Weight-Loss 30/30/30+10????

Weight-Loss

treehugger

New member
I've been tracking my diet for about a week now and I'm not doing as well as I thought I was. My carbs have been in the mid to high 60% range, instead of the suggested 30% or even 40% if that's where I used the other 10%.

Does it matter at all if they are "good" carbs or is a carb a carb? Unless I start having salads for dinner too (I have them for lunch every day) I'm not sure how to get them out of there.

(I know the obvious answer here is to stop eating them, silly)

I might be just venting, I'm not sure. I'm always in search of the perfect vegetarian diet. It's just hard to pull it all together.....:svengo:
 
It is SOOO hard for me to cut out carbs!!!! I have the same problem. I could eat all carbs. haha!

Sorry thats not a solution, but I FEEL FOR YA!!! haha
 
Well good carbs are better than bad carbs, but I'd say you should try to drop them some - at least to the 50% range. What are some of the things you're eating? Maybe we can make some suggestions to reduce carbs and add some other good stuff. :)

And btw, I do sympathise. I'm not veggie, but I could still live off of bread, pasta, and potatoes if it were possible. :) That's my weakness.
 
Ok, I went and looked at your journal and I can see where the carbs are coming from. :) The good news is that I think overall your diet is REALLY healthy, other than being a bit carb heavy. But they seem to be good carbs for the most part, so that's also good news.

So just a few thoughts:

Fruit juice is (IMO) wasted calories and carbs for the most part. :) And orange juice is probably the most carb heavy juice out there. Here's a list of juices and the amount of carbs they contain:
apple juice, unsweetened - 29g
cranberry juice - 36g
grape juice - 19g
grapefruit juice - 11g
lemon juice - 20g
lime juice - 23.5g
orange juice - 26g
pineapple juice - 34g
tomato juice - 5g
As you can see, if you MUST have juice, you're better off going for grapefruit juice, tomato juice (or V8). But really you're better off eating a whole orange than drinking a glass of OJ - with the whole orange you get more fiber and more protein than from just the juice. That's not to say I never drink fruit juice. I do sometimes have OJ for a post workout snack. I add a scoop of protein powder, which makes it the perfect combination of carbs/protein for post workout.

I noticed that you have croutons in your salad and those will add carbs as well.

Also you mentioned a low-fat dressing - the way that low-fat dressings stay flavorful is by adding sugar - i.e. carbs. Also a poppyseed dressing is going to be more carby than, say, an Italian dressing - one is sweet, one is not. In general, store bought dressings are going to be high in carbs. You're better off making your own dressings and vinaigrette when you can - it'll save on carbs and artificial ingredients.

Oh, and the curried soup? Did you make that yourself or is it store bought? If it's packaged, it probably has a good bit of sugar or sweetener in it as well, which translates directly into carbs.

I noticed also that the fruit that you're eating is fairly high carb - pineapple, strawberries, etc.

Finally, beans are also pretty carby ... and I noticed you have beans in your salads a lot, both black and garbanzo.

Ok, so how to fix it. That's the tricky part because I think that most of what you're eating is really good (and btw, that kale thing sounded incredibly yummy and I'm going to have to try to make it).

What I would do is this ... try to reduce carbs where you can by avoiding things like fruit juice, croutons, etc., and maybe cutting back on the fruit just a hair, but don't ditch the beans and other healthy stuff. Instead try to balance out the carbs you're eating by adding protein and healthy fats.

Try adding some avocado to your salads. Drizzle your veggies with a little olive oil. Instead of croutons on your salad, throw on a couple of T of slivered almonds or chopped pecans for crunch. Those things will take care of the healthy fats.

Then for protein, maybe try making your smoothies in the mornings with 1/2 silken tofu and 1/2 yogurt. Or try a scoop of protein powder in them to help boost your protein intake. Add some eggs to your diet - boiled, scrambled, in frittatas, fried, however you choose ... I egg has 6g protein, which is a pretty good deal for something that's only 70 calories. :) For a snack, have some edamame or combine some edamame (soy bean) with your regular black beans in a salad.

I'm sure there are other things that aren't occurring to me right now, but I think that's a good start.

(I know .. I'm a geek. I love the challenge of putting together balanced meals ... it's like working a puzzle and just really intrigues me. :) )
 
Oh my goodness, thank you Kara!!!

The juice thing..lol This is really new, this week! I've been trying to take my vitamins and I bought them in liquid form thinking it would be cool, so I've been trying to mix them into some kind of drink along w/a squirt of orange flavored fish oil. The vitamins are making me feel great, I think it's them anyway, I must have been low in something. I can come up w/ something better there for sure. I love the tofu idea (esp because I have a long range goal of being a vegan, as if my food life isn't difficult enough now..oye!). I've always been intriged by it, but never quite figured out how to use it...lol I'll give this one a whirl..literally. I have frozen berries in the freezer would those be bad to throw in or is all fruit bad because they're carbs???

Protien powders have been peeking my interest too. I've got a chocolate one in the cupboard that I found on the reduced rack. It's probably not a great one. Mixed w/ water, it wasn't that appetizing, maybe it would be better w/ rice milk or in the tofu shake. I'm still researching which really good one I really should buy.

You are absolutely right about the dressing! Lazy me, I used to make my own and it was great. Oddly enough, I really like my salads w/ just a little onion powder and pepper too. Croutons aren't a biggie at all, I'll have no problem ditching them.

The curried soup I made. I make a big pot of homemade soup every week. It's always veggie, sometimes tomato based, sometimes clear or if I add lentils it's more like stew. I've found a cool lower salt "soy sauce" to put in some of them and on my stir fries, Braggs liquid Aminos, it tastes really salty, yet somehow is low in sodium. Salt makes my hands swell up terribly, so I try to watch it, even spaghetti sauce bothers me.

I eat a lot of beans, I never realized until this week that they were a carb too. They are to try to boost the protien and to make things a little more filling. Ya know, I've never had an avocado!!! I've always been leary of them because they were so high calorie. I'll pick one up this week, they look interesting. I've never tried edamame either, another experiement, yay! I love trying new foods...lol

I really love to cook and eat healthy, but the whole process of putting together a good daily plan seems so overwhelming to me. Things can be so conflicting sometimes. Especially things that on one hand are "healthy," like the strawberries, but on the other are still carbs because they are sugary, so to eat them or not....hmmm Juice I knew isn't a health drink, most orange juice sits in a vat and is "reflavored" before it gets sold, how crazy is that! My son can't have anything w/ high fructose corn syrup or dies, so that keeps a lot of those kinds of things out of here, we're water drinkers mostly.

I really can't thank you enough, you are a wealth of foodie knowledge.
 
Oh I'm glad I could help.

I seriously love edamame. You can buy it in the pod in the frozen food section of most grocery stores. The best way (I think) to eat it is to microwave a bowl of it for about 2 minutes and then sprinkle lightly with kosher salt (the big fat flakes). Then just go to town - pop the beans out of the pod by scraping with your teeth. I could eat a whole bag that way, so I have to portion them out carefully! :D

I personally think avocados are awesome, but I think they're one of those things you either love or hate. I have been known to cut one in half and eat it out of the skin with a spoon ... just soooo good. They make a great mayo substitute, as well ... mash one up and put it on a sandwich with some cucmber, tomato, sprouts, etc. Really yummy.

I'd go ahead and add the blueberries and strawberries to your smoothie. The benