Yikes! Little Things Big Results

Posted on April 15, 2013 | 2 Comments

Here’s the kind of thing that happens when you are monitoring your blood glucose: I had two big free range chicken breasts and in my fridge was a bottle of chipotle-something marinade, which had 10 grams of sugar per 2 Tbs. So I smeared some on each and put them in the oven. They were delicious. But this morning when I did my first BG test I had a jump of 18points–yikes! I immediately threw out the rest of that sauce. Sometimes you don’t realize that things can have a bigger reaction that you think, but since that was the only food I ate that could have contributed to the increase, I know it was that sauce.

My BG is decent, though on the high end of normal, and I want it in the middle of normal– or lower. But I’m convinced that monitoring my BG fairly regularly these last three years has made a big difference.

I recommend to anyone, regardless of health, fitness, age, or weight to do some regular BG monitoring, because what you do now may mean the difference it what happens down the road. I wish I had started 15 years ago.

Yours in keeping on top of problems,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

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N-1 Experiment

Posted on April 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

Inspired by DietDoctor.com, Dr. Eenfeldt, I begin tomorrow morning monitoring urine and blood ketones as well as blood sugars morning and evening.  He had some great results, as did Jimmy Moore at livinlavidalowcarb.com. I’m curious if a menopausal late middle-aged woman will get the same results.

Yours in testing,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

16 Apr – Gradually getting the numbers up, and bg is generally fine, but had  scare yesterday on one of my meters which was fine today; could be some contamination on the strips might have been the cause. I remember spilling them when I first go the bottle. Who know? It was good reminder that I don’t want BG that looks like that.

19 Apr- Had 6 hours uninterrupted sleep, which is rare for me, and I feel terrific today.  My BK is steadily going up, stand at 1.0 now, and I want to get in thr 2.0-3.0 range. My BG is upper normal.

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Posted in experiment, ketones

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Illness and Food

Posted on April 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

My house has been plagued by the flu this past few weeks, first one then the other of us, so we have been pretty wiped out. Biggest lesson learned:Don’t go to the Apple store on a Saturday. We rarely go to a mall, even less rarely go on a weekend, so when my spouse decided we needed to upgrade the gadgets, we went without considering the high volume of germs on all those lovely displays. We got sick within 48 hours of the visit.

Food and illness is not often discussed, other than the old adages I grew up with about starve a fever, and feed a cold. The first part is actually on target. If we pay attention to other animals, especially pets like cats and dogs, they don’t eat when they are sick or injured, though they will drink water. When we are sick or injured our bodies need to focus our energies on healing, not digesting food; so in general it is better to stick to broth type soups if we have anything. I made some yogurt from raw cream which has been my main nourishment.

I did notice some cravings for starch, but was able to satisfy them with some coconut butter and pineapple balls.

We rarely get sick being on such a good low-carb, mostly organic and grassfed/wild diet, but the upside to illnesses like the flu is that you do build up immunities.

Yours in good health,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

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Posted in cravings

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Avoid Substitute Treat-Foods Like the Plague

Posted on March 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

One of the most common things you read on no-sweet, low carb, paleo-primal, and all other such blogs, is all the ways to make substitutes for all the junk/gluten/sugar/starch treats people have had trouble with before, and will keep having trouble with by trying to cook up faux treats.

I know some people seem to have control over these, but most do not, especially not anyone who identifies with being a sugaraholic. Trying to create faux sweets and other such substitutes  is the epitome of trying to eat your cake and have it, too. Just doesn’t work. If you would eat a whole batch of regular cookies, chances are very good you will eat a whole batch of faux treats.

The best, smartest, and EASIEST way to get over a problem with sweets/carbs is to turn your back on them. You don’t need them, they don’t taste that good anyway, and if your bigger goal is to be healthy, slim, and free of the cravings, then give up the substitutes.

I’ve had to learn this the hard way; my weight loss would stall using almond bread, for example. Not surprising really, since bread, cookies, and cakes made with almond flour are very high calorie, and often hard on the digestive system. Plus, these foods also can lead to binges on the real thing, since you keep in your mind the idea of bread, cookies, candy, etc.

I’m not an absolutist about diet, so if you can in fact find a couple of things you can enjoy as desserts and not over use them, that’s great. For me ice cream is something I can make that is very satisfying and I’m happy with a small serving.

