Lose Weight Much Quicker with Less Refined Carbs

You can lose weight by following a low refined carb, low fat diet.  But first, why would you want to lose weight?  I mean, apart from the obvious affect on your appearance, did you know that carrying excess pounds increases your risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes?  (Of course you know this)

But did you know that many of the aches and pains that we attribute to "stress" are very often caused by the strain of carrying extra body weight? (yeah, you sort of knew that)

Despite the huge number of anorexic celebrities, this is not a healthy look and not one that you should aspire to. 

But neither is embracing obesity … just because you don’t want to do right.  Don’t cloak your hard-headedness with so-called “self-love”.  Let’s not kid ourselves.  That so-called “self-love” allows us to turn our kitchen into a suicide den, killing ourselves slowly.

Your individual optimum weight will depend on your height, your build and to a lesser extent your genetics.  *Disclaimer* before embarking on any weight loss plan, see your doctor and find out your ideal weight.  That way, you can set healthy, realistic weight loss (or weight gain) goals. 

So what is the best way to begin?  Well, let’s start with education.

You would need to be living under a rock not to know that eating fast food takeouts every night for dinner is causing you to pile on the pounds.  Yet we still do it.  We go into our favorite restaurants and ask for larger meal sizes as they seem better value.  “Hey look, I’m getting more crap for my money!”

(For more on fast food eating and diet, watch the “Super Size Me” documentary by Martin Spurlock.  It’s very entertaining and very informative.)

We know we should exercise more, yet we sit on the couch watching ... The Real Housewives of Compton or something.  (I heard a comedian say that I just lost it! LOL)

 

But think about it.  We used to eat at home, and then went outside to play. 

But now, we eat outside, and then come inside to play (Wii, Playstation, etc)! 

But I digress.

If you try a low carb, low fat diet today then do yourself a favor and set yourself up for success.  You cannot just suddenly change your diet habits in one day. You need to be prepared.  Go shopping and stock up on the types of foods you will be eating. 

So for starters:

Throw out the white bread, the white pasta, the white rice, the refined sugar coated cereals and the store bought juices.  Yes, even the 100% ones.  Buy a Juicers (such as Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juice Extractor) and juice your own fruits and veggies.  

This will be a slow transition, so don’t go broke trying to "get right".  But do buy a juicer sooner than later.

You will be eating wholegrains from now on and unless it is brown pasta or brown rice, it won’t be part of your new diet. Period.

Keeping a food diary is a great way to keep track of your progress.  I included one in your Welcome Packet.  With tracking, you can easily see where your weak spots are and you will then know how best to fix them.  We often delude ourselves into thinking we are eating less.  Writing it down makes it harder to lie to ourselves.

When eating at home, try to cook your meals from scratch.  Yes I know we are all short on time but pre-packed meals tend to be high in fats, sodium, and refined sugars … while being very low in nutrients.  Even the low fat varieties contain a lot of sugar and salt mainly added to give them longer shelf life and to make them taste better. 

If time is a major factor then try bulk cooking.  When you do cook, make three times the amount you need and freeze the extra portions.  You can have a home cooked meal every night by taking out a dinner from the freezer and setting it in the fridge to thaw, prior to going to work.

Being organized and educated will help you to follow a low carb, low fat diet more successfully.

Controlling, and Then REVERSE Diabetes

Salt:

Excessive use of Table Salt puts an extra burden on our kidneys.  It’s simply very hard for the body to process.  This excess of Salt (refined/table) can cause high blood pressure.  When High Blood Pressure present; often times, diabetes is also present.

Excessive intake of salt also promotes water retention in the body, which over time may lead to obesity … which is also a known cause of diabetes.

Now, a certain amount of salt is essential for the body.  But that ‘certain amount’ is a very small amount.  Small as in 10 to 15 g per day.

Salt is not only used as a seasoning, but it’s most often used as a preservative.  It’s added to most, if not all, processed foods.  So, yes … you are eating a bucket of salt a day and probably don’t even know it!  This preservative problem most often occurs in ‘convenience’ foods which, are very often processed to the inth degree.

All Purpose Flour:

Wheat is the most common cereal used throughout the world for making bread. It is a good source of energy (complex carbohydrates). With its essential coating of bran, vitamins and minerals, it is an excellent health-building food.

