Low-Carb/Low-Fat/Non-Fat Items (LONG)

[Rushmore]

I'll be 40 in a month. That means I am at the age where I have to be especially mindful of what I jam down my maw. Heavy items will make me heavy and make me want to go beddy-bye. I don't want man-boobs, and I don't want to feel like I just smoked the baddest blunt after ten scotch and sodas.

You either know or do not know what I meant just then.

Anyway, my comments on a few low-carb/low-fat/non-fat items:

MILK--Whole milk is awful for you, and skim tastes better anyway. Soy milk is the nuts, most notably Silk Chocolate Soy Milk. Yum.

BEER--If you ever see me drinking a light beer, please grab it from me and smash it over my head. Seriously.

BURGERS--A turkeyburger or veggieburger can be delicious, so long as it's sloppy. I satisfy my ravenous carnivorous lusts by eating STEAK once or twice a week, which has no alternative.

CHEESE--Low-fat cheese sucks HARD, and should not be consumed. "Light sharp cheddar?" I don't think so. Urkel was right.

SODA--I don't drink soda, but when I did, Diet Dr. Pepper occupied 1/4 of my refrigerator space. (The other 3/4 was taken up by Bass, Corona, and Guinness, but that's an entirely different post.)

FROZEN ENTREES--They all suck really bad. I tried all of the Healthy Smart Choice Whatever meals, but I spent so much time weeping, that I never finished one. The "healthy frozen pizzas" had me on the suicide hotline all night. I bent down to take one out of the oven, and had visions of Sylvia Plath. Just skip it altogether.

ORANGE JUICE--Healthy Choice O.J. is fine. Regular O.J. is too damned thick anyway.

BREAD--GodDAMN, I love me some bread. But too much of it makes you look and feel like Dom DeLuise on Percodan. Problem is, the only supposed alternative, wraps, is a hoax. They offer no benefit (unless you stumble across the no-anything ones, which are like a cross between matzoh and, uh, something really gummy and awful and not good to eat). Fuggit--where's the Arthur Avenue store?

DEEP-FRIED FOODS--It has no real alternative, yet cannot actually be regularly consumed by human beings without significant distress on several systemic fronts. The only item in this category whose absence will cause you significant pining is, of course, french fries. Therefore, I eat french fries (preferably steak fries, well-done, with lots of salt and ketchup) two or three times a month (rather than 10-20, like before). I cannot quit cold turkey.

DESSERTS--Most desserts are terrible for you. I still eat a slice or two of Key Lime pie every month, because it tastes so damned good. But as for daily snack dessert items, like cookies and candy bars, it's all Snackwell's, which are great, especially the mint chocolate ones, kept in the freezer. Yum. Oh, yeah--sorbets taste really good, too, even if there's no cookie dough inside.

ASIAN CUISINES--I love all of it: Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Burmese (and let's include Indian, just for kicks). Your culprits here are white rice and fried foods. So just substitute brown rice, order sashimi instead of sushi, skip the General's Chicken (and the Sesame Chicken, Honey Chicken, Whatever Chicken), and do without the egg rolls. If you can't enjoy unagi, tom yum, bulgoki, satay, and vindaloo, you might want to just go to Appleby's instead.

OK, I seem to have strayed from my original intent, so I'll stop.

I have lost 30 pounds (6'1", 215 to 185) in the past year, during which time I also quit smoking.

I really don't miss much of the stuff, PLUS I feel 100% better.

I'm not proseletyzing, just sharing my experience.

OK, AND my opinions. Fair enough.

[augie00]

[ QUOTE ]
BREAD--GodDAMN, I love me some bread. But too much of it makes you look and feel like Dom DeLuise on Percodan. Problem is, the only supposed alternative, wraps, is a hoax. They offer no benefit (unless you stumble across the no-anything ones, which are like a cross between matzoh and, uh, something really gummy and awful and not good to eat). Fuggit--where's the Arthur Avenue store?

[/ QUOTE ]

Whole-grain wheat bread is the only bread that should ever be eaten. There is no better bread.

[ QUOTE ]
If you can't enjoy unagi, tom yum, bulgoki, satay, and vindaloo, you might want to just go to Appleby's instead.


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Unagi...mmmm...

[TimM]

Here's my diet. I eat only twice a day most of the time. I do not try to avoid fats at all, only carbs. But low-carb substitute foods pretty much all suck and I avoid them. I am 5'10", will be 39 in two months, and have gone from 295 to 225 since early 2001. When I get to a good weight I will probably try to eat more like a normal person, as long as I maintain the weight.

