Low Carb Success!

OK, the results are in!

In eleven months, I’ve pulled myself from having mild Type 2 diabetes down to a below a pre-diabetic level through low carb and exercise. I’m still on the high end of normal, but I am now out of pre-diabetes. In fact, she said she was amazed by how much I was able to lower it in the amount of time I’ve been on this plan. My doctor is thrilled with me, and said that my thyroid has also fallen into line (I still need the medication, but my levels are now within normal levels for the first time in years), and several other problematic categories are now MUCH better.

My blood work is looking good. And I’m now walking proof that a low carb diet can not only be a way of life, but that it’s healthy—at least for me. And yes, I have to stay on it, but now it’s become my everyday life. Sometimes it sucks, but so does everything at times.

I’m very pleased that all my hard work has paid off, and I’m so relieved to see that my blood sugar is falling within normal range. And by next year at this time, I can hardly wait to see where I’m at, weight-wise and health-wise. So far, I've lost about 60 pounds and 3 sizes.

And, btw, this is NOT to be construed as medical advice. J

To answer some common questions I’ve been getting:

Q: So, what can you eat?

A: See this post.

Q: What about quinoa noodles? They’re low carb.

A: No, they really aren’t—at 33 net grams of carb per 2 oz dry serving, that’s a good share of my carb allowance for the day. So no.

Q: How many carbs do you eat?

A: Between 30-50 a day. Not a lot, but enough to keep my serotonin levels going.

Q: Isn’t it hard?

A: Sometimes, but not always. It was very hard coming off the sugar and starch, but now, it’s not always that hard. And I’ve developed recipes to help with the cravings that are safe for me to eat.

Q: When can you go off of it?

A: Um…never? I will be able to add in more carbs over the next couple years but I’ll never be able to go back to the high-carb, sugary, starchy diet that piled on the weight and threw me into diabetes in the first place. I make great food, so this isn’t a great loss considering what I’m gaining in health and mobility.

Q: Why don’t know you know exactly how much you’ve lost in terms of pounds?

A: Because I had an eating disorder in the past and scales, at this point, still throw me into that mentality. But clothing’s just fine as an indicator.

Q: Why don’t you eat (fill in the blank)? It’s GOOD for you!

A: Um…I’m allergic to a number of things, I am also following what we’ve determined is best for my body. Thanks but no thanks. My body is not your body and what works for you won’t necessarily be good for me and vice versa.

Q: Do you do Atkins?

A: No, I don’t. I eat more carbs than allowed on Atkins but a lot less than allowed on a number of low-carb diets. I’m not on a ‘named’ diet plan. I’m eating according to what my doctor and I’ve worked out for me.

Q: I wish I had your motivation/determination.

A: I guess you have to be ready to make the change. Nobody can do it for you, nobody can make the changes for you—it takes reaching that point where you just have had enough and are out of your comfort level. For me it was that, and the type 2 diabetes—I was not willing to let that disease hurt me.

Q: Do you take diabetes medication?

A: No, and I have never taken it. And I’m making sure that I never have to.

Bright Blessings,

Yasmine

Deconstructed Low-Carb Pizza

Made a really good casserole tonight that's like a deconstructed pizza. Entire pan has less than 40 carbs AND it's tasty.

1 large eggplant, peeled and diced into bite size chunks
2 cups sliced mushrooms (whatever kind you like)
2 cups cherry tomatoes (slice in half)
4 oz goat feta crumbles
8 oz goat mozzarella
4 oz herbed chevre
4 oz very thinly sliced ham or salami
4 oz very mild pepperoni
(if you want you could add onions, garlic, peppers, etc)

Spray a 13X9 casserole dish (glass) with cooking spray.
Make one layer of the eggplant on the bottom. Spread the mushrooms over the top.
Next, sprinkle the goat feta evenly.
Layer the pepperoni, then the tomato halves.
Crumble the chevre evenly over the dish.
Layer the ham or salami next.
Cover with the grated mozzarella.

Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.
Entire casserole has 28-30 carbs.
Yasmine

Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Shrimp

Yasmine's Cream of Cauliflower-Shrimp Soup

1 head cauliflower, remove leaves, core, and cut into pieces
1 bunch asparagus, remove ends and break into pieces
2 medium zucchini, peeled and diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 bunch green onions, clean and dice
2 cans of shrimp (do not drain)
1/2 cup diced ham
1 quart chicken stock
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp paprika
1/4 cup sherry
2 cups cream OR 2 cups of unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup butter
1 cup grated goat mozzarella OR 1 cup grated non-dairy cheese (that melts)

In stockpot, put: cauliflower, asparagus, zucchini, and chicken stock. Set over med-high heat.

