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. 🙂

There is a good website for calorie counting, that also gives helpful hints.  Today’s article is about working moms and prepping ahead of time for food to be in the house for kids so that they eat well.

http://caloriecount.about.com/healthier-meals-less-time-b587689?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_20120929&utm_term=continue1

I counsel people and I find that many issues are about food.  The cause for being tired and overweight is food and the food is the cause of being tired and overweight.  It is a vicious circle.  Everyone is tired.  So, people get lazy.  They eat boring quick, bland meals, they eat out at chain restaurants, which serve high calorie/high carb/high sodium meals or fast food.  The problems seem to be about addiction, self-entitlement, and time issues.

I have clients who think that it is okay to go to Wendy’s for a meal and that this serves as a nutritious meal.  I have clients who don’t want to cook and they will go to McDonalds and get one ( maybe two) double cheeseburgers, fries and a DIET coke.  (In their mind, that is a protein and a vegetable.)  Then, the test of true laziness and lack of knowledge about food,they will eat a whole bowl of grapes (copious amount of sugar) and wash it down with yet (the irony of it)–a Diet Coke.

It is so frustrating watching people on a carb/sugar addiction cycle being stuck in it–due to cravings created by continuing to eat carbs/sugar, and they are getting sick or are already sick with obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, auto immune disorders, leaky gut syndrome, candida overgrowth, etc.  I speak from learning and from my experience of having all of the problems here, but I was not obese yet, no high blood pressure because I do work out and no diabetes yet.  But, it could have been in my future if I didn’t get mad that I had been sucked into the carb/sugar cycle and wanted to find a way out.

Thank goodness for the Groupon ad for Lindora, that got me involved in learning, and I took it from there and kept learning.  I am trying to share it with others, but most people want to believe that this is not a problem and don’t want to see that maybe THEY are responsible for their own ILL health problems.  Because being responsible would mean self-blame.  However, I don’t look at it as blame/shame.   I look at it as, “you didn’t know, but now you should read, learn and try harder and LEARN how to be responsible for getting better so you can be a well, productive person in society. ”  No one should end up in one of those scooters–like the sad Wal-Mart patrons in that People of Wal-Mart website– because they are too fat to walk.  Pick yourself up by your boot straps, and fix this problem.  There are tools.  I am trying to share the ones I learned.  Get over calling your bad choices, “mistakes” and use them now instead as a “learning opportunity.”

ADDICTION!

If  people would just read more and learn more and just give into the fact that they are addicted to a POOR learned eating style and learn a new way that could be fun and delicious, and not as boring as they think, they would be better off in life.  They would look and feel better, inside and out.  One book that I recommend and most of the clients in the cycle are not wanting to read and learn is:  http://www.primalbody-primalmind.com/  I wish everyone would just read it and learn.  Also, http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/ is another good thing to read and learn how your BAD MISINFORMED food choices are killing you, slowly for some……and not so slowly for others.

Here is a link to a blog about how the brain is affected by the addiction to food.  Worth the read!  Please look at this!  You don’t even realize that you are being sucked into the addiction!  http://www.crossfitvalleypark.com/valleypark/2009/04/addiction-is-a-choice.html

TIME!

The second part to the problem of  food addiction is that people  have also gotten too tired, sick, lazy and/or have no motivation to do the necessary preparation work.  Also, there is a self-entitlement feelings of “I work hard and I deserve to go out.”  This is the thought e. I deserve to eat well, my family deserves to eat well (eating bad chain food is not eating well), so I will go out (and waste a lot of money on food in a recession).

Six things to do to make it easier to eat dinner at home:

1.  I put together a list of foods that you can eat as a snack or cook every week (see my blog from Sept. 29 on the 20 foods that can be eaten that are good for you and are easy to do.).  I will continue to blog on different recipes and ideas.

2.  Involve the family and start looking up recipes online or in cookbooks that you think are easy or you want to try.  My husband and I just got a recipe for this killer cooked chicken and I am excited to try it.  This could be a family project.  Everyone gets to help pick out healthy recipes and you can take turns on what gets made for the following week.

3.  Create a shopping list for the weekend for the things you need for your family-picked recipes and create a dinner menu for the fridge, which shows what is for dinner every night.

4  Shop on the weekend yourself or your loved one and get everything you need.

5.  Cook at the beginning of the week or on the weekend and make things in advance to eat for the rest of the week.   Make this a family project that takes about an hour or two to do.  Families need to do more together anyway!  This way kids are learning how to cook and be healthy and not just learning to be waited on or ordering out or eating bad food.  You also have more control of getting good vegetables cooked for your kids.

