Sanguinarian
Posts: 474
Joined: 8/13/2008
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I can relate somewhat to you, yhma. In 2001, I was in a car accident that crushed my right shoulder and hip. I used to kickbox for my exercise among other things, and the accident stalled that out completely. ( I am basically still injured, due to the extensiveness of the accident, and have had 3 shoulder surgeries, soon to have a 4th ) I couldn't box, couldn't do much strength training. And my eating habits before had supported a highly active lifestyle.
Then being not so active, the foods I preferred led to gaining weight. I can now substitute in dancing for my cardio, since my hip has recovered enough to support it, but that wasn't quite enough. I want to tell you what I did to change my diet, on the chance it can help you. :) ( By the way, I am going to make generalizations in here when I say 'you' so no offense to anyone meant )
First thing I did was cut out the soda. And I am a recovering coke-aholic lol. What I did to sort of wean me off of it was I took sparkling water and added lemon and lime juice to make it taste like sprite. Not as good, but it helped my desire for soda. I also had sparkling cider once and a while with dinner, instead of wine. ( I still drink red on occasion, for the antioxidants, but no more than a few ounces in my special glass, gotten just for that reason :) ) Now I don't have much soda at all, unless it is say, movie night with my family, and then only one can period.
Then I worked on my pasta. I loved pasta almost as much as the soda! So first, I switched to a whole wheat pasta, which if made right, tastes just like the regular. Only if it is made right though. Then I pared it down, had lasagna instead, since the noodle to meat, cheese and spinach ratio is smaller. Now I only have pasta once in a great while, once a week on average.
Potatoes where a specific bane for me, since I would make say, homefries for breakfast, or have a few potatoes with dinner. So I switched to sweet potatoes, which even though they are sweeter, their carb ratio is smaller than with white potatoes. ( Yes, I sort of went Atkins here... )
I make my own bread ( I adore my bread machine! ) so it doesn't have all the nasty junk in it that store-bought has, not to mention the extra sodium and preservatives.
( I am allergic to soy, so store bought baked goods was never really an issue for me. )
Then I began to add more lean meats to my meals, so there was a 2 to 1 protein to carb ratio. The body will process carbs more willingly than protein. The body though, will burn up more calories and carbs, to process protein, hence why I added more to my diet. An interesting note: ice water will kickstart the metabolism a little bit, to process it, rather than room temperature water, which is apparently easier to process than the ice water.
By meats, I mean lean chicken, turkey, either ground or whole, fish like salmon and tuna ( I prefer the bumblebee albacore filets in the gold can, because the ones that say just water, have vegetable broth with soy in it, even says it on the label! Kinda lies about the packed in water part there... )
I also use a lot of eggs, and recent studies have found that though the yolks contain cholesterol or however that is spelled, it is GOOD cholesterol, not bad. Boiled, fried, scrambled yum.
Red meats I don't use as often, but when I get, say, hamburger, I make sure it is 93/7 lean. No sense in getting the 75/25 because it is cheaper due to the fact you end up cooking off 25% of the pound in just grease. Yuck. If I do get steak, I prefer to get it with the least amount of fat marbleization as possible and I tend to use it in soup with lots of low carb veggies so it stretches further.
Veggies... LOTS of veggies! I love veggies, when I was a kid, my mother would have to buy half again as many because when she cut them up, I would eat some. Peppers were my favorites. But I learned a good trick with that. See, my mom would cut up veggies and stick them in the smaller freezer bags. That way, she could just grab say, a bag of peppers, one of onions, one of say, summer squash, or cauliflower and another bag of broccoli, then snag a bag or two of the chopped meats and make a quick 15 minute stir-fry or soup. Pop them all in a wok or deep skillet with a bit of olive oil, maybe some garlic seasoning or my personal favorite, a bit of A1 sauce or duck sauce and you have Chinese food in 20 minutes or less!
( Once my mom got a call from my kindergarten teacher saying Mom should send healthy stuff, like Wise popcorn instead of vegetable strips or fruit.... )
Anyway. Also, I found that I wanted chips or cookies, mostly because they were crunchy. So, I changed to having peppers with sour cream for dip instead of chips, or carrots for the cookies because of the crunch factor.
