Low carb eaters.....

[Wifezilla]

do you eat things like oatmeal, brown rice and whole grains?

Not yet. Like free pointed out, I have done too much damage. I didn't ditch the carbs until 2 years ago. That means I spent 44 years as a sugar junkie. I have reversed a LOT of the damage, but not enough to flirt with the grains that screwed me up in the first place.

As for coffee, caffeine and splenda... Yeah it may be better to ditch the artificial sweeteners and reduce the caffeine, but don't make yourself crazy! Getting off the sugar high is WAY more important. Freemotion uses stevia, I use erythritol, but I also use splenda. You can reduce or cut out sweeteners COMPLETELY if you want at a later date. Right now, these are not your most immediate concern. My husband still guzzles coffee (about 2 pots/day) and he has lost about 30 lbs. Still could stand to lose 20 more (and so could I), but he is doing well (fantastic blood pressure, great stable moods, etc...) and is happy

there are tons of tricks to lose weight

Yeah, but they are tricks. They do not address the true cause of obesity. Many tricks do more harm than good. Low carbing is not just about weight loss for me. It is about health. The weight loss is just a side effect of good health.

Eliminate trans and hydrogenated fats. Poison in ANY amount. Add good saturated fats like butter, lard, egg yokes, whole milk and cheese and cream. No more lean cuts of meat. Keep that skin on your chicken! Use salt with meat, Celtic or Redmond. Eliminate veg oils except a very few like EVOO, in small amounts. Enjoy properly raised beef or bison.

NO SOY!

Avoid any foods with big words on the labels like: No trans fats! Lite! Low fat! Enriched! Added Vitamin Whatever! Diet! Now with whole grains! I have yet to find a product with loud health proclamations that wasn't completely fraudulant.

If you throw out one more egg yolk I will come to your house and pinch you!

YEAH! Me too!!!

 

[FarmerChick]

And it is far more than just weight we are talking about. You can be skinny and have all sorts of silent damage being done to your body by taking in the typical American diet.

____
yea that is key
skinny people die too....you don't have to be overweight to have any medical problems. FM is right....good fats must be had by the body. there are tons of good ones also that we can put into the diet and be satisfied.

problem being, I see that people will not eliminate all foods. most can't. I can't. so when I know I am having that "bad food" like tons of italian garlic bread with tons of butter and spaghetti with meat balls one night, I am sure to be careful about the other foods thru the day.

have bad every now and then---stick to the good mostly.

I do about 80/20

20% I eat whatever the heck I want...regardless of what it is...if I want it, I eat it. the other 80% I am sure to be on the chart with healthy foods only.

It comes down to food choice. what are you willing to do without and enjoy the healthy foods. Some people can't give up a Dorito fix. Some can't give up a Wise potatoe fix....lol....for me, I love french fries. I always get a small order of chili cheese fries if I go out to eat. I eat 1/2--Tony eats 1/2. But for dinner I order the best salad I can. If not in the mood for fries, I order a decent full dinner than.

so again, balance which is best for you!! you'll find it.

we all have too at some point cause we want that better health.

also don't over analyze--when we get obsessed we lose in the long run. we can't stay obsessed and then we fail (at least I do..lol)

Not a one of us don't know the healthy foods from the crap foods. We all do....we just need to find that motivation and apply ourselves!

Ahh--life--so full of choice and decadence and yummy---yet we must be strong

 

[FarmerChick]

WZ
weight loss has tricks to help one down the scale faster.

I did it and it worked great. took less time to lose weight then an "average healthy diet change"

that is all I was saying.

When needing to lose weight, even if switching to the healthy diet etc...we all want that extra fat coming off the waistline. there are good tricks to handle this and hit goal faster.

worked for me......so it is not always black and white at all for everyone.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

20% I eat whatever the heck I want...regardless of what it is...if I want it, I eat it. the other 80% I am sure to be on the chart with healthy foods only.

Unless, like some folks, you have a serious reaction to a food. Then avoid it like it will put you in the hospital.

Mmmm, chili cheese fries. Maybe twice a year I'll get or make a serving. On the sweeteners, I have learned not to put stevia in my piping hot drinks. It gives it a chemical taste I despise Once it's cooled a bit, it's not tooooo different from sugar.

 

[Wifezilla]

You can be skinny and have all sorts of silent damage being done to your body by taking in the typical American diet

Oh HECK yeah. Took me over a year to convince a skinny, athletic vegetarian friend of mine to get her vitamin D levels tested. She tested at 20 ng/ml. A healthy level is 55 ng/ml to 85 ng/ml. If you have chronic disease issues, it should be even HIGHER. Her issue? Skin cancer. She has had 2 bouts. Her doctors had her terrified to be out in the sun and she was only taking a multi-vitamin with 400 iu of D3/day. Since the average female uses 4000 IU/day, there was no way her d levels would be fine.

Many do not realize that vitamin D deficiency can CAUSE cancer. If you stay out of the sun to avoid cancer, you might slightly reduce your risk of getting a non-lethal form of skin cancer but you jump your chance of getting melanoma. We lost Abi's buddy Dar to skin cancer last year. That girl was NEVER in the sun. Dar was only 35.