6.  Put the food in your fridge/freezer with labels.

My next blog, I will write about some things you can prep in the week to eat throughout the day, and make it easier to not say, “I have to go to Wendy’s because I have nothing to eat and I am too sick and tired to cook.”  It is like a crack addict heading to the crack den.  Stay away from it!  Stay home and open your fridge!

The weekend is coming.  You need to know what to eat as one of your six protein meals a day.  Don’t forget, two servings of vegetables and fruits each and two small salads with two cups of lettuce in each serving.  That being said, let’s go over protein ideas (can be a meal or a snack).

On things like nuts, seeds or spoonfuls of things, measure them out though after looking at carb content and eat according to the number of carbs you are allotting yourself for one of six protein meals for the day.  (example, if each meal has 15 g of carbs, then you want between 50 and 100g of carbs a day to lose/maintain weight, then you can’t do much higher than that…unless one of your proteins is only a few carbs, then you can up them in another protein meal later in the day.  Mix and match.

1.  An Egg or 2 egg whites

2.  A protein bar, watch the carb content (Power Crunch and Nature Valley Protein Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter, my favorites)

3.  Nuts and seeds.  Some nuts are higher in carbs than others.  Read the labels.

4.  Four ounces of a meat or 6 ounces of tofu (white fish, no other color)

5.  Cheese, 2 ounces regular, 4 ounces lowfat

6.  1 cup of milk or 4 ounces of cottage cheese, low fat and plan

7.  4 ounces of turkey bacon or turkey/chicken sausages.  Jenny O makes really good ones.

8.  1 cup of milk, non fat

9.  1/2 cup of yogurt (greek is lighter).  (Dannon lite and fit is great and flavored too!)

10.  Lindora.com has a lot of proteins for sale on their website that are good.  ( Their pancakes, oatmeal, pasta are my favorites!)  For pancakes, get lite maple syrup like Walden Farms, Cary’s, Mrs. Butterworth, etc.  Aunt Jemina lite is too high in carbs.  The others are 12g of carbs per 1/4 cup or less.  For pasta, Protein infused pasta at Lindora.com or any of the low carb websites.  Made with a dash of marinara and some parmasean cheese.  Yum.

11.  You can have a piece of bread, two times a week to replace a fruit.  Try to go for high protein, low carb bread.  Julian Bread has very low carbs.  http://www.julianbakery.com/  Western Bagel makes a Perfect 10 bagel, with only 10 net carbs.  http://www.westernbagel.com/products/_printable.php?PR_SKU=41269  I have had them and they are good.  But, keep your wheat to a minimum!  No more than twice a week to replace a fruit.

12.  Stick with any berry or citrus fruit for a fruit option.  All of the others, especially apples and bananas are high in carbs.

13.  Low-fat Chocolate pudding or Tapioca pudding.  Good ones at Trader Joes–Kozy Shack.

14.  Protein drinks.  Some great ones, cold and hot at Lindora.com site and at all stores.  The lowest I have seen are at Trader Joe’s Vanilla and a Chocolate at 4 and 5g of carbs.

15.  Carbolite in a small container, , a Yasso Greek Yogurt popsicle at 12g of carbs (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/search), and/or some frozen dessert that has a decent carb content.  Some of the Skinny Cows top the chart at 30g and some are 14.  You be the judge.  http://www.myfitnesspal.com/nutrition-facts-calories/skinny-cow

*Frozen Yogurt is about 4-5g of carbs per ounce.  Those self serve places have huge cups and if you really measured just having about 4 ounces as to not have too many carbs, 4 ounces is small.  Also, don’t do toppings.  Just more carbs!  If you must, just a few nuts.

16.  Stay away from cereal and rice if you can.  Not worth the carbs.  Look at the sides of the boxes.  Oatmeal would be safer and the Lindora.com oatmeal is really good.  You might find something online as well at Carbessentials.net or Netrition.com

17.  However, there are delicious protein infused cookies that are lower in carbs at Lindora.com, Carbessentials.net and Netrition.com  My favorites are:  http://store.carbessentials.net/Proti_SNAX_Cookies_p/600.htm  and http://store.lindora.com/index.php/dark-chocolate-tea-biscuit.html

18.  Peanut, almond, sunflower butter.  2 tablespoons is about 8 carbs.  Eat accordingly.

19.  Multirounds (at many stores, but Costco has low carb ones by Kirkland) that are low in carbs as your grain replacement or the Western Bagel Perfect 10 bagel or Alternative English muffins, with just a dash of cheese, basil and a touch of pizza sauce cooked for 10 minutes for a tiny pizza.  Also have a cauliflower based pizza recipe on one of my blog pages.