In skillet, heat olive oil, add in carrots, celery, green onions, ham, and herbs. Saute over med-low heat. After about ten minutes, add sherry. Cook for another twenty minutes. Add shrimp and heat through.

By the time the carrot mixture is done, the cauliflower-etc., should be done. Let cool for ten minutes then divide in half and puree in blender. Be careful when blending hot vegetables. After the cauliflower-chicken broth mixture is fully blended, pour back in the stockpot. Add cream, butter, and mozzarella and stir. Add in carrot mixture and stir. Salt and pepper to taste.

Makes...a lot. Probably about 10 servings.
Very low carb. I haven't figured out how many but it isn't going to be much.

Yasmine

Low-Carb Clam Chowder (gluten free, not dairy free)

This is excellent.


Yasmine’s Low Carb Clam Chowder

1 small head cauliflower (white), with leaves, stem taken off, chopped
3 ribs celery, diced
¾ cup diced baby carrots
1 bunch green onions, chopped
6 slices thick-sliced bacon, cut into little pieces (I use kitchen shears)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup clam juice (without sugar)
3 cans chopped clams (drain and rinse to get rid of sugar that is usually in there)
1.5 cups whipping cream
2 tbsp white wine
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp thyme
1½ tsp mild paprika
1 tsp onion powder
2 tbsp butter

In skillet, sauté onions and bacon in olive oil.

Meanwhile, put cauliflower, celery, and carrots into pan and just cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook till soft but not mushy.

When bacon is browned, add herbs, clams, clam juice, wine, and lemon. Turn heat up to med-high and cook, stirring occasionally.

When vegetables are done, drain. Return half of them to the pan, and spoon half of them into a blender and carefully blend to a puree. Be CAREFUL with the blender lid when removing to avoid steam burns.

Add bacon-herb-clam mixture to vegetables in pan. Stir. Add in whipping cream and butter. Stir. Stir in pureed vegetables (this will thicken chowder).

Heat until steaming but not boiling. Add salt to taste. (And pepper—I can’t have it but this would be great with lemon pepper).

Serves 4-6, depending on how hungry you are. Entire recipe contains about 26 carbs.

Low Carb Chocolate Peppermint Cream Pie

I decided I needed to make a holiday dessert I'll be able to eat come Yuletide. What goes together better than chocolate and peppermint? So I came up with a low carb chocolate peppermint pie!

I'm going to work on a lemon pie version tomorrow.

--Yasmine

Crust:

2 cups almond meal
1/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa (I like Ghiradelli's)
1/4 cup Zero or Zsweet or Splenda
1 stick melted butter

Mix well, press into 9" pie plate that's been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove and cool.

Filling:

2 pkgs softened cream cheese
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup Zero or Zsweet or Splenda
1/4 cup sugar free peppermint syrup (Torani's makes a pretty good one)
1/2 cup baking cocoa

Beat cream cheese till fluffy. Add sweetener and syrup. Beat well. Add baking cocoa and beat until incorporated. Add whipping cream in a thin stream, beating on medium until it's all in, then whip on high for 2-3 minutes. Scrape bowl. Whip on high for another minute.

Topping:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup Zsweet or Zero, etc.
1 tsp vanilla

Whip until light and fluffy.

When crust is cool, spread filling evenly in pan. Spread with whipped cream and dust lightly with cocoa powder. Chill.

Makes ten servings at 6 grams net carb each.

On the Path of Goals and Dreams Update for 9/11/2011

Time for an update!

As of tomorrow, I've been on my new way of life for two months. Seems almost surreal to say that, actually, because it almost seems like forever and yet no time at all. A strange sort of mental time warp!

I'm actually doing really well with the food aspect of my Revised Lifestyle :) I bought some coconut flour and tried the coconut muffin recipe Yasmine found. They were good so I need to bake some more. My husband has also started making our own full fat yogurt which ROCKS since I know exactly what's in it and we sweeten it with one of the splenda coffee syrups. Every once in a while I feel like I miss something but if I give it a few minutes, the feeling passes and I'm back to the low carb bandwagon.

I've lost about twelve pounds so far which puts me 11% of the way to my goal. YAY. It's not coming off super-fast but it's coming off. I'm actually hoping the fact it's not too fast will help my skin adapt back to a smaller shape instead of hanging off me. Shrink-to-fit, shrink-to-fit (repeats mantra).

