsi Max with no carbs or sugar and that will keep you awake!  Also, I really like coffee with Splenda and I always use NON DAIRY creamer in my coffee to save the protein calories for something more tasty like FOOD!

I am sure I will hear from the “health” people out there on what is good for you!  I take my vitamins and I eat well, but with all of the arsenic in the soil where our plants grow–fruits, vegetables and now even rice (see Google for details), I figure what the heck do I care if I am drinking Diet Soda?  It is probably not even as bad as the natural stuff–unless I am rich enough to buy only organic items, which are not genetically modified, growing in tainted soil.  So, I will eventually die one day, but I will be the “skinniest person in the cemetery”, as they say…but all kidding aside, this is about better choices to stay skinny, not about perfect health products.  And truth be told, I think tons of sugar and carbs is way hard on the body and so, the Diet Soda can’t be worse than screwing with your pancreas and brain on a daily basis with sugar rushes and going on the sugar roller coaster.  A can of regular Coca-Cola has about 10 sugar cubes in it.  That is insane!  And obesity is a killer too.  Ok, so I digress…

Anyway, when I see things that you can have that are diet worthy, I feel that I have to share the wealth.  I wrote about True Lemon for flavoring water and I did a whole blog day on things you can drop into your water….but here is something I found that is inexpensive.  I have seen the light!

For less than $8, at at Costco, you can buy either a variety pack of flavors of single serving Crystal Light packages for your drinks, or you can buy the larger pitcher-sized mix packages for lemonade.  (There are smaller versions of this at Target and other stores, as well).   Who said that staying thin has to cost a lot of money??  The one on the left, you can bring places with you and drop into your water……..and the other one is for keeping in the fridge at home.  Easy and inexpensive.

I was shopping at Target and discovered that they are carrying Sara Lee 45 Calories and Delightful 100% Whole Wheat Bread.  It has only 7 g carbs per slice and is SOFT!  It has two fiber, so it is 5g net carbs and 3 g protein.  It might not be gluten-free like the Julian Bakery bread and some others, but it is low in carbs.  I am trying to avoid gluten, but I bought this today for my husband to try.  I will try a slice myself sometime in the week.  I made the mistake of having half of a Belgium waffle yesterday (with lite syrup) and I gained over a pound and I feel yucky.  My body hates white flour, as do many people’s bodies!  So, I will give the Sara Lee a whirl and report back.

Diet:   On a diet, it is ok to do a piece of toast (NOT TWO, but ONE is ok) twice a week instead of fruit.

The label on the package.

Skinny alert! A large bag of Splenda granules for baking are marked down at Costco. Each bag costs $10, marked down from $14.59.

My friend, Anne, gave me a great low carb cookbook, with 500 recipes including desserts. I will be experimenting and using these bags. I will report how each recipe turns out- with pictures. Make sure to follow my blog and please tell your friends. 🙂