20.  Low carb tortillas (net 4 or 5 g of carbs).  Big thing of them at Costco and small package at Trader Joe’s.  Also online.  Cook them with a little cheese and meat, taco seasoning, lettuce and tomato inside on the stove, dash of enchilada sauce on top and you have a healthy enchilada.  I have the recipe on one of my blog pages.

There are most of my favorite choices.  Have fun deciding.

‘Find an alternative to caffeine, which actually slows the production of building our cells that help keep us looking young and beautiful. Become addicted to feeling naturally energized by replacing the sugar-filled, caffeinated drinks with regular exercise and a healthy, vitamin-filled diet.”  This was a tip on the Murad Beauty Facebook page.  (Murad is a doctor made beauty regimen):

Now, I happen to like coffee a lot and it keeps me from eating, but I am writing this particle blog piece especially since recently a Skinny-Rules follower had a comment about my blog on the high carb and sugar content in Starbucks Refresher Via mixes.  The commenter was adamant that the drink was good for you because it had Stevia and natural fruit juice.

My position on the carb UNfriendly Via Refreshers:

1.  They have caffeine.

2. They have way too much fruit juice, and there is no need to have that much sugar–albeit natural or not.  They are  just too much sugar at once and high carb content.

3.  There are other choices that are just better options.  Besides water–there are other mixes that have as little as ZERO sugar and carbs, to the mixes that have Stevia and are only 6 g of carbs, not 17g of carbs  compared to the Starbucks ones.

I went to Target and took pictures of the many stacks of choices that are there.  Some are made with Aspartame, some with Splenda.  Some with Truvia (mixed with Stevia and are the higher in carb content at 6g of carbs.

There is a great product though that my sister-in-law shared with me that is made of all natural great products and has no carbs and only 1 g of sugar (Starbucks Via Refreshers had 17g of carbs and 11g of sugar (about 3 sugar cubes).  TRUE LEMON!

True Lemon  is not the easiest to find.  You can look online, buy online, and I did manage to find it at Wal-Mart, of all places.  All True products are 100% natural with no artificial ingredients or sweeteners, preservatives,sodium or gluten. To view the nutritional information of all True products, click here (http://www.truelemon.com/cooking5.cfm)

HERE IS THE KICKER!  You can’t find any information on the Starbucks site on what is in the Via Refreshers, but you can see everything in these other drinks online.  So, what is Starbucks hiding?  I say that if you can’t read what you are drinking or eating, then it probably isn’t good for you.

So, next time you want to mix something in your water, read the label and no that there are so many alternatives that are healthy and are not going to add extra pounds onto your body.  You don’t need to have carbs in your fluid.  Get it in your food.  And watch your caffeine intake to keep youthful looking!

Here is a locator for True Lemon:  http://www.truelemon.com/store-locator.html

I used to get a Hostess snack almost daily as a kid.  I always wanted to be thinner like the other kids and I had no idea why I wasn’t.

Well here is a thought!  I ate a lot of sugar!

I had Ding Dongs, Cupcakes, Sno-Balls and Twinkies.  And even one a day is not good.  They are about 25g of carbs in each piece and about 17g of sugar in them, and more in a Sno-ball at 23g of sugar.  So, if you realize that it is about 4g of sugar per sugar cube, there are 4 sugar cubes in a Twinkie and a Ding-Dong, and about 6 sugar cubes in a Sno-Ball.  There are 30g of carbs in a Sno-Ball.

So, you can see that they are not a healthy snack (corn syrup and other bad things) and they are fattening, but they are addicting.  No wonder I was addicted to sugar and carbs.  No wonder I developed a yeast overgrowth.  I was a sugar junkie.

You would not go out of your way to eat sugar cubes, so every time you see sugar a s an ingredient, divide the number by 4 and that is a sugar cube.  Figure out how many you are eating and start noticing your nutritional information.  Don’t eat blindly.  This is why there is so much obesity and diabetes in this country.  People have no idea what to look for!

Look before you EAT!