Fruits... yum. Again, to satisfy the sweets craving, I would get berries, or grapes if I wanted the crunch effect. Crisp apples kept cold ( specifically granny smith or red delicious ) satisfied the hunger as well as the craving for sweets or sour stuff. But not too many apples at a time, because they are high in carbs. Perhaps three or so in a day is a good number, because also, the fiber in the apples and the pectin from the skins of any fruit or veggie makes it so the body doesn't absorb much of the sugar and the carbs.
I use heavy cream in my coffee because it has the lowest carb count. I try not to use 2% or skim milk ( white water, bleah ) because when they cut the milk fat, all that is left is the milk sugar. The body actually doesn't absorb much fat in food. The body changes extra sugars into fats for storage. That is what makes people fat. True, you have to burn calories for, I think it was 20 minutes? Not sure on that count, but you have to burn them for a time before you burn what the body has converted into fat. I used to find that after a serious workout, I tasted sugar in my mouth. I asked my doc about it, and she said that was because my body burned sugar-fat. I don't use sugar in my coffee or tea because the heavy cream is sweet enough for me. But my mom ( who was diagnosed diabetic and now, since she took herself in hand, shows no more signs of the disease ) uses Splenda.
I use real cheeses, not the American or Velveeta. I know they taste so damned good, but they are mostly oil, and soybean oil at that. Soybean oil is hydrogenated and tends to have a lot of trans fats, which the body can't use and can cause some bad responses in said body. If I want a cheese that is say, a little saltier or more flavorful than just plain Cheddar, I get the garlic and herb. The natural salt in the cheese boosts the flavor of the herbs, and voila, flavorful cheese! If I want a cheese with more bite, I get the Hunter Sharp ( AKA Seriously Sharp ) cheese. When I make my own pizza, I use that and Mozzarella so there is a nice even flavor, and I get the cool stretchy cheese effect! :D
I like to make my own dressings and I use olive oil mostly. Sometimes I cheat with canola oil, or I use canola if I want to make a lighter dressing. I also started making my own sauces for the Chinese dishes I make, so there is less salt and sugar. I have some recipes you can have if you like.
I've got lots of recipes if you want? They all take less than 20 minutes to make with the exception of the South Beach surprise mashed potatoes. Those are actually steamed then mashed and pressed cauliflower, seasoned with chicken broth and spices. My dad, who is a potato fanatic couldn't tell the difference, they were so good. :D
As for restaurants, one way to help cut the bad stuff out is not to get say, the Big Mac sauce actually ON the burger. Get sauces and dressings and gravies on the side. You will find you eat less of them if they aren't actually on your food. Get a double burger instead of a single. Or better yet, get two double burgers, and only a small french fry if you have to have fries. Eat the burgers first, and you won't feel so much lacking in the fry department :) If you go back to KFC, have some of their healthier foods first, THEN have the wings. When I go to a family restaurant, I usually go for the salad bar first ( I was never one much for heavy dressings, so I usually got oil and vinegar, provided the oil was olive oil ) and 'pig out' there first. My parents had the right idea when they told me to eat the 'yucky green stuff' first ( like cooked spinach lol ) first to get it out of the way. I learned later on that I had less of an appetite for the junk food because I had eaten the healthy stuff first.
I've seen on a lot of diets that people are still hungry. Or if they try to moderate their food, they cut too much, too fast, and then they get all shaky and irritable, some even get faint and sick. So what I do/did was to keep say, little individual packs of string cheese or little cubes of Cheddar, along with, you guessed it, strips of PEPPERS :D for when I needed a quick snack. On a good diet, you should never feel hungry. You shouldn't feel exactly full or stuffed, because that means you have eaten too much, even if it is only water chestnuts and cottage cheese. ( Whoever thought of the water chestnuts and cottage cheese diet should be smacked >.< ) But you shouldn't feel hungry either. If you do, have a handful of cheese cubes, or grapes. But don't eat too much of just the one thing. Mix it up a bit, have some veggies AND some fruit, some nuts AND some cheese. Or a mix of all four. :D
: chuckles at herself: And on the subject of sugar detox... finally: You can try a liquid fast, which includes soup broth, 100% juice mixtures, tea, preferably green tea, and vegetable juices. I have a recipe for potato peeling broth which is a good detoxer, and cabbage broth, which is another good one. I also have some for green drinks too, which provide you with lots of vitamins and micro-nutrient during a detox? I hope all this helps you.
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RE: How do you like to detox after an overdose of sugar? - 
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I know from personal experience on that one! 
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