 

[freemotion]

20% I eat whatever the heck I want...regardless of what it is...if I want it, I eat it. the other 80% I am sure to be on the chart with healthy foods only.

Unless, like some folks, you have a serious reaction to a food. Then avoid it like it will put you in the hospital.

Mmmm, chili cheese fries. Maybe twice a year I'll get or make a serving. On the sweeteners, I have learned not to put stevia in my piping hot drinks. It gives it a chemical taste I despise Once it's cooled a bit, it's not tooooo different from sugar.

Wow, I didn't know that about the hot drinks. Cool!

Yup, gotta have junk once in a while! I made a pan of (not junk) cornbread last night and we ate the whole thing with butter. Yum. DH had bean soup and I had veggie chili (my veggie chili has meat in it, but also lots of shredded veggies like zucchini, green beans, and spinach, the standard tomato sauce, and fewer beans) with my cornbread.

I made it with corn from the feedsack and whole wheat flour and kamut, butter, eggs, salt, and kefir. DH told me he had some "regular cornbread" at a gathering at school last weekend, and he now prefers my version. The other was bland, boring, too soft and too sweet.

I usually leave out the eggs and baking powder and let it lactoferment overnight, then add the eggs and bp just before cooking it. But it was raining and cold and we both worked late, AND the car broke down and had to be collected from the mechanic after work. I wanted my cornbread NOW! So there!

 

[freemotion]

Many do not realize that vitamin D deficiency can CAUSE cancer. If you stay out of the sun to avoid cancer, you might slightly reduce your risk of getting a non-lethal form of skin cancer but you jump your chance of getting melanoma. We lost Abi's buddy Dar to skin cancer last year. That girl was NEVER in the sun. Dar was only 35.

How very sad.

You can also really reduce the damage from the sun and make it safer to be out there if your diet includes lots of super-antioxidants. That is, the dark berries and grapes, especially. If you can't eat quarts of that stuff a day, then supplement. Lots of interesting studies out there. The pycnogenol site has a bunch of studies there. They are not bound by FDA rules about not connecting treatment of a disease to a natural substance, so the site is very enlightening.

 

[Dace]

Very interesting thread Okie! I am enjoying everyone's responses.

I am on a mission to transform my families diet. Dh and I just did a Costco run and I can not express how good t felt to skip all the processed food isles....no snacks, no sugary drinks, no frozen convenience foods! Our wallet thanked us too! Instead we loaded up on meat, cheese, whole grain bread & bagels, fruits veggies giant bag of brown rice and flour....can't hink of what else, but I was so proud when we came home and the kids all groaned....what did you buy to eat????

I bought 1 box each of Triscuits, Whole Grain Wheat Thins and Whole Wheat Ritz 2 weeks ago.....and AMAZINGLY they are still in the pantry! In their place the kids are eating sandwiches (whole roasted turkey and roast beef...thanks to my meat slicer!), yogurt, cheese, fruit, veggies and dip, hard boiled eggs & nuts. Lunches no longer contain those pretty colorful little snack bags of faux foods......just the real deal with the exception of a few crackers or peanut butter filled pretzels. The 7 yr old told me that her friend brought her fruit gummies for snack this week since she never has anything good for snack had to have a little chat about that being fine once in a great while, but we are not buying fruit gummies ON PURPOSE because they are not good for us!

Where we struggle is breakfast. My family are carb junkies. My little one is the easiest to push around so her typical breakfast is, whole wheat small bagel with butter, sliced fruit and yogurt or kefir. The older three are Sourdough toast with peanut butter, English muffin with butter or the all time fave bagel & cream cheese.....we started off with Pop Tarts moved to homemade waffles everyday to the current menu. SO I ma making progress, but it could certainly be improved. Can anyone give me some tips? No one here likes eggs or oatmeal for breakfast.
Oh and for the record, my children are all very slim...w.eight is not the issue healthy eating is!

 

[freemotion]

Just make sure the bread products are really good, fiber grams higher than sugar grams per serving on the label is a good place to start. No "enriched" flours....sneaky word for processed white flour. I haven't been to Costco in a while. I need to make a run and read labels. I hear through the grapevine that they have more healthy choices lately. I don't buy breads there, as they were sneaky breads, but I haven't checked it out in at least two years, so that may have changed.

Load those breads up with butter and cheese so they get good fats. Sounds like you are doing that. Whole fat milk and milk products, too. Will they eat grilled cheese sandwiches? A nice cheddar sandwich on whole grain bread, browned on the griddle with butter....yum! I eat those all the time!

Will they eat eggs in a casserole, like Featherbed Eggs? Make the night before, and stick it in the oven first thing in the morning? Needs to bake an hour, but super-yum! Eggs beaten with cream, poured over torn stale (or fresh) bread and flavored with whatever you like....herbs (I love the Italian flavors), cheeses, bits of meat. A lovely one-dish meal.

 

[freemotion]

A hearty soup or stew is nice on a cold day, too. Think outside the box (pun intended!) for breakfast!