Deadly Lie
There is a dangerous misconception that you have to go hungry to manage your weight and be in good health. Nothing is farther from the truth, and since so many people believe this fallacy, they never even attempt to be healthy. Listen up! I eat more than anyone that I know, except David, and we are both at a good, healthy weight.
Change Your Mind
One reason that so many people are overweight and obese is that they eat so many empty calories, foods devoid of good nutrition, but full of added sugars or other simple carbohydrates. Junk foods like this are calorie-laden. Even if it’s home cooked and delicious, if it’s high in simple carbs, it’s a nutrition bomb. So often we think that we just can’t do without our favorite foods and there is a measure of truth in that. There are ways to eat most of your favorite foods and avoid simple carbs. We have low-carb recipes for amost anyting that you might like right here on this website. Red Velvet Cake? We’ve got it. Brownies? Got you covered. If there’s something that you want a low-carb recipe for, go to the search box on the Home Page and look. If you want a recipe that you don’t find, contact us through the “Contact” tab on that same Home Page. Just today, David posted a review for Vanilla and Chocolate Almond Milk that will satisfy cravings for sweet drinks. Sometimes we just need to rethink our regular meals. There’s almost always a way to make them healthier. Let’s look at a few of them.
Breakfast
Are you addicted to sugar filled coffee drinks in the morning? A 16 ounce coffee frappe has 560 calories, 24 grams of fat and 70 grams of sugar. Yes, that’s correct, 70 grams of sugar! Not only are these drinks practically worthless nutritionally, (there is a bit of calcium in all that milk)… for that same 560 calories you can have 4 protein pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 strips of bacon and 0 calorie, no sugar added pancake syrup. Now, you tell me, which will do you more good and which had you rather have? That “coffee” won’t last you very long and then there’s the matter of what you will eat with the “coffee”. It’s usually more sugar. There’s only about 6 grams of sugar in the entire preferred breakfast. All that sugar in the coffee will cause a huge insulin dump and then the corresponding ravenous hunger. The coffee drink sets your day up for failure.
Lunch
Of course, it has to be burgers and fries, right? Well, that’s fine. A whole grain bun, or bunless burger is best but if you like the traditional white bun, then go ahead. The problem comes when you order the milkshake. One chocolate milkshake has about 520 calories, 83 grams of carbs including 71 grams of added sugars. Just think about that. There only about 417 calories in a quarter pound burger. Pair that with oven fries and score the whole meal for about the same calories as the shake alone. Load that burger with veggies, mustard and sugar-free catsup and feast! There are approximately 4 grams of sugar in the bun.
Dinner
One of my pet peeves is what I call “Double Starching”, eating more than one serving of a starchy dish at a meal, not including bread. This is a common practice nowadays and for the life of me, I don’t know how this got started! Why would anyone think that it’s okay to eat macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes at the same meal? Not okay. There’s 310 calories and 44 grams of simple carbs in 1 cup of macaroni and cheese. Pair that with a cup full of mashed potatoes for 214 calories and 32 net grams of carbs and you have a carb fest of 76 grams with almost no fiber to slow the absorption of all those carbs into your bloodstream. For about 560 calories you can have about 6 ounces of grilled sirloin steak, a baked potato and a green salad. Choose wisely. There’s only about 20 grams of carbs in that entire meal.
Snacks
Those 5 cookies have about 500 calories and 125 grams of carbs including 70 grams of sugars. They will not satisfy you and they will perpetuate your sugar addiction and make you eat more of everything because of the insulin dump you will get when you eat them. The apple, pistachios and string cheese snack has about 360 calories and only about 25 grams of carbohydrates. That second snack also has about 20 grams of protein that will hold you without hunger for hours.
Focus!
As you can see, you don’t have to go hungry to control your weight and be healthy. If you avoid added sugars and just rethink your regular meals, you will lose weight if you need to drop some pounds.