| HEALTH AND FOOD by Mary and Mark
Both of us have struggled with being over-weight all our lives. Back when we were in denial and didn't think about what we were consuming we quickly ballooned up in size or got sick and felt terrible. When we finally started working the problem together we got a grip on it and learned to take control.
Now we have fun eating many delicious things and we know exactly how they fit into our daily diet. Neither of us ever starves or goes hungry, we've identified snacks we love that are more healthy and fit our food guidelines.
We are both closet scientists, Mark is the son of a research chemist, Mary is just plain brilliant, together we have tried many diet options and the only one that works reliably and safely is a combination of counting calories and counting carbohydrates consumed on a daily basis. If you're part of a couple, working this together with your partner can make the process a lot more fun.
ANOTHER DIET?
A diet is not something you go on and off of, it's the sum total of what you're putting in that hole located under your nose. (we actually talk to each other this way at home lol). It is a harsh reality when you realize that a lot of your health depends on what that stuff is that you're eating and maybe more importantly, how much stuff you're eating.
We don't have a fancy name for our diet, it's just based on what's healthy for us and sticking to it.
WHERE TO BEGIN
At first we tracked daily consumption on paper, after a while we learned what we can eat, which things to avoid and which things we can't do without, this helps prioritize what we decide to consume. Removing lethal
HOW MANY CALORIES
Before you can really say what is right for your body you need to consider how many calories you're eating on a daily basis currently. Once you determine that number you can determine if your carb intake is balanced correctly.
HOW MANY CARBS?
After much experimenting we identified a workable relationship between carbs and calories but how many of each is correct? This is just a logical starting point, everyone is different and determining what is right for you is what's important. The first step is to think about it at all, stop denying it.
For us the magic ratio is around 10:1
Calories to Carbs
EXAMPLES
1500 calorie per day diet / 10 = 150 grams of carb allowed
2000 calorie per day diet / 10 = 200 grams of carb allowed
When reading product labels or determining how many carbs you're eating, subtract fibre carbohydrates because fiber is good for you.
EXAMPLE
50 total grams of carb consumed but 12 are fiber, 50-12=38 total grams is what you should write down for your daily consumption.
TRACKING WHAT YOU EAT
The best way to keep track of what you eat is to write down what you eat over the course of the day, every day, then add up the column of calories and the column of carbohydrates. You'll be surprised how fast you get to your daily limit (which you set depending on how much exercise you get).
Make a master list of foods you like to eat, write down the serving size, the calories and the carbs of each food. Knowing the values of everything you're sticking in your pie-hole is always important.
READING PRODUCT LABELS - FOOD CONSCIOUSNESS
The information you need is printed on the label of the food you buy but you need to read it and think about what it says (just a little bit of thinking). Lets look at some of the most important things to consider.
HOW MANY SERVINGS PER PACKAGE?
This is critically important, as an example, if you're eating some beef jerky and it has four servings in a package then you need to multiply the calorie and carbohydrate numbers by four to see how much of each you're really consuming.
HOW MUCH SALT?
The answer to this is easy, as little as you can because no matter how hard you try you're probably eating way too much unless you control your consumption severly due to some other medical condition.
HOW MUCH SUGAR?
This is another easy answer, NONE! If you can get sugar out of your diet that will cut the amount of carbs you're consuming dramatically, you can repurpose those carbs to something you enjoy, like beer! A Super Big Gulp at 7 Eleven is 44oz while the X-Treme Gulp is 52oz. Mountain Dew is a favorite of many people because it has 40% more caffeine and 15% more sugar than Classic Coke . A teaspoon of granulated sugar equals about 4 grams of sugar so a 20oz Mountain Dew with 77 grams of sugar in it is equal to 19.25 teaspoons of sugar or 3.85 grams per ounce. This would mean a Super Big Gulp of 44oz is 169.4 grams of sugar or over 42 teaspoons of sugar in the smallest of the Gulp family. A 52oz X-treme Gulp equals over 200 grams of sugar or about 50 teaspoons of sugar. One teaspoon of sugar equals 4.2 grams of total carbohydrate so a single X-treme Gulp is going to be more than your entire days allotment of carbohydrate on a 2000 calorie daily diet. The 20oz Mountain Dew at 84 grams of sugar is over half of yout total daily allotment on a 1500 calorie daily diet. Even a 12oz regular Mountain Dew is a third of your whole days intake of carbohydrates on a 1500 calorie per day diet. It should be easy to see that soda pop sweetened with sugar is lethal to your diet.
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