The Muffin Man and I are like BFFs. I'm also in a relationship with the Scone Man, the Pasta Man and the Potatoes Man. Don't tell them, but I'm only with them for their carbs.
Carbs and I have been bestest friends since I can remember, so it came as quite a shock when I was told by my doctor that going on a low carb, high protein diet would help my PCOS. Along with PCOS, I have insulin resistance which means my body doesn't break down the sugars I ingest, saving them as a spare tire around my midsection.
Some back story: At my first appointment, Dr. B prescribed Metformin to counteract my insulin resistance and started me out at 500 mg/day. It slowly increased to 1000 mg/day and then up to 1500. Up until the 1000 mg, Metformin hadn't given me too much of a hard time, just some mild nausea. I had also lost about 15 pounds over the course of a few months. However, once I started on the 1500 mg/day, all hell broke loose. I was so nauseous that I couldn't force myself to eat. If I did eat, my body wouldn't hold onto the food and it was coming out in as diarrhea an hour later (sorry, TMI.) In between appointments, approximately 6 weeks, I had lost over 12 pounds. My doctor was happy that I had lost so much and predicted a 50 pound weight loss over the course of a year. However, I knew that the only reason I had lost so much in such a little amount of time was the fact that I wasn't eating. I bought up my concerns to Dr. B, and even though he increased my Metformin dosage to 2000 mg/day, he allowed me to split it up into two 1000 mg dosages to try and decrease the nausea, and it worked! Over the course of about a week, I began to feel hungry again, something I hadn't felt in months. I was so happy that I was eating again that I wasn't sticking to my low carb diet. In another 6 weeks, I had gained back 5 pounds which was noticed at my last appointment. Dr. B wasn't happy about the weight gain and strongly suggested that I start back on the low carb diet and exercise at least 30 minutes a day.
So, here's where you ladies come in. I need suggestions for recipes that are preferably low-ish carb. I know myself, and I know that there is no way that I could cut out carbs entirely. I know that I can't live on a diet of meat and vegetables; I'll do that for a dinner or two, and then relapse into my old carb eating ways. I need moderation. The other problem is that I'm a picky eater. I'm not as bad as I was when I was younger, but I definitely have my favorite foods. I'm not a huge fan of meat in general which makes the "high protein" part of this diet difficult. I'll eat chicken and beef, but I don't like pork, fish or seafood (much to Keegan's dismay.) I don't like lunch meats which means that sandwiches are a no-go for lunch. For breakfasts, I typically make mini-muffins on Sundays and have one or two for breakfast throughout the week paired with some fruit. However, Dr. B considers fruits and most vegetables as carbs as well which makes things all the more difficult.
I know this is a lot of information, and it boggled my mind when I first read all of things I can and cannot eat. I'm just basically asking if any of you have some favorite recipes, let me know. I've gotten to the point where I'll try anything once. I'd love to continue losing weight both for my health and vanity reasons, and I'm sure a low-ish carb diet would help Keegan as well. Because of my love affair with carbs, I've had a lot of difficulty with this diet. Carbs are easy and I know I like them, so I automatically gravitate towards them. I need a new BFF and cast Carbs to the side.
Thank you in advance! <3
Seriously, get out of my brain! I could have written this myself. In fact, I was going to write something similar today. Maybe I'll just C&P yours lol! Carbs are my BFF. Don't tell my husband, but I may love them as much as I love him.
ReplyDeleteI agree there is no way I could get them out entirely. What then would be the point of living? I like chicken and pork but only occasionally eat beef and can't stand any seafood. I'm sort of a picky eater in general but it's not as bad as I used to be.
A few years ago I got three cookbooks all by Dana Carpender. One is a general recipe book, one is 15 minute meals, and the other is slowcooker recipes. One thing I look for in other recipes are a close to equal amount of carbs and protein. Remember fiber doesn't count so subtract that from the total carbs!
One of my favorite truly low carb meals is chicken lettuce wraps which is in the 15 minute meals book. It's so good and you really don't miss the carbs. In fact the local Chinese takeout place has a similar dish and I often chose to get that even if I could get something like lo mein instead.
My DH loves chinese food so we do a lot of stir fry. Just get a bag of frozen stir fry veggies and some cubed chicken breast and some bottled teriyaki or whatever you like sauce, skip the rice.
These are two recipes I found online that I've got on my current shopping list. http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=23245 (but made with ground turkey) and http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=593315 which I'm going to freeze in lunch sized portions. They aren't really low carb but they're lower carb which is good enough lol.
Breakfast is hard for me. There just aren't that many low carb options that aren't also a lot of work. We've started to get greek yogurt for the extra protein and I'll also boil a bunch of eggs at one time to eat throughout the week. I'd really like to try those green juice things but I just don't have the equipment to make them.