<p>Adkins is not no carb. A lot of people say they’re going on adkins and don’t read the book. I won’t argue the fine points, but it’s not “no carb”. I get carbs primarily in vegetables and berries.</p>
<p>I have MyPlate set up and have tracked my protein/veggie breakfast (omelet with ham, feta, mixed peppers, onions and grape tomatos). The carbs were minimal but eating 2 whole eggs shows that I am already over my daily cholesterol allowance. Think I will need to switch to egg whites. I don’t think I better try and reduce the carbs and the Diet Coke habit at the same time (or maybe one addiction is leading to the other so I should do both?)</p>
<p>I also went to a killer Pilates class this morning and have walked a couple of miles on my Walkstation while working so far today. Hopefully the lack of sleep last night won’t propel me towards the carbs!</p>
<p>I am almost always high on cholesterol but frankly don’t worry about it. I’m not sure where they get the number for cholesterol but even on days I don’t eat eggs I am over. Any cholesterol experts?</p>
<p>Same - I enjoy eggs a few times a week - they seem to fill me up and not bloat me - win!</p>
<p>Mom2010 - when are you weak moments of the day? When do you find yourself reaching for those carbs? Maybe we can suggest other snacks that could take the place of that carb (chips? bread?) that will provide the same sensory experience - salty, crunchy, something dip-a-ble…</p>
<p>Good job getting up early and completing Pilates already!</p>
<p>abasket - What do you eat for breakfast other than eggs? If I eat cereal I eat Complete Bran Wheat Flakes with raisins or banana and skim milk. Sometimes I have Eggo lowfat whole grain waffles which I am sure have very little nutritional value (and leave me feeling hungry very quickly). I haven’t checked to see if that is high in carbs yet. When I have bread it is 12 Grain which I will toast and put peanut butter on (high sugar Jif). I also eat english muffins and homemade banana muffins. I do not eat bagels anymore.</p>
<p>My carb craving time seems to be mid-morning and mid-afternoon. I never eat anything after my evening meal. The thing I am most looking to control is the crappy carb snacks. Since we became empty nesters we no longer eat a starch with our evening meal (it generally consists of mixed salad (I eat ranch dressing and croutons), steak or chicken, and mixed berries. I know I need to get more vegetables into my diet throughout the day.</p>
<p>Though I love them, I have managed to take out and not miss most “bread” items from breakfast - the key was to find other satisfying things that would taste good and fill me up so I didn’t want to snack at 10am.</p>
<p>Some typical breakfasts for me:
-2 poached eggs and a piece of fruit.<br>
-Stonyfield whole milk plain yogurt w/diced strawberries and maybe 1/4 c. homemade granola
-Ditto above but instead of yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese.
-One egg omelet or scramble with cheese and combo of any of the following: bacon/ham bits, onion, red pepper, mushrooms, etc. The more veggies, meat in it the bigger, more filling it is.
- Apple slices w/ yummy crunchy peanut/almond butter. Bite sized cheese - a cheese that packs lots of flavor like parmesan, sharp cheddar, etc.
- Fresh fruit and some trail mix w/ almonds.<br>
- Fresh fruit and yogurt/cottage cheese based smoothie along with one of the above. </p>
<p>Stuff like that.</p>
<p>Ema, that sounds frustrating. I’m glad to hear you’re going to have the thyroid checked, just in case.</p>
<p>Adding to Abasket’s list: chicken sausage.</p>
<p>MOWC, is the marathon this weekend? Do you track how many states you’ve raced in?</p>
<p>mom2010, if there’s a snack you can’t resist get it out of your house! I’ve had half a bag of potato chips in my pantry for months, every once in a while I try one am astounded they don’t seem to be stale. Obviously they don’t tempt me, but if it were a bag of cookies they’d be gone. Christmas is a bad time, because I really don’t want to stop the tradition of baking them. I probably should do what my great aunt did and mail them to all my relatives!</p>
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<p>The MyPlate “recommended” daily amounts for cholesterol, carbs, etc. are simply a regurgitation of the official US government food recommendations – the very recommendations that have correlated with a so-called epidemic of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The daily cholesterol recommendations are complete nonsense. The amount of cholesterol you EAT has little or nothing to do with the amount of cholesterol in your blood. And, even the idea that total cholesterol in your blood is a very good predictor of coronary disease is an idea that’s several decades past its sell-by date. Researchers now understand that it is certain sub-groups on a cholesterol test that matter when it comes to coronary risk. The government nutrtion recommendations really shouldn’t be based on obsolete science. But, the current generation of nutrition experts built their careers singing from the hymnal of the church of “low fat” and “low cholesterol” and the sermon isn’t going to change until they pass on to the low fat dairy case in the sky…</p>
<p>There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating egg yolks. I wouldn’t eat six eggs a day, but when I have eggs for breakfast, I usually have three eggs and three slices of thick-sliced bacon. Eggs are exactly the kind of whole food with a ton of nutrition that we should be eating. (It’s the toast that does us in). The last time I did MyPlate for a whole month, I averaged 375 mg of cholesterol per day. When my doc and I were going over my most recent cholesterol test numbers, I pointed out that my my triglycerides were “off the charts good”. He said, “all of these numbers are off the charts good…”.</p>
<p>One of the consistent things that happens when people replace some of the sugars and carbs from their diets with more fat and protein is that their various cholesterol test numbers tend to improve. Cutting sugars and carbs almost always reduces triglycerides in the blood stream. HDL (good cholesterol) amost always goes up – perhaps the result of eating more quality fat. The amount of LDL may or may not change, but it will almost certainly shift from lots of small particles (bad) to fewer big particles (good). It turns out that the NUMBER of LDL particles is probably the best single correlation with coronary artery disease so the typical small particle size that comes from a high carb diet is definitely NOT what you want, even when the total LDL amount looks OK.</p>
