DMZur's Journal, 05 June 2016

Try to increase your protein and good fats, perhaps an egg or two and some bacon or sausage (I use Turkey to cut down on the saturated fat) for breakfast. Looks like you are making slow but steady progress in losing weight, so you are doing some things right, just a matter of fine tuning things for things that work for you. 

Please excuse me, but I'm going to be very direct: You're doing well in your weight loss, but if you want to make permanent progress, it's important for you to get "hipper" about nutrition. First, all oatmeal is not created equal. The McDonald's oatmeal you're eating has 53 net carbs. The instant oatmeal I eat regularly has 23 net carbs. In general, any meal you eat in a quick-service restaurant is going to have too many carbs and too much sodium and too much bad fat and too many calories. But there is a big difference between eating bread and pasta or any white wheat flour product and eating oatmeal -- or at least oatmeal you make yourself -- because one if a simple carb and the other is a complex carb, one is high glycemic and the other is relative low glycemic. But it's important to look at other carbs in your diet: Applesauce (12), Corn (10), Sundae Shp (14), Twizzlers (10+). All these food suck up calories and carbs. I'm not saying get rid of all of them, because I don't think that's realistic. But I'm suggesting that if you start learning where the carbs are hanging out in your diet, then you can make some choices each day about where you want to "invest" those carbs. If you want to have ice cream, then maybe you'll want to skip the Twizzlers and the corn. Have a peach instead of the Twizzlers and a half cut of brown rice instead of the corn -- or even better, an extra portion of green vegetable instead of the corn. The more you learn about nutrition and the more you get used to a diet lower in carbs, the better your chances of continuing to lose and keeping the weight off. I admire your hard work, and I hope you don't mind the advice. Good luck.  

One more thing -- you may well find that if you cut back on the simple carbs in your diet and bump up lean protein and green veggies, you'll actually be able to eat more total calories, while continuing to lose the same amount of weight.  

Don't be discouraged. The tools available with this site help us to see where these carbs come from. When I started I was eating rice, potatoes, and bread coated chicken and fish. I soon learned to trade off those to get my carbs down. It was a slow process for me. Who knew five months into this I'd be eating avocados straight up. Lol. 🕊 

I'd like to thank all of you for your helpful comments. HM I understand some of what your saying about carbs. Yes it will be my choice on which ones I eat. That's why you'll see corn on the cob in my summer menus, but when I eat corn will eliminate Sundae Shoppe and/or Twizzlers. I'm going to make a copy of what you said carbs to remind me. Thanks again :)  

Eventhough I do agree with HM on the complex carbs, you're already on, what's considered, a "low carb diet" (your net carb intake is less than 150 grms per day). You should try to get your fat (good fats, add, for example, a spoon of olive oil to your dinner salad, instead of the sugar loaded fat free dressing that you're using now) and protein up. Yes. This will get your calories up, but you're quite low on calories now. And by getting them up with fats and proteins, you'll see that the percentage of your carbs will go down, without changing your carb intake. You're doing great, by the way!! Keep it going. :) 

Hi DMZur, sometimes it can be a struggle trying to figure out what to eat, what not to eat. If you were to enter food in your calendar before eating you can tweak your meal if you see that maybe there is a better choice option than what you originally had planned to eat. This can help give you a better idea of what foods are better choices, and what foods you might consider limiting or moderating before you eat them. I get the impression that you are looking to eat moderate carbs; look for the healthier carbs found in real foods and become aware of which real foods have higher carbs. Starches, grains, most fruits and anything with added sugar will be your higher carbs foods. It will get easier and in no time you might be eyeballing a high carb sweet and opt for berries and whipped cream instead. 

Dietdoctor.com  

Yes -- it will definitely get easier. One thing I found helpful was to go back and review my food diary throughout each month, and I still do that actually. I look at the list view, and then I review the diaries for the days when my calories or carbs were especially high or especially low, and that helped me remember what combinations of foods across the day would lead to a bad day or a good day. So now it's easier for me to plan breakfast and lunch on days when I'm going out for dinner or vice versa. This is hard work, but you are doing well. By the way, I agree with sachakay about the salad dressing. Bottled dressing is a disaster -- regular is always too high in calories and diet is too high in sugar and slimy thickeners. You can make wonderful creamy dressings based on non-fat yogurt, or make yourself a yummy vinaigrette with olive oil and vinegar. Good luck! 

