MyWeightLossForLife.com

Archive for January, 2008

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Thanks to everyone who participated!

Maybe you’re trying to lose weight or even manage your blood sugar. For whatever reason, you’ve decided to go low carb. Where do you begin?

Get rid of the high carb foods.

Some foods are much higher in carbs, and much harder on your blood sugar, than others. These foods will need to go, and you’ll replace them with lower carb versions.

• Sugar, honey, syrup, etc. These are absolute no-no’s on a low carb diet. You’ll need to substitute sweeteners like splenda, sugar alcohols, sugar free syrups, etc.
• White flour and foods made with it. Think those sugar-free cookies are okay? Think again. They are still probably loaded in carbs because they’re made with white flour. Same goes for cake mixes, breads, etc. Substitute foods made with whole grain flours.
• White flour pasta. This one deserves its own category. Whole grain pasta has less impact on your blood sugar and tastes good too.
• Potatoes. The starch in potatoes is bad for your blood sugar. Same goes for sweet potatoes. Try using other vegetables instead of potatoes.

After replacing the major culprits, you still have some work to do. Some foods that are perfectly acceptable will impact your blood sugar more than others. You’ll need to read labels and experiment, and track what you eat and what effect it has.

Reading Labels

1. Check the serving size first. A food may look low carb because the nutrition information is calculated for an absurdly small serving size.
2. Calculate the net carbs. Total carbs MINUS fiber content MINUS sugar alcohol content. For example, let’s say a slice of bread has 15 grams carbs and 5 grams fiber. Net carbs would be 10 grams.
3. Know the glycemic impact of the food. Equal amounts of carbs from different kinds of foods can have different effects on your blood sugar. Use a site like this to choose foods lower on the glycemic scale.

Track and Test

Keep track of what you eat and when. I know it can be inconvenient, but it’s not something you’ll have to do forever. Your goal is to learn what foods you tolerate well and which ones have too much of a negative impact on your blood sugar. Often it’s not even the individual foods but the blood sugar impact of the entire meal that you have to be concerned about.

1. Test your blood sugar before each meal and two hours after.
2. Note what you ate, how much, and how your blood sugar did after the meal.
3. Over time, you’ll learn which foods you tolerate best.

Mix high carb foods into your low carb meals

If you want something relatively high carb, you may be better off eating it with a meal than alone. The protein and fat of the meal can mitigate the effect of carbs.

Here’s an example, my husband is able to tolerate potato salad pretty well, even though he’s diabetic. That’s probably because the potatoes (high carb) are mixed with eggs and mayonnaise. The protein and fat slows his digestion, and slows the effects the carbs have on his blood sugar. If he ate the same amount of potatoes as french fries or as a baked potato, he’d likely see a different effect.

Do your research

Read about nutrition and low carb diets. Talk to your doctor about the diet you’re following. Take your food journal to a nutritionist. Changing to a low carb lifestyle isn’t going to happen overnight, but you can make changes that will benefit your health.

For more information on low carb diets, see this site.

You may have heard that bariatric surgery is being touted as a cure for type 2 diabetes. If you’re diabetic, or know someone who is, you may be taking a harder look at the surgery and whether you should have it.

As many of you already know, my husband is a type 2 diabetic. We’re not considering surgery for him. His doctor hasn’t brought it up as a possibility, but we’re both against surgery unless it’s a last resort. Neither of us are health professionals, but we do have some specific reasons for our decision.

First, I think you have to be careful of the media. Stories tend to get exaggerated, and this may be no exception. Anyway, we all know not to get our health advice from the media (including blogs!) anyway, right?

Second, remember that the REAL benefit isn’t the surgery, it’s the side effect of weight loss. So, it stands to reason that if you can lose weight without the surgery, you get the benefits without the surgery risk. I know… sometimes that’s a lot easier said than done.

I have a prejudice against jumping to surgery. My preference is to try the least invasive, drastic approach first. Surgery is risky (obviously), so it’s something to be considered carefully. Even more of a concern is the fact that doctors still aren’t sure of the long term risks of bariatric surgery.

If you’re considering it, I’d suggest you talk to more than one doctor. Find out what ALL your options are and what the risks are. Nothing is a silver bullet, and decisions like this have to be made carefully. You’ll be asked to make huge lifestyle changes before and after the surgery, so ask yourself if you should try to make those types of changes in order to AVOID the surgery first.

Finally, be sure you find a doctor who is experienced in the surgery. Ask how many your doctor has done and his track record. This isn’t a time to be shy about asking questions.

Here are some links for further reading.

Surgery may cure Diabetes

Bariatric Surgery Risks

and more Bariatric Surgery Risks

Preparation for Weight Loss Surgery 

What to Expect from Bariatric Surgery

Long Term Success Tips

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Contest is open Jan 22 through Jan 27. Thanks!

This is a great breakfast dish. It also reheats well, so make some extra for weekday morning breakfasts.

• Six large eggs, beaten
• 2 tb margarine or butter
• Half a large onion
• Two stalks of celery
• Half a green pepper
• About 1/3 cup of frozen spinach
• 1 cup Shredded cheddar (or any other cheese you like)
• hot sauce, to taste

Dice all the vegetables and stir fry them in the margarine or butter until they’re just starting to get tender. Set them aside to let them cool a bit.

