My frequent readers fully understand that I advocate a low-carb lifestyle. I say lifestyle instead of diet because the word 'diet' denotes a temporary weight-loss strategy. Lifestyle suggests it's for life. I do my best to keep my non-produce carbs to 60 grams or below. Low-carb eating is not a passing fad. Even the resident family vegan/runner/health nut (a.k.a. Daddy) will reduce calories to lose the few pounds he's put on....and the first thing out the door is sugar and carbs.
I've always been a daddy's girl, so it's possible my admiration for him is slightly biased. Thing is, once upon a time my daddy weighed over 300 pounds. I don't really remember him that way, though I've seen a picture of him with my momma that proves it's true. I'm closing in on 36 years of age next week and for almost my entire life, he has maintained a weight near or around 175 pounds. When I say I'm impressed him with, that's one of the reasons why. He lost the weight of another man his present size. An entire adult male?! And he has kept it off all these years and that's often the hardest part: keeping the weight off. He's always inspired me to be healthy. I'm rather stubborn about it and perhaps that's why I pursued the answers I did about my own failing health. I had to find the answer why. I had to find the solutions.
As the resident health nut, Daddy was commissioned as "Captain Nutrition" (he was a captain in the U.S. Navy) and I was enlisted as his First Mate as a child -- so titled by siblings with rolling eyes as they heard more nutrition advice and I gleefully bounced next to my Daddy and listened to his words of health wisdom. I still find myself reciting his wisdom to others. I recall the time he ruined grapefruits for my sister Mary by reciting from memory how much fat was in the grapefruit. He laughed delightedly and she threatened to throw the larger-than-fist-size citrus at him. As is rather apparent, the First Mate is still reciting food facts from memory.
I'm sure it has always befuddled him, and perhaps saddened him, over the years that the ladies in his life couldn't join in him good health. Trying to get svelte was impossible for us. We tried. Oh heavens, we tried. I loved the summer months because we'd all get into the car before the Texas sun scorched the Earth and drive to the college track. I would run with my nieces and nephews and we'd do the exercises at the stations. We came up with wonderful meals and tried our best and we were still plump, curvaceous ladies.
And no matter what, Daddy was the first to jump in with encouragement, advice, and sometimes picked up the health food items for us with his pocketbook (as has my momma). He bought me my first pair of overpronator running shoes, taught me how to lace them properly for the best ankle support, and demonstrated to me how to purchase a good pair of running shoes. I recall I wasn't the only one getting that lesson that day, nor was I the only one with a new pair of shoes. Any female living in or near the house got a new pair with proper lacings and a shoe lesson.
Now that I've learned the secret to our family's weight loss and started sharing it with anyone whose eyes don't glaze over too soon, I noticed my Mom and I are finding a bit of glee in getting to state a few phrases like "I don't have to count fat." Mom thoroughly enjoys ribbing Daddy with the fact that he counts calories and she doesn't have to. Lately, I noticed those words came out of my mouth when someone at work made a comment about the muffin in my hand. That person probably had no clue I had made a low-carb muffin and that my baking is one of the few ways I can enjoy treats, but there's a sacrifice that is made in the process. I have to give up time and energy to do that. I feel I've earned the right to enjoy the low-carb treats I bake because they're on my health-specific nutrition plan. The words came out of my mouth before I knew it, "I don't have to count fat."
In my defense, as the resident health nut at work, I tell coworkers who start to excuse their food choices, "I'm not your diet police." I'm not their diet police and no one is mine except me. I make the choices I make because I see the benefits every day.
Recently, I hit a record low weight for my entire adult life (and teenager years). I don't recall ever being this low a weight, though doc has me slotted for another 23 pounds to hit my goal weight. I have lost 42 pounds and I still stare at the scale in disbelief. I'm still confused when I have a shirt that's a bit too revealing at the neckline and I take it off to see the shirt size and think, "I've never been lower than that size..." The brain is too used to the patterns of my past and now it's all changing. Perhaps the last time I was at this weight, I was a junior high student. Most likely, I was still child enough in my brain to not care about my weight. I don't think I even worried about boys yet.
This lifestyle obviously works on many levels. Thus, this takes us to the main question:
So why is low-carb eating the answer?