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<p>Ema:</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you mean by “current research suggestions”, but if you are talking about the standard nutrition advice of “low fat” and 50% to 60% carbs, then that advice is typically only effective for people who are trying to gain weight! It is going to be extremely difficult to lose body fat eating 50%+ carbs each day and you’ll probably have to starve yourself on calorie restriction to do it.</p>
<p>Also, you mention that fiber makes you sick. I’m not sure what “fiber” you are talking about, but if you mean the “fiber” that is advertised in “whole grain” breads and cereals, it’s probably more likely that you have some kind of grain/wheat intolerance.</p>
<p>Get your thyroid checked for sure, but from a dietary standpoint, I think if you cut your carbs and ate more good fats (one of my favs is a huge salad with crumbled blue cheese and a ton of olive oil vinaigrette dressing), you’d probably have an easier time losing weight.</p>
<p>Deborah- yeah, my race is Sunday. I have several family hurdles (elderly mother etc) to clear before then, though. I got word this morning that my evening flight today is already 2 hours late! I won’t get to my sister’s house until after midnight, which isn’t great. 2 hour drive tomorrow to the Poconos house, 2 hour drive Sat to York for the race, 2 hour drive back to Poconos after the race Sunday, 2 hours Monday early am back to Phila area to see mother again and then 45 minutes back to airport Monday afternoon. Sound fun? Makes the race itself seem like a piece of cake!</p>
<p>Meal number two down. It was actually pretty good! Chicken, broccoli, and sweet potato cakes with a variety of seasonings on there. Something I have to be careful of is I wasn’t completely full when I was finished. I got up and went right to the refrigerator. But I stopped myself! This afternoon I will eat sunflower seeds because I’ll be at a baseball game and that’s what you do! Besides, they’re a seed! ;)</p>
<p>Gotta figure out some healthy snacks…</p>
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<p>Most guys that have been overweight have probably eaten a bag of Doritos, a box of Cheeze-Its or a box of Triscuits and I’m not talking about the little snack bags. Carbs can really be addictive. There’s a book called Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the food giants hooked us. Here’s an article on the book:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&</a></p>
<p>Daughter’s graduation today. Didn’t do much damage at the reception. It was absolutely carb city (the protein options were encased in carbs).</p>
<p>I’m reading that right now! Slow going (mainly because I’m a slow reader and it takes me a bit to digest- no pun intended) but very interesting.</p>
<p>I may have said this before, but we have been treated as lab rats but we are SMARTER than lab rats. Once you realize the multinational agri corps are feeding us foods that are bad for us but appeal to our natural love of salt, fat, & sugar, it’s easier to just say no to them.</p>
<p>I think that it’s still hard to say no.</p>
<p>I can hear those Cheeze-It boxes calling out to me from the end-of-the-aisle display at the supermarket. I love ordering Dominoes Philly Cheesesteak pizzas. It’s a good thing that they’re two miles away in a part of town where I don’t go very often.</p>
<p>The best thing that works is having a decent supply of good food around to avoid temptation of the bad food. Good food usually requires preparation (compared to sticking my hand in a box of something), and preparation means that you have to do some planning so that raw ingredients are available, that time is available to prepare and that containers are available to pack and reheat. I have a morning routine to do that when my wife is away - otherwise she usually does it for me. If she doesn’t, and I don’t have stuff planned, then I usually have a backup. If I don’t have a backup, then things can get ugly.</p>
<p>^Sometimes I eat with friends or family at a bar/grill-type place where the options are fried food, fried food on a bun, and french fries. We are all so hungry we eat whatever looks good…and I’m always sorry afterwards but what are you gonna do? I guess the answer there is to try to stay out of such places! </p>
<p>The other day someone brought the best snack to band practice. Besides some pastry or other, she took the time to cut up some celery sticks and bring a jar of peanut butter. It was so welcome! And not that hard to do.</p>
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<p>It’s a love that’s been cultivated in us by the industrial food manufacturers. I don’t think we woke up one day saying let’s eat high fructose corn syrup; our desire for it was a result of manufacturing. The cycle can be broken. But you absolutely have to have good food on hand, and the reality is, that takes time and effort that not everyone has.</p>
<p>Treadmill Intervals</p>
<p>Bit o’ walking</p>
<p>1 mile run</p>
<p>Intervals as follows*:
.10 mi @ 7.7 mph
<quick walk="">
.10 mi @ 7.9
<quick walk="">
.10 mi @ 8.1
<quick walk="">
.05 mi @ 8.3
<quick walk="">
.05 mi @ 8.5
<quick walk="">
.05 mi @ 8.5
<quick walk="">
.05 mi @ 8.3
<quick walk="">
.10 mi @ 8.1
<quick walk="">
.10 mi @ 7.9
<quick walk="">
.10 mi @ 7.7</quick></quick></quick></quick></quick></quick></quick></quick></quick></p>
<p>1 mile run</p>
<p>Bit o’ walking</p>
<p>*This was the distance at full speed. Each interval was actually a little longer because there’s the time bringing the belt up to speed and then lowering it back down again afterward.</p>
<p>We naturally crave salt sugar & fat because these flavors are related to what our bodies need IF we are eating “natural” foods. Breast milk is sweet. We need SOME salt. And some fat is both necessary and makes food taste better.</p>
<p>But when these ingredients are concentrated (as in refined sugars) or stripped of the fiber that nature gave them, we can quickly eat too much of all of them and our metabolisms get out of whack. Not to mention eating way more calories than is good for us.</p>