Breakfast/lunch choices:

- Two eggs, sunnyside. 1.5 slices of american cheese melted on top. 8 strips of bacon.
- Two 1/4 lb. burgers, no buns. Melt on 4 slices of pepperjack cheese. Tabasco Chipotle sauce or Worcestershire.
- 8 sliced sandwich steaks (steak-ums), 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese melted on. Low-carb A1 sauce.
- 1/2 lb. chicken tenders, fried. Buffalo wing sauce (tabasco and butter). Blue cheese dressing.
- 6 Deviled eggs.

Dinner choices (3/4 to 1 lb. raw weight of meat per serving):

- Steak. Wide variety of sauces and marinades. (This is the most frequent choice by far).
- Beef Stroganoff (no egg noodles or anything like that).
- Chicken Francaise (I make like 4 lbs. at a time and get 4 meals out of it).
- Swedish meatballs (again no egg noodles).
- Sliced sausage in onion gravy (not a fan of peppers).

Dessert and snacks (very rare):

- 3 Deviled eggs.
- 4 oz. of some type of hard cheese.
- 3 oz. Macadamia nuts or cashews.
- Low-carb ice cream (this is about the only low-carb substitute worth eating).

[ceyoung]

not really sure how this applies to low-carb diets, but from a standard diet point of view you should eat more than twice a day. you really should eat 5-6 times a day. loading up with food twice a day slows down your metabolism.

congrats to both of you on on your weight loss. it takes a lot of hard work to make a lifestyle change.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
not really sure how this applies to low-carb diets, but from a standard diet point of view you should eat more than twice a day. you really should eat 5-6 times a day. loading up with food twice a day slows down your metabolism.

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Yes, I have found that eating 4-5 times a day, with only one being an actual "meal" (dinner), has worked nicely. The rest of the time, it's 2-3 BITES of chicken salad, one SMALL turkey sandwich, a smoothie, whatever.

[ QUOTE ]
congrats to both of you on on your weight loss. it takes a lot of hard work to make a lifestyle change.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just for the record, part of my point was that it really wasn't that hard to make the change. In fact, I don't even think of it as "being on a diet," because I eat as often as I want, and pretty much whatever I want.

It's just that I see now that it's stupid to eat bacon at every breakfast, fries with every lunch. Understanding that it's really bad for me doesn't make me never want it again, it just makes me want to keep it to a minimum.

One last word on this: Now, when I'm full, I stop eating. Used to be, if there was tasty food in front of me, I ate until it was gone. No more. This was a bit of an epiphany for me as well.

[miajag81]

[ QUOTE ]

MILK--Whole milk is awful for you, and skim tastes better anyway.


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Good post except for this. Skim milk is fuc[/b]king disgusting. Drink 1% or 2%, it tastes great and won't kill you like whole milk.

[Stuey]

[ QUOTE ]
MILK--Whole milk is awful for you, and skim tastes better anyway. Soy milk is the nuts, most notably Silk Chocolate Soy Milk. Yum.


[/ QUOTE ]

Have you tried the rice milks? They are sweeter but have very little protein. Soy milk is the nuts though I must agree.

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
One last word on this: Now, when I'm full, I stop eating. Used to be, if there was tasty food in front of me, I ate until it was gone. No more. This was a bit of an epiphany for me as well.

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I still have trouble with this one. If I make something with the intention of eating some now and some another day, there is a very real risk I will just eat it all in one sitting. I guess this is part of why the two big meals a day works better for me.

When I was a kid, my mom would go food shopping every couple of weeks, and then my brother, step-father, and I would have a race to see who could eat all of the good stuff first. I guess that created some bad eating habits.

[ceyoung]

i disagree completely. changing your diet is a huge lifestyle change. you have to buy different foods at the grocery, cook different foods, eat at different times, not go out to eat...it sounds like you are doing it atkins style, which is a tough transition from a normal diet. when i start to cut down i do atkins for a week and thats about all i can take without any carbs.

[ceyoung]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
One last word on this: Now, when I'm full, I stop eating. Used to be, if there was tasty food in front of me, I ate until it was gone. No more. This was a bit of an epiphany for me as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

I still have trouble with this one. If I make something with the intention of eating some now and some another day, there is a very real risk I will just eat it all in one sitting. I guess this is part of why the two big meals a day works better for me.

When I was a kid, my mom would go food shopping every couple of weeks, and then my brother, step-father, and I would have a race to see who could eat all of the good stuff first. I guess that created some bad eating habits.

[/ QUOTE ]

portion size is key. buy a bunch of glad ware and split all of the food you cooked into equal size servings. eat one and put the rest in the fridge for later. after you have finished eating one of them wait 15 minutes and evaluate whether you are still hungry or not.

alot of times what happens when you eat twice a day is that your blood sugar will get low. low blood sugar makes you want to binge, which is sometimes why it is hard to stop eating.