I Am A Carb Addict

I am Week One into a whole body Contro | Alt | Delete.

I've put myself on the New Atkins Low Carb diet, which not NOT the same as the original Atkins diet, to shed a few pounds but more importanltly, to kick my carb addiction once and for all. This means I must stop living on some of most my favorite foods - the white foods - pasta, potatoes, rice, bread, flour and sugar. These carbs are making me feel sick. They're a quick fix in the way of "Mmmmm that taste's SO good" but then an hour later I am in a carb slump. These less than healthy carbs are also preventing me from shedding the 15 pounds I have been talking about losing for about 2 years now. How do I know this? How am I so sure the carbs are the problem? There is a remarkable difference in how I feel when I get rid of those bad carbs. I have more energy, less headaches, less mid-day slumps and I have shed 4 pounds. In a nut shell, my blood sugar is stableized, and that's a BIG deal.

Quick blood chemistry lesson: When we eat, our pancreas secretes the horomone insulin into our bloodstream because our cells can not convert food into usable energy without insulin (Diabetics who are born this way take insulin shots. This is not all that common). Carbs are quick energy. Immediate energy. But not sustainable energy. Our bodies are in a constant state of seeking "homeostasis" which is a fancy word for balance; so when there are no carbs available in the bloodstream, our bodies look for proteins, followed by fats, to manufacture energy and drive the body bus. So what happens if you are living on carbs? It's a viscious cycle. You eat carbs, and your pancreas shoots out insulin. The carb is used up quicker than it takes for the insulin to exit, so in another couple hours your brain tell you that you are hungry, but you are not metabolically hungry, that's just the insulin talking. So, if you do what most people do, including myself, you reach for a snack which is most often another carb. Boom! Your body got what it craved, but guess what, you need more insulin to take that carb down. So your pancreas secretes more insulin. The problems comes in here: After a while (years) it takes more and more and more insulin to handle the same carb/metabolic function and voile! You have gained belly fat. You feel like shit a lot of the time. Your energy level is low. You can't lose weight. You are now "insulin resistant". What does insulin resistant mean? Your pancreas has given you the middle finger, it's sick of working this hard, and it shuts down. Insulin resistance is the medical term for Type 2 Diabetes. Welcome to the world of diabetes. Google that, it's one of the very scariest and most debilitating diseases. It will kill you; a slow death, complete with impotency and amputations if you don't NOW get your eating habits into check. Your body has spoken, pay me now? Or pay me later.

We have control over whether or not we become diabetic.

The suggestion that "Low Carb" as the way we should be eating is not at all accurate. It will not solve the problem of yo-yo dieting which is SO unhealthy. You're better off to hang on to a few extra pounds than to yo-yo diet, fad diet, fast, all those quick fix things that never address the real problem of why you can't keep the weight off. The more correct way to look at carbs are we should be eating the Right Carbs. This blog is already too long so I will not launch into that topic other than to say, we should be eating low glycemic index carbs: ie: whole grains, fruits and veggies.  

Atkins has me on a 20 net carb per day restriction for 2 weeks, and let me tell you, it's difficult to find healthy choices. I have limited saturated fats in my diet as well, so it's tricky to find foods to enjoy right now. But I found this kick-ass low carb recipe yesterday, and I want to share one with anyone else looking to get on the Right Carb train with me. 

Thai Burgers
1.5 lbs ground pork1.5 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp Sriricha (or more if you like a kick)
4 scallions
4  fresh mushroom, chopped fine
1 Tbsp soy sauce (can substitute fish sauce)
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped fine
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/3 cup real mayonaise, not Miracle Whip

Place all but the lime juice and mayo in a large bowl and combine. Shape into 6 patties. Grill 7 minutes. In the meantime, combine the mayo with the fresh squeezed lime juice. Serve the pattie with a dollup of the lime mayo. Serve burger style between 2 big iceburg lettuce leaves.  Good news --> each burger has 3 Net Carbs and Protein 24 grams