#1: I'm not Hangry as Often
No, I spelled that right. If you've never heard of Hangry, its a combination of "hungry" and "angry." It's a byproduct of plummeting blood sugar levels. Even as a teenager, I recall my sister Ruthie telling me on an outing, "I need to feed you. You're getting cranky." It's nice not having hunger control my mood. Plus, I'm not hungry as often period. At my best, I was hungry every 3 hours like clockwork. At my worst, I was starving every 2 hours with dizziness like I hadn't eaten in days. It's nice to have that disappear.
#2: I Crave Sweets Less
I'm not just Daddy's little girl at heart no matter how many wrinkles I get, but I certainly inherited his sweet tooth. Removing wheat and sugar from my nutrition plan has considerably improved my sweet tooth. I still get cravings. I notice when I'm feeling more stressed out than usual, the cravings are starting to nag at me, but it's not the roar in my head it once was.
#3: Better Cholesterol Numbers
It always confused me when I went to the doctor's office and reviewed lab results because I'd be informed I had borderline cholesterol. I would try to ask questions about how that was possible. I seriously did not eat fried foods. They made me sick in one way or another, but there was that conversation with a doctor that would pat your knee and ignore your protests (probably thought I was lying) and say, "Now, avoid fried foods and start eating salads." The guy has no clue I was on a constant diet and gained weight anyway. Tell me where the fried foods were?
Thus, it's reassuring to know that's thyroid-related. Once you're on a good nutrition plan and have sought out a good doctor and you're following their prescription and supplement guidelines, those numbers start to improve. The good cholesterol goes where it's most loved just as the bad cholesterol makes you sing Madonna's Borderline.
And no, Cheerios and Oatmeal do not reduce cholesterol. I still eat bacon and all-beef burgers. It's the wheat and carbs that help your bad cholesterol bind together in your bloodstream. I'm sure there's some long, science-vocabulary riddled explanation for all that, but mine's shorter and still just as true.
#4: Meal Planning is Easy
I've been in the same position as most dieters. I have tried calorie counting and fat counting. I've tried reducing the numbers. I've kept food journals to find trends of items that were sabotaging my weight loss efforts. Not as if any of that did me any good. All in all, it mostly likely just stressed me out more and if you don't know it, stress makes your thyroid go a little more haywire and you gain more weight.
For the most part, I don't carb-count. I simply limit my carbs to one meal a day, if that. The other day I felt like such a happy little piggy because I made the CarbQuick Cheddar Bay Biscuits using the recipe on the box. Each biscuit has a 2g carb count and I ate three with some Ox Tail soup my husband wanted to make (he recalled it from childhood and wanted some; he wasn't impressed but I was pleasantly pleased to have bread and soup). I had to hide away the last three biscuits from the double-batch I had made so I could have some for my work lunch the next day. Planning my meals is considerably easier.
#5: Meal Prep is Faster and Easier
I also feel meal prep is easier. The longest part of meals of the past was boiling the water for pasta, rice, or mashed potatoes and then the next phase of cooking the said item. We were always waiting for those items while the meat and any veggies had finished before then. Now, we mostly prep a protein and veggie and we've made dinner in almost no time whatsoever. For lunch today, we made hamburgers with cheese. The girls and my husband grabbed sandwich bread to make theirs and added the sliced tomato and pickles if they wanted some. I had my hamburger with a slice of cheese and the veggies. It was easy. It was fast. Two of my favorite descriptions for any meal.
#6: Easier Weight Loss with Less Effort
I will be the first to tell you that I need to exercise more than I do. I can give you all my excuses with a neat little bow. But I'll tell you one thing, when I was 25 and successfully shed 33 pounds for the first time in my life, I had to work out 5 times a week and do my serious diet Nazi lifestyle. I counted carbs and kept fitness journals. I've lost more weight this time around and weigh less, but I barely get in Just Dance with my children twice a week. I may pick up the hand weights every few weeks (ok, more like perhaps once a month with every intention of making it routine). I verified with the doctor that, yes, housework counts (great, cause that's never ending), but weight loss has never been easier.
If you consider that most carbs are often highly calorie-rich, it makes a lot of sense. Even my vegan daddy will remove carbs from his diet in order to remove the few pounds he's put on. Removing the carbs is basically the same as removing calories from your diet. I just don't have to think too much on how to do it. It just doesn't come near my plate.