Wheat is usually ground into flour for use as food.  However refined wheat flour white flour (maida) is especially harmful and it constitutes a serious health hazard.  Because it is so prevalent in such a wide variety of foods, like white sugar, we consume it by the bucket loads and don’t even know it.

 Whys is it so harmful, you ask?  Well, due to the  colossal loss of vitamins and mineral in refined wheat flour, it’s consumption has led to widespread prevalence of constipation and other digestive related disturbance and nutritional disorders … including particularly diabetes. The consumption of white flour is thus an important contributing cause of diabetes, and its aggravation if the disease has already developed.

Coffee & Tea:

Drinking tea and coffee is a serious health hazard for the diabetic. The most alkaloid principle in both tea and coffee is caffeine. Caffeine is an addictive drug similar to cocaine in as much as it stimulates the central nervous system. While these effects are short-lived, it has been observed that they lead to withdrawal symptoms of irritability, lethargy, headaches and anxiety. The daily intake of tea and coffee causes indigestion and gas formation, diarrhea, and constipation. They also increase the blood sugar level, which may lead to diabetes or aggravate its symptoms where the disease is already present.

So, with that information in mind, here are 5 simple rules that I’d suggest for managing and then eventually reversing Diabetes (type II).

5 Things you MUST DO ... and KEEP DOING:

1.   Not only should you cut back on refined snacks, but you should then move to eliminate them from you r diet altogether.  There are many, many alternatives.  See the Black Phoenix Meal Plan for some suggestions. 

2.   Cut back on white flour and embrace whole meal carbohydrates.

3.   Stop drinking cocktails, start drinking red wine.  Many people know that Cocktails contain sugar, and salt.  But they have no idea how much.  Beer has carbs, carbs raise the blood sugar. Whiskey has a high sugar content which also raises blood sugars.

4.   Consume much, much more fruit and vegetables.  Fresh fruit and vegetables are a great way to get all the vitamins and minerals you need.

5.   Drink much more water than what your currently consuming.  You should drink approx ‘half your weight in ounces’ every day.  (i.e. if you weight 180lbs, then you should be drinking 90 oz of water PER DAY.)  And, no – that’s not a lot.  That’s approx 1 glass per hour while your at work … so don’t hand me that “too much” foolishness J

Watch what Doctors Say about Consuming Whole Foods:

>>>Click Here for More Information<<<

Creating a Diabetes Diet Menu

Diabetes means that a persons body cannot use sugar the way it was meant to be used. A normal person's pancreas makes insulin that helps their body use the sugar that they take in when they eat. If you have diabetes then your pancreas either does not make enough insulin or does not make any at all and so you need help to make sure that the sugar in your blood stream does not get to be too much. One way to do that is to follow diabetic diet menus.

Diabetic diet menus will help keep your blood sugars stable along with the medication your doctor has prescribed whether it be an oral anti-diabetic agent or insulin shots.

The first thing you need to do is go over everything with your doctor and make sure you understand what you need to do to keep your body in good working order so you can minimize the adverse effects of diabetes. There are many, so do what you can to take care of yourself. Working closely with your doctor you should be able to manage your disease without too much trouble.

Diet is very important and your doctor may refer you to a dietitian to help plan out what you should and should not eat. There are foods that will help maintain relatively steady blood sugars and foods that will make your blood sugar spike. Certain carbohydrates are your enemy. A dietitian will help you sort things out and get you on the right track.

Processed foods and refined sugars can actually make your diabetes worse. This is according to the Harvard School of Public Health. The HSPH recommends you choose healthy, low-glycemic index foods like whole grains, oatmeal, brown rice, nuts, beans and legumes and lots of fruits and vegetables like asparagus, spinach and broccoli, tomatoes, cherries and peaches.

Starchy foods like potatoes, bananas and corn are not recommended. Starchy foods are too readily converted to simple sugars in your body and will spike your blood sugars making it more difficult to regulate them.

It is also recommended that you never skip meals and, if possible, eat five small meals a day with the same number of carbohydrates at each meal. If this is not possible then make sure that you have some healthy snacks available to eat between your three main meals each day.

Making a weekly menu will help you plan all the meals out that you will eat each week. This makes your grocery shopping trip so much easier because you have everything planned already so you can just make your shopping list from your menu plans. You will have everything you need to make the meals you want to eat, no more trying to decide what to eat at the last minute.

Each week you will have your diabetes diet menus posted in the kitchen so you can track what you are eating and see, at a glance, if any changes need to be made.