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March 20, 2007
Stop Eating All Those Carbs
Okay Jen, there's a fairly easy answer to your difficulties. Stop eating all those carbs! Cereal, brown rice, and bread, are getting you very little in terms of nutrition, putting you on a blood sugar roller coaster, and adding a lot of calories to your diet. If you cut them out (or cut way back) you'll have room for more satisfying foods like proteins and good fats, as well as high volume, low calorie, nutrient dense veggies.
Also, I'm not sure why you would want to eat smaller meals more frequently. While this works for some people, it can lead to insulin resistance and it doesn't work for most people I've ever known. I far prefer eating satisfying portions at breakfast, lunch and dinner and being done with it. If you eat enough at meals, you're unlikely to be hungry between.
Four suggestions (and you probably already know what they are):
-- eliminate bread, rice, cereal, any sort of starchy sugary carb
-- eat a large-ish breakfast made of protein and unsaturated fat, maybe a bit of non fat dairy if you like a whey protein smoothie or some sugar free yogurt
-- eat enough calories that you don't get extremely hungry and set yourself up for a binge.
-- eat a lot more protein. count protein grams and don't leave the house in the morning with less than 25 g in you. get at least 70 g a day.
So take the day you had yesterday. Instead of cereal, substitute eggwhites and almonds.
If you get hungry before lunch time, grab another 10 g almonds or hazelnuts and a carton of nonfat yogurt (need calcium for bones!). Don't eat the carbs without fat... keep that blood sugar calm by starting each meal with the protein and fat.
Lunch: slice of turkey, no bread, salad with olive oil and vinegar, nonfat yogurt or glass of skim milk, a few nuts
Dinner: same steamed veggies, but a piece of anything with protein: chicken, seafood, turkey, scrambled eggwhites. Olive or flax oil on the veggies.
When I was a single girl optimizing my food preparation so that it took maybe 10 minutes a day, I ate:
Breakfast: 1 cup eggwhites scrambled with 1 teaspoon flax oil and hot sauce
Lunch: 100 g kale, 1 cup nonfat yogurt or cottage cheese, 10 - 20 g almonds, salsa on the salad.
Snacks (if I have a snack, which most days I don't): nonfat fruit yogurt and 10 g almonds, or latte with skim
Dinner: 1 cup free range organic low sodium chicken broth with 2 tablespoons brewers yeast, half a bag of frozen broccoli mix of some kind (carrots, cauliflower, whatever), 1 teaspoon flax oil, maybe another few almonds. glass of wine.
Super easy and quick, takes almost no preparation, and doesn't involve having anything in the house I'd rather not be tempted by!
I suspect that if your body is recovering from giving birth and nursing, you might need a lot more calories than you did pre-baby. I'd suggest that you cut only very gradually, paying tons of attention to getting your omega 3s and calcium. Mommies need strong bones too!
You sound like the ideal candidate for Miss Tenacity's mail order megamuffins! Perfect, delicious nutrition, shipped right to your door. Doesn't get more convenient than that! Miss Tenacity has also developed a new product for us: the MEGA Mix! For those who want to make the muffins at home but either can't get the fancy weird ingredients or don't have time to run all over town finding them. Yippie!
But seriously, cut back on the grains and I think you'll find it's a lot easier to keep calories low while remaining satisfied and un-hungry. Being hungry every four hours reminds me of the lowfat vegan roller coaster I was on in my twenties when I ate oatmeal for breakfast, salads and sandwiches for lunch, and veggies with rice for dinner. I was hungry, crazy, and anxious. I was not fun. Now, I eat eggwhites, and I am fun.
Or at least, my cats think I'm fun. I'm not taking a chance on asking anyone else!
Posted by april at March 20, 2007 8:07 AM
Comments
Just wanted to say (as I'm running out the door) that I'm one person who does WAY better on small, frequent meals. I like to snack often. I hate the idea that my next meal is five hours away. I've tried both, and I have a much easier time with CR 6 or so meals a day. Even 7.
Posted by: emily at March 20, 2007 8:52 AM
I'm going to add to what April has suggested here. IF YOU ARE NURSING-- DO NOT CUT YOUR CALORIES!! Focus on the ON properties of CR. Get into that habit pronto. However: you need 500 extra cals per day to help feed your baby and replenish the nutrients you have lost giving birth. Drink tons of water (especially right before you nurse to help the milk flow) and be sure to add the nutrients suggested to your diet. By all means cut out the breads, empty carbs etc..but PLEASE be sure to add back in the really good nutrient dense foods. You need it, your baby needs it and your peace of mind will need it. You might want to look at whether you are consuming peanuts, corn, even some of the cruciferous foods, while great for us, could be contributing to your baby's gas and colic. Go for avocados, nuts like almonds, sunflowers, pumpkin. Keep up the nursing, it's the absolute best food for your baby.
Congrats and take care,
D
Posted by: Deborah at March 20, 2007 11:11 AM
I second what Deborah and Judith said! If you're nursing, you can't CR. Absolutely not. I got the impression you were done nursing, but I could have misunderstood.
Still, it's always good to focus on nutrition and get more nutrients in every calorie.
a
Posted by: april at March 20, 2007 12:48 PM
I don't know from a long term CR perspective... but on most days I do like to have enough calories to snack in between meals and it did help me lose weight last year. When I was trying to eat just the three meals a day (or even one meal... The Warrior Diet book) I was so hungry all the time! In The Longevity Diet, I appreciate that there are so many ways to do CR. I guess just trial and error.
Posted by: Jake Silver at March 20, 2007 4:05 PM
Thank you guys so much for all the helpful advice !! I'm done nursing, so I can play around more with calories. I think I am just stuck in a bad habit right now, and have to 'nip it in the bud' since I also feel 'not so clean' inside (which I'm sure you all know how that feels pre CR days). It has to be the carbs. I am going to go out and buy some egg whites, and follow some examples of your diet April!! Thank you all SO much. I'll keep you updated. I know I have to stop being lazy and get back on board with CR.
Your blog is the best!! Pre baby, I would check in whenever I felt an urge to sway from CR, as my tummy growled, but you kept me strong!! Thanks a bunch to you all !!
Jen
Posted by: Jen at March 20, 2007 4:47 PM
I find that snacking is a mental necessity whilst at work :) Plus I really do get hungry in between meals, even if I eat until I feel full at the meal itself. I'm trying to be careful about what it is I snack on though - almonds & dried fruit, or regular fruit, or marinated tofu. And the occasional bit of good quality very dark chocolate (I've noticed that if I eat the 70+% cocoa stuff, I am happy with a little square or two; lower than that & I start wanting several! I guess it's about sugar quantity.).
Posted by: Juliet at March 20, 2007 4:50 PM
The woman widely acclaimed as having the highest IQ ever measured for a woman has a vastly different diet plan, on timing of meals and quantity per meal. And her cholesterol numbers (ratio of HDL and LDL) are astonishing. Here is the link ... http://marilynvossavant.com/articles/diet.html
...
It seems that different things work for different people. :>)
Posted by: CRWilliam at March 20, 2007 10:00 PM
Jen: Calcium! Calcium! Calcium! Do you know there used to be a saying, one tooth per child, because women lost teeth after nursing their babies? Usually I would say "sufficient" rather than excess calcium, but for a new/post-nursing mother, YOU NEED IT. Go get yourself nonfat yoghurt, stat. If for no other reason than to keep your teeth!
Posted by: Brooke at March 21, 2007 4:37 AM