If you are going to eat oatmeal, don't eat it from Mcdonalds. I eat oatmeal every now and then, but I prepare it myself from raw oats. Rolled oats have a low glycemic index, quick oats have a medium glycemic index and instant oats have a high glycemic index. Sounds like you got that latter with Sugar added. Hard to find good choices in Mcdonalds.  

Thanks to all of you for the info on carbs. I'm adding it to my file on carbohydrates. I may absorb some of this yet; if I read it over 100 times. LOL I really want to know it better, because my family has a history of Type2 Diabetes. Hug to all of you! 

DMZur, my family does too and I am trying to avoid the pits they fell into. Your family history is pretty much a guide for you. I find there's nothing better than making and preparing your own food. Then you have a better control over what exactly you are eating.  

DMZur -- I started learning about low glycemic eating when my fasting blood sugar came in at 125 because my dad's family all had Type 2. Sure enough, a low glycemic diet not only lowered my FBS but also my A1C, lowered my triglycerides and cholesterol, and began taking off the weight. Now it's my way of eating not a diet, and I really feel set for life. I am honestly not afraid of gaining this weight back because now I know how to eat. Keep on keeping on.  

Good information. Old Fashioned Oats is better, Steele Cut is the best. I love oatmeal so I won't cut it out completely. Right on about low glycemic foods helping us to lose weight and lower blood sugar. Type 2 diabetes and gal bladder disease rind in my family on both sides so I'm going to get both weight and sugar down. And cholesterol.  

BTW - another great option is Quinoa+Oats cereal from Arrowhead Mills. The cool thing about it is that not only does it make a great hot cereal option for breakfast, but I also use it to substitute for potatoes. I make it up like cheese grits with seasoned salt and shredded cheese, and it makes a great accompaniment for dinner. You can slice up some turkey ham on top of it and it's delicious.  

I don't know where to start in responding to all of your post. I don't want to make excuses, but I have one big problem. That's having to feed my husband too. He's given in as far as milk and margarine; going from whole milk to skim. My whipped potatoes are made with half the margarine than before and skim milk instead of whole milk. I can try the Quinoa+Oats for my breakfast, but never as a substitute for potatoes. It really does sound good. When it comes to eating out, I have got much say so. He signs up for every Dutch treat they have. I admit I should come home after church on Sunday and make my own Oatmeal. I do have a box of Quaker Oats and a box of grits and I do buy fresh fruit. I have apples peaches and blueberries (I picked last fall and put in the freezer. I've just been lazy. I've been eating the apples and 1 peach. When it comes to the blueberries; it's out of sight out of mind. Promise will do better. I intended to make my own oatmeal this Sunday and won't eat the ice cream or Raspberry cream bars as often. I really do appreciate your help. I'm going to copy some more of you suggestions to my healthy eating file. I made a printout yesterday for my TOPS folder, so I don't have to look it up when I want to read it. Do you mind if I share it with some of the diabetic TOPS members? I haven't yet, but want to. Thanks again. 

You're doing fine. But just be careful not to fall into the "low fat trap." Mashed potatoes with margarine and skim milk are still mashed potatoes, except now when add the margarine, you have to be careful you aren't adding hydrogenated fat/trans fat, which is much worse for you than butter. You and I come from a generation in which the whole time we were growing up and coming of age, everyone kept haranguing us about fat. It wasn't some vast conspiracy as some people argue -- it was just based on science as it was known then. But it turns out all the experts were wrong. What we really needed to do was to cut out carbs and especially sugar, because the more fat they took out of the food, the more carbs got added, and the more obesity and diabetes emerged in our population, especially among post-menopausal women. I feel so lucky that I've learned about low-glycemic eating before it was really too late. In the long run, I think it will save my life. I've learned to eat out very successfully: I have vegggies and salad and no starch with my entrée, and I have berries or cantaloupe for dessert. After a while, you just get used to it. BTW, I've also been in situations where I have to eat at McDonalds because of business. I order a plain green salad with no dressing and two grilled chicken sandwiches, with mayo and mustard on the side. I take apart the sandwiches and throw out the bun, put the chicken on top of the salad, and mix together the mayo and mustard and put some on the salad. It actually tastes pretty good. And while it's a rather large sodium load, it's not going to kill me so long as I don't do it every day. Most restaurants have options that work, and it's just a matter of getting used to a new routine and gradually learning about nutrition.