http://www.healthrecovery.com/HRC_20...n.htm#lowCarbs

The Low Carbohydrate Hypoglycemic Diet
The object of the low carbo diet is to reduce your intake of insulin-triggering carbohydrate foods. Without insulin to plunge your blood sugar into a hypoglycemic state your brain will stop signaling wildly to resupply its fuel (sugar). Once this happens, you will see your sugar cravings stop. This diet requires keeping track of how many grams of carbohydrate you eat. Usually seventy-five grams is adequate to control sugar cravings. You may be able to load up to one hundred grams, or if you are extremely carbohydrate sensitive, you may only get by with fifty grams a day of carbohydrates. Your body will decide for you.
Shoppping Tips For Everyone

• Choose foods that are as close to their natural state as possible: fresh vegetables and fruits; fresh meats, fish, chicken, and eggs; raw nuts and seeds; and fresh salad greens.
• Avoid canned, processed, dyed, chemically flavored, frozen, additive-laden foods.
• If you can't find millet bread or brown rice bread at your supermarket, try a food cooperative. Some health-food stores also carry these whole-grain substitutes for wheat bread. Before you buy rye or oat bread, read the label. Wheat is usually the first ingredient listed.
• Don't buy roasted nuts. The process of high-heat roasting causes undesirable changes in the natural oils the nuts contain. In the body, this altered oil can promote formation of free radicals, dangerously unstable molecules capable of damaging healthy tissue and promoting the development of cancer. Choose only raw nuts and seeds.
• Pass up luncheon meats (spam, bacon, ham, bologna). They are loaded with refined sugars and cancer-causing nitrates.
• You can find fruit-sweetened jams at a food co-op or health food store.
• Drink flavored sparkling water (read the label to confirm that it is sugar free).
• Cut your salt intake by using lite salt, which is half potassium (needed for cellular energy) and half sodium.

Meal Preparation Tips

• Peel fruits and vegetables or remove outer layers to avoid pesticide residues.
• Steam your vegetables (if you cook them in water, you will lose much of their vitamin and mineral content). You can get a steamer that fits inside any pot in most house wares departments. Cook vegetables until they are almost tender, not soggy.
• Raw vegetables are your best choice; they also make excellent snacks.
• Use fruit juice on cereal if you don't have soy, rice, or goat's milk. (The ban on cow's milk is only a temporary measure until you have had your allergy test.)
• Keep a lot of assorted nuts, sunflower seeds, apples, oranges, carrot sticks, celery, and other raw vegetables on hand for snacking.

How Much Time Before I Feel Good?
At Health Recovery Center, we see client progress as having three stages:

Stage 1. Withdrawal from refined sugars. "I'm so wiped out and tired all the time," You are getting a look at your REAL energy levels without artificial stimulants. This usually lasts one week to ten days.
Stage 2. Improvement noticeable but NOT CONSISTENT. You will experience periods during the third and fourth weeks when many days are greatly improved but your newfound energy and stability are not consistent.
Stage 3. Improvement is marked; stability and mental clarity are ongoing. "My energy is fabulous. I've turned into a health nut, but it's worth it." It is common to have this happen by or after the fourth week on the diet.

It's Your Choice
One last word about diets and food. It takes a little reprogramming to select what goes in your mouth for its ultimate value rather than the sixty-second taste it has. You can build vitality; energy, mental clarity, top-notch health or you can choose the short-lived sweet tastes of sugars.
The only way to fight your cravings for refined sugars is not to eat ANY at all. Even a little turns on intense thoughts of more, more, more that last all day and you see yourself trading your mental equilibrium and competitive edge for colas, cookies, candy and ice cream.
Now this nonsense is over. Now with every passing day you will be growing more stable and healthy. You are about to discover many other ways to perk up besides caffeine and refined sugars. There are so many remarkable substances that you can put in your mouth to make yourself feel better. So many amazing chemicals from our own "natural pharmacy" that can create and keep the balance you seek. The next section tells you all about them and what they can do for you.

Thank you so much for that, Bizi! I have been living that method for 17 years and it has made a huge difference in my whole life.

I have never been at my "ideal" weight... unless you count birthweight... and I had to make some decisions and stick to them. That article is exactly what I arrived at as my goal, and later, my success.

Thank you again!!!

thank you.
that was an excellent post and gives solid great ideas.

thanks again.

bizi,

can you have matzah?

Lo carb does work. It has for me in the past and could work again now...if I could get myself back on it.

dear nurse nancy,
Mtza is made from white flour?
They want you to eat high fiber foods...like low calorie breads that are high fiber.
natures sown makes a double fiber low calorie bread that only has 5 carbs per slice of bread.
They also make a high fiber low carb tortilla, when I am following this diet those two items are my bread sources, sandwiches, wraps etc.

If you are counting carbs then remember that you get to subtract the fiber carbs from your food items total carbs...make sense?
so my slice of bread that has 10 total carbs also has 5 grams of fiber so that is an end net of 5 carbs per slice of bread.


bizi

If memory serves me (and it seldom does) the dr. that wrote the South Beach Diet said if you have to eat bread (and he doesn't think you ever should) you should eat sourdough bread because it is so dense and takes much longer to digest...you feel full for a much longer period of time.

This of course is not during the terrible first two weeks (the terrible twos)
when you can't have much of anything and absolutely no alcohol!! sob, gasp!

I am determined to try this diet when I get back home....reaches for the popcorn...later for the ice cream.

thanks bizi,

nother Q?
my nutritionist recommended saralee delightful bread.
i'm buying the white but the first ingredient says wheat flour.
one slice has 45cals, 9carbs, and 2gm of fiber.

any good?
i printed out the whole article.
thanks again.

dear nurseNancy,
that bread sounds great...net carb is 7 if you do the math and maybe it tastes better than the natures own brand which is really kind of like card board...but it is high fiber and a bread that is "safe to eat".
white bread is not as nutritious as wheat breads IMO.
Good luck in all of this.
When I was doing the low carb diet I really took into consideration calorie contents as well...because it really does matter also.
It has to make sense.
Eating more healthy is the goal, moderation is key.
learning when to stop eating, after 20 minutes so eat more slowly.
Only eating a boxed lunch that has 220 calories/so many carbs won't fill me up for very long...the south beach has a wrap that is really good, they are the asian chicken with crunchy noodles and whole wheat small tortillas, chicken and a jelllo. They are very good...and substantial... But will only hold me over for so long because they are only 220 calories. But add your veggies, a hard boiled egg, a small handful of almonds than it would be enough...and more nutritious. The boxes are great for when you want to eat something fast instead of grabing that granola bar with the same number of calories and tons of sugar...and they fit in a gym bag to eat instead of grabbing that latte at the coffee/snack bar.
bizi

Thanks Bizi for info...gonna print it out so I can remember. froggie