Spray your baking dish with cooking spray. A deep dish pie plate works fine, as does a 9×9 square dish. You can also use muffin tins for egg bites.

Beat your eggs in a mixing bowl. Add the vegetables, hot sauce and cheese and stir well. Pour into the baking dish. Bake on 450 degrees until the eggs are set, about 20 minutes. The muffin tins take a little less time.

Substitutions

You could use something like Egg Beaters if you don’t want real eggs. Likewise, any vegetables should work. I’ve used mushrooms in the past. I’ve even put a couple spoonfuls of salsa in. Use whatever you like and what you have on hand. Obviously, you could add meat if you want. We just prefer it with vegetables and cheese only.

This recipe is very vegetable-dense. If you’d rather have a recipe with fewer vegetables and more egg, add a couple eggs to the recipe and don’t use as many vegetables. This is a great way to “sneak” vegetables into your day, and they really are delicious.

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If you’re diabetic, then your A1C is one of the most important tests you can take, and it’s one you’ll need to pass.

This article from WebMD talks about how diabetes care has improved in the last years. If you’re diabetic, then your goal should be to get (and keep) your A1C below 7.

What is an A1C?

The A1C is a measure of your blood sugar over the last two or three months. It’s beneficial because it reflects your overall blood sugar control while your daily blood sugar tests reflect your immediate control. So, while your daily tests may vary a bit due to diet, exercise, illness, etc., your A1C is a better indicator of your blood sugar control in general.

What’s “normal”?

For a diabetic, an A1C of under 7 percent is considered good control. However, that isn’t really normal. A normal blood sugar is between 70 and 120, and that translates to an A1C of roughly 5-6 percent.

Estimate your A1C

If you’re diabetic, you should be testing your blood sugar daily (several times a day) anyway. Most meters will keep at least a couple week’s worth of readings, if not more. An easy way to “guesstimate” your A1C is to look at your average blood sugar and use a conversion tool to see what the A1C would be. This chart will help.

So, a 7 on the A1C would equate to something around a 170 blood sugar. That’s well above normal, as you can see.

For example, I’m not diabetic, and my blood sugar varies from about 80 to about 110. So, my A1C would vary somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5.

What you should do?

Talk to your doctor and find out what your goal A1C should be. The closer you can get your blood sugar to normal, the less the risk of diabetes complications.

The weather is cold, snowy and not at all good for an outdoor exerciser. What do you do? There are some easy, free (or cheap) ways to get your exercise even when the weather isn’t cooperating.

1. Does your employer have a gym? Often these are much more cost effective (and have a friendlier atmosphere) than larger gyms open to the general public.
2. Is there somewhere at work you can walk? If your office building is very large, you could easily get in a nice walk on your lunch break.
3. Walk around your house. Grab a small basket and move from room to room, picking up things that don’t belong and taking them to the room they do belong in. Do this for 15 or 20 minutes a day and you’ll get a walk AND pick up the house at the same time.
4. If you have stairs, start climbing them several times a day. Start at what feels comfortable and gradually increase your number of trips.
5. Go to the mall. It’s a great place to get in some walking. If you’re worried about shopping too much, leave your money at home.
6. Do housework the hard way. Sweep with a broom instead of a sweeper. Clean your bathroom floor with a rag instead of a mop. You’ll get in a little exercise, and you’ll likely do a better job on the cleaning as well.
7. Rent an exercise video. From aerobics to walking to kick-boxing, there are lots of videos you can get that will allow you to shape up. If you’re renting, then you won’t get stuck with one that’s too boring (or too hard or easy). This is also a great way to try a new routine without committing a lot of cash to it.
8. Walk/run in place. You can actually buy videos that are mostly walking in place, and it’s harder than it seems! If you’d rather, try jumping rope instead.
9. Buy a pair of dumbbells and use them to tone up.
10. If all else fails, pull on your favorite wool sweater and cap and go out anyway!

This is a great bread machine recipe, and it smells and tastes fabulous. I realize molasses may sound strange in bread, but it gives the bread a wonderful flavor and scent. I promise, you’re going to think this is fantastic.

Put the ingredients in the bread machine in this order.

• 1 1/2 cups of warm water
• two tablespoons of butter or margarine, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• four tablespoons of molasses
• 3 cups of whole wheat flour
• 4 teaspoons of vital wheat gluten
• two tablespoons of bread machine yeast

Bake on your bread machine’s whole wheat cycle.

Note that this is a pretty generic whole wheat recipe, so if you have one you like already, simply substitute the molasses for either the sugar or honey (whichever your recipe calls for).

If the whole wheat is a bit dense for you, try substituting one cup of regular bread flour for one cup of the whole wheat. If you go with this option, then cut the amount of wheat gluten. If you don’t, your bread is likely to rise too much and overflow the pan (ask me how I know that…)

I haven’t tried letting this sit overnight in the bread machine’s timed cycle, so I can’t speak to how well that works. If any of you try it, let me know how it goes.

If you missed these last years, here’s another chance to read some of this blog’s most popular posts. Enjoy!

Change a Habit

Diet Motivation

Tips for Holiday Weight Loss

Sleeping and Weight Loss

Vacation and Exercise