I'm also proud that I'm still on my "No Excuses" six-day-a-week gym plan. I've completed eight weeks without a miss and am now on nine weeks. Scarily enough, I think I'm starting to enjoy it! Not everyday, though. Some days it takes everything I have to get my ass out of bed and off to the gym, but I do it anyway. My resting heart rate is slowing, my heart rate recovery time is getting faster and it takes faster walking to push me into the 120s or so which is my minimum heart rate for "exercise".

I did manage to give myself shin splints by trying to fast but those seem to have mostly resolved now. But, instead of just going for broke again, I'm trying harder to be patient. Yesterday I walked for an hour with 30 seconds of running at each ten minute mark. I'm going to try to keep myself on that pace every other day this week with just walking and no running on the days between.

I won't have my BFF, Jo, take measurements again until next month and we'll see what happens there. Right now I'm still wearing basically the same size but I can tell some differences in how things fit. I certainly have more energy and feel better overall.

Onward!

Body Spirit Saturdays (on a Monday) and Zevia Gelatin Recipe

This past week it hit me, this is for life. The low carb diet has to be for life and there isn't going to be any going back to the way I was eating before. Maybe I'll be able to up my number of carbs later on (I’d like to get to where I can have 75 a day or so—that would seem like such a luxury), but I’ll have to see later. But yeah, this is it. I’m in for the long haul. Once I stepped over the line into mild type 2 diabetes, that was the nail on the coffin lid of my love affair with starch and sugar.

So this week, I decided to really do my research. As you know, I’m currently eating between 30-50 carbs a day. I try to keep it around 40. The thing I miss the most is eating more fruit. I love the taste, the lightness of fruit, and I stare at the produce counters this season, salivating over the peaches and nectarines and watermelon and all good tasting yummies. But fruit has carbs, and while I’ve been eating a lot of berries this year (low carb but pricey), I have had to forego the usual cavalcade of fruit that used to pass by my plate.

But now, yes, this is for life. So I began researching the vegetables I actually like or tolerate well. One is squash. Now, yes, winter squash does have carbs, but I realized I can have a cup of butternut or acorn squash cubes (raw, before cooking), for 14 grams of carb. Add that to a steak or some chicken and a cucumber-tomato salad and it makes what was a boring meal into something that actually FEELS like a meal. With the salad giving you, at the most, 3-4 grams carb, and the meat at zero, your dinner has 17-18 grams of carb.  Craving spaghetti? 2 cups of spaghetti squash will give you 16 grams net carb. Add a meaty-tomato sauce for about 4-5 grams of carb, and you’ve got a spaghetti dinner. And, on a rare occasion, a 7” ear of yellow corn—15 grams of carb—can become a nice change of pace.

And an added bonus. I’ve never been terribly crazy about plain squash, but this weekend I made acorn squash with chicken and a salad for dinner. And that squash tasted SO good to me.

But back to the fruit. Yes, I miss fruit. So I thought about what tastes fruity. And came back to a childhood favorite—Jell-o. But sugar free Jell-o is made with aspartame and—while I will use some Splenda—I will not bring aspartame into the house. So I thought about it and then remembered the Knox gelatin I used to use to make dessert without sugar, by using fruit juice. And then I thought about the Zevia soda we drink and thought, why can’t I do the same using that? So I tried. And my first attempt was pretty good. I’m going to experiment with some different ingredients, add some concentrated raspberry tea (not black tea) to  the mix, try it with Blue Sky sugar-free Root Beer for a fun change, but here’s my first attempt. And it’s gone, so I can’t take a picture of it, but that kind of says it was good enough for me to snarf down.

Sugar Free Cherry-Lemon Gelatin

2 packets Knox unsweetened gelatin

4 cups Zevia black cherry soda (1 cup needs to be very cold)
1/8 cup Splenda (or you can use Z-sweet)
½ tsp lemon extract
2 tbsp lemon juice
 
Pour 3 cups of the Zevia in a saucepan and begin to heat.
Add gelatin to 1 cup ice cold Zevia in bowl. Stir with whisk.
Add in Splenda, lemon extract, and lemon juice. Keep whisking while the rest of the Zevia heats.
Pour hot (not boiling) Zevia into the bowl and continue to whisk until everything is dissolved. Whisk for about 2 minutes.
Place in refrigerator and chill till set. Makes 4 cups.
Carbs: effectively 0.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did. It’s lighter on taste than most gelatin, but it has a rather delicate flavor and oddly enough, reminds me of the rose petal jelly I used to make.

Yasmine