#7: More Control over Emotions and Mood
I know my previous emotional roller coaster and mood swings were a direct correlation to a faulty wiring in my thyroid. Gosh, that seems like a lifetime ago. I feel like I have control over the direction of my life and how each day turns out. I can choose the day as a positive one and talk myself around the stress that goes on and find the good in it. That was impossible before. Anxiety, panic attacks, and depression are often related to undiagnosed and untreated health problems. I promise you, if you google any one of those mental health conditions and attach it to many of the common health conditions in our day and age, you'll find the mental health as symptoms of another health issue instead of the diagnosis itself.
#8: Confidence and Clear-headedness
A wonky thyroid messes with your body's ability to process food, stress, and so much else. I know if I eat carbs, I'm going to need an immediate nap and if I'm not home, someone better be ready to drive me home. It was tremendously difficult to go back to my classroom and think, let alone teach. I was useless for several hours and I saw a connection to carbs and a post-lunchtime fatigue and mental fog. Years before my thyroid and hypoglycemia diagnosis, I control my breakfast and lunch as best I could. It was more meals I shared with others that was the challenge and I never spoke up for what I knew as better for me. I never wanted to be that picky, annoying eater.
See how life throws things at you and forces you to do what you try to avoid? I have more confidence now to speak up and say, as politely as possible, that I can't and won't eat that. I'm wise enough to give alternative options. I often volunteer to make a dish for a gathering to make it easier on the host/hostess. I'm growing to have more confidence in my body. I've never minded having curves and I always accepted that I came from a family of rounder women. I find myself hating less of myself in the mirror. I find myself unapologetically saying what I think and feel. I'm encouraged to continue doing so because I find there are many benefits of speaking up - for myself and for the status quo of my family or workplace. Feeling better physically carries over into other areas of your life.
#9: Less Joint Pain
I know this may sound odd if you've never heard it before, but wheat is often the reason why our joints are griping. When my health was at its worse, my daily pain in my leg bones, knee joints, and hip joints was incredible. It limited my mobility. I sat in a stool at work next to an overhead as much as possible so I could think about the lesson and not be distracted by the pain (in my early 30s no less). I don't even have the stool in my classroom anymore, though the overhead still gets turned on each year. I had spent so much money purchasing shoes hoping to find a pair that would finally make the pain go away. It wasn't the shoes. It was the food I was eating and a lack of pharmaceutical assistance for thyroid. I was just unaware at those secrets at the time.
#10: I Count Neither Fat nor Calories
Maybe this is the best reason, maybe it's not. Either way, I enjoy the lack of stress connected with not overthinking my meals. I have this neverending story theme-song to-do list that takes precedence. I haven't given up bacon, red meat, or butter. Then again, I don't need to eat as much to feel full, so there's an automatic portion control that's probably keeping the fat and calorie numbers low anyway. Eating protein, fiber, and fat is the KEY secret ingredient to any diet/nutrition plan. Those three ingredients are what tells your stomach to shut up for hours.
Yesterday, I stayed at work late to grade and read the week's first journals and as I pull up to my house I realize it's been 6 hours since I last had lunch and I wasn't starving. That would NEVER work two years ago or even a year ago (I was slowly healing and it takes a bit). All I had for lunch was leftover Ox Tail soup, which wasn't much portion-wise, and those leftover CarbQuick Cheddar Bay Biscuits (all 6g of carbs). For those curious hearts, that's 90 calories per biscuit (270) and the mostly broth-based soup I ate was maybe another 90? 360 calorie meal sustained me that many hours while I made my tongue numb teaching and then graded and filed papers?
So yes, I don't count fat or calories, but I think it works out better than you'd imagine.
This can't be everyone, but many of us have adopted any kind of diet at any point in our lives with hopes of successful weight loss. Perhaps I can convince you to not adopt a low-carb diet just to lose weight. Pick any of the ones mentioned today in an effort to have a better quality of life in general. Weight loss will just be a pleasant side-effect, but not the only end-product. Celebrate life. Take care of your body so you can celebrate each day that you're given.
Happy Healthy Living!
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