The psychology of food and eating is very important, and needs to be understood alongside the desire to eat well. Someone came up with the acronym JERF, for just eat real food; that’s the best goal. Eat real food and keep the idea of treats as something rare and even unnecessary.  My present goal is to be an A-1 Jerf-er, and keep away from the temptations that are purely replacements for the old sugary-starchy foods. If we have learned anything about substitutions, and we know from studies on the effects of artificial sweeteners, that people actually eat more, and gain more weight in diets high in them.

My advice: avoid substitutes like the plague. Eliminating such food will make our lives far easier, and we will be leaner and healthy for it.

Yours in learning,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

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Posted in binges, cravings, sugar addiction, sweets

Want to Be Free of Cravings: Give it 5-6 Months

Posted on March 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

You want to be free of the horrible cravings. We all do, and that is the hardest part for most of us. For we can do very well for weeks and weeks, then one cookie can set us off on two days to two months of uncontrolled eating. Many different people from Dr. Wolfgang Lutz, to more recently Michael who was on Abel James’ recent podcast, report it takes a consistent several months to eventually move from pure will power to losing the desire for the junk (whatever “junk” is for a given person).

As I’ve written about before, the old brain, or limbic brain, or some call it lizard brain, has had millions of years evolving long before our big frontal lobes developed and we became these awesome thinking creatures we are now; which is why lizard brain which I termed for myself the Kraken, is huge and powerful and easily overwhelms the wee thinking brain/mousey will power if Kraken gets let loose. So even if you have gone for weeks without exceeding, for example 20 carbs a day, one carby meal lifts the steel door and the Kraken emerges to ravage the self-control we think we have. Will power is mostly myth, real power is learning how to stay in charge, giving the mouse-like thinking brain control over the steel door, as it were.  The only way for sugaraholics to do that is to stay away from the sugars-starches-artificial sweets that give power away to the Kraken monster who gets bigger, stronger, and ever more powerful with every bite of high carb food.

BUT, given enough time, at least 5+ months, we one day quit thinking about or wanting the formerly addictive foods. That’s a terrific plus, and reason enough to be faithful to the program.

Yours in faith,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

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Posted in cravings, will power

Sugar is the Problem

Posted on February 28, 2013 | 1 Comment

Today’s New York Times has yet another article on the problems of sugar in the modern diet.

Since 1985 the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes has quintupled, which is just the most obvious effect of the similar increase in sugars in virtually every kind of food that is prepared by the industry food giants. They intended to make people addicted to their food, and succeeded wildly.

This past week I was out at meetings most of the day and on the way home passed a Kentucky Fried Chicken store, and thought about the fact that I had not eaten any KFC in years, and decided to take home some of the chicken and coleslaw, thinking we could take off the breading and it would be within my carb margin of error. The first bite was a shock, for the chicken didn’t at all taste like I remembered it, and was in fact quite cloyingly sweet; even though I peeled away almost all the outside breading, but you could still taste the sweet–and excess salt. The coleslaw was also very sweet, and I threw out the bulk of the meal.  It was not just that the food was sweeter, but it was a different sort of sweet which I take to by corn syrup. I know my palate is now used to very little sweet of any kind, but that alone does not account for the bad taste, not just sweetness.

I also paid the price later in the day with gut issues, so I doubt I will ever be entering a KFC again.

I always think about how rare it was to see anyone grossly obese in the 1950-70s, and how very common it is now. Things have most certainly changed, and the main change is sugar-starch-artifical sweets in all packaged and prepared foods.

Yours in discovery,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

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Posted in artificial sweeteners, eating out, sugar, sugar addiction, sweets

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Company! Reality!

Posted on February 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

I just had five non-paleo females, three of them pre-teen girls, visiting for the last week, and decided this was the time to use my 10% non-paleo foods. I know some people can be 100% HFLC, but for most of us a concession of 10-20% of eating as non-hflc  makes life a bit easier. Now I can get back to my normal hflc I will be happier. No use having regrets, and it made life simpler to have meals that had food company would enjoy while not totally sacrificing my healthy paleo/hflc ethic.  I made a gf dessert that’s on my recipe blog, we  also had bread products (at least organic) tha the kids want, but the main dishes, salads, vegetables all were good hflc offerings.

The fact is I feel better when I don’t eat non-hflc foods, but the occasional exceptions only remind me how much better I feel when I don’t eat such foods. Company is now gone, the house is cleared of the foods I shouldn’t eat, and I don’t feel a martyr because I ate some sugars,  for feeling good about how we deal with reality is important, too.

Yours in finding balance,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

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Posted in company, kids

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