I should tell you that I had way too many carbohydrates weekend before last. Not that I'm limiting my carbs, it's just that I have learned that eating high carb foods causes me to be more hungry and I end up eating more, and then I don't lose much weight.
Earlier this week I shared the modified version of the carrot cake recipe that I made. It was so delicious and divine that I ended up eating the entire batch within three days. It is becoming so obvious to me how sensitive I am to carbs. How does my body know when foods are so high in carbohydrates?
I can tell because I want to eat a lot of the high carb item. I keep wanting to go back for more. If the food is not high in carbs, there is no desire or longing for it. One of my coworkers asked if it wasn't just because I'm not letting myself eat that kind of food, because I'm denying myself. I don't think so because I notice this craving/binging behavior with all high carb foods. It's quite an obvious thing that happens.
Like the cravings I had for the carrot cake muffins… I ate one, and then before I knew it I had eaten four, hot out of the oven. Slathered in butter no less! I was a bit horrified when I went to Calorie Count and did a recipe analysis and discovered I'd consumed almost 4000 extra calories since I ate nearly every muffin myself in three days!
I also bought frozen lima beans because they looked so yummy… and they turned out yummy the way I cooked them. I've never made lima beans like this before. They were frozen and I put the entire 12 ounces into a pan of hot water to help them to unthaw just a bit. While they were in the hot water I melted about a tablespoon of butter in a cast iron skillet and heated it until the butter was bubbly. Then I drained the lima beans and added them to the skillet and sauteed them for a while. They ended up getting just a little bit browned and crispy in some places and oh my goodness they were so delicious.
Did you guess, or I bet you already know. They are high in carbs, too. 18 grams of carbs in one half cup serving, and I ate the entire bag myself. 12 ounces = 2 cups = 72 grams of carbs.
I wondered if I ended up eating so many high carb foods because of the rough weekend I had what with my husband being away and our cat passing.
I don't think I was.
But I do know that I'll need to limit my intake of lima beans and carrot cake if I have any hopes of losing weight this month. I did notice that my pants seemed a bit snugger around the waistline. Well, duh. Consume an additional 1000 calories a day, what do I expect?
This weekend I did a little better than last, except for the fruit I ended up eating. I really don't know what has gotten into me. It seems as if I am losing my grip somehow. It seems like I am throwing all caution to the wind.
I'm still on full GAPS.
I guess I am having issue with something someone told me by email. They told me that the only reason I am losing weight is because I am consuming less calories. We were briefly discussing that book Good Calories, Bad Calories. And during the correspondence the person told me a calorie is a calorie, that my body knows no difference. So I think that is bothering me quite a bit. Because if that is the case, then I do need to cut down on fruit and the candy-like treats I make for myself sometimes. And maybe I need to eat less butter.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just in a recuperative state and need more calories. My pants were a little snug last week, but not tight, and they still fit just fine.
On another subject altogether, my mom is talking more and more about doing GAPS. She really wants to see if she can feel better like I have been. She has changed quite a few things: she has given up artificial sweeteners, margarine, bad oils like soybean oil, mayonnaise made with bad oils, and a few others that I can't remember right now.
My mom used to have this terrible tickle in her throat and she has to carry water and artificially sweetened cough drops with her everywhere she went. She would get this terrible cough. So she found out that two things were causing that tickle in her throat. Number one, she found that soybean oil was doing it. And she tried to start having butter instead of margarine and found that she is sensitive to dairy products. When she got of all soy she then found that having butter would cause her to have that tickle in her throat.
And, my mom's feet have stopped hurting, too! For years and years she would only wear these certain Nike sandals all year round because they were soft and cushion-y and her feet wouldn't hurt when she wore them. So now she finally noticed her feet are no longer hurting. She thinks it is because of going off the soybean oil.
She is still eating her buckwheat pancakes. But she is now trying to eliminate the lunchmeat she has been eating by having chicken and vegetables instead. She's very careful about everything she eats as she doesn't want to gain weight. She is very afraid that she has an eating disorder that will get out of control. But I think she may find that she doesn't have an eating disorder at all, it may just be gut dysbiosis.
One more thing. I killed my water kefir grains AND my milk kefir grains. While I was gone on vacation they neither one were changed into new water/milk for about a week. And it just did them in. So I took my last frozen baggy of kefir grains out of the freezer and we'll see if I can revive this other half like I did earlier in the year.
Well, it is after 10pm. Long past my bedtime. I took a two hour nap today so that is probably why I'm still awake.
‘Night.
When people talk about the body not knowing the difference between good and bad calories, they are being obtuse. In fact, the body will expend the same amount of energy to burn off a calorie no matter what it comes from, but that doesn’t take into account so many other factors. That simplistic and faulty logic is what got us into this food additive nightmare we’re in right now and the prime reason the overall health of each generation of Americans is declining rapidly.
Here are some real facts about the human body:
1. There are studies to suggest that the body tends to store calories from fructose as fat instead of burning it off. (the link between hfcs and obesity)
2. If there is gut dysbiosis involved, there are some foods that are not digested correctly. Why would anyone assume those calories are getting burned from foods that aren’t properly digested?
3. Chemists like to speak of chemicals as if they are identical and they may be outside the human body, but most of them have no understanding how the human body will interact with that chemical. Thus the difference between an allergic reaction to citric acid made from corn and no reaction to citric acid from lemons in a corn allergic person.
4. They are implying that calories get burned in a vacuum, when it is up to the body to decide how and when to burn those calories. If the body chooses to burn calories, they all require the same amount of energy. The catch is that the body will react to certain foods differently and that effects whether it chooses to burn them at all or store them. The person most in touch with how their body functions will be able to manipulate the storage of fat using their knowledge.
5. From a nutritional density or health standpoint, there is no validity to the claim that 100 calories of cookies are equal to 100 calories of grassfed beef. Anyone that tries to maintain a healthy weight using that faulty logic will be starving themselves of nutrients and making their body work much harder to stay functioning than it should. Though it may work in the short term, that strategy fails eventually (sometimes with disastrous results).
That argument always irks me because of its over-simplification of a very complicated problem. It’s just as irritating as those people that say we don’t need to “save the planet” because there is no way humans could kill it, implying we are worried about the planet itself when we are clearly worried about the environment of the planet and its ability to support the inhabitants.
I am completely in love with high carbs, too… mostly honey or sugar. I feel like a heroin addict. No amount of fermented foods can curb my desire. I’m thinking of going high carb/ sugar-free in October. I would so love to nip this in the bud, once and for all. I’m going to see a NAET allergy specialist to treat me for sugar/ carb sensitivity first. I’ll let you know how it goes… Hugs!
KC, thanks for all those great points. You have restored my interest in reading the book by Gary Taubes.
Hi Churyl, do let me know how the NAET treatment goes, and if you are able to go off high carbs and sugar in October. Wait, are you eating sugar while doing GAPS? LOL, sugar is not legal on GAPS! I know you know that. 🙂 I have been eating fruit this month with fairly wild abandon and want to challenge myself to fast from fruit again in October. Maybe we can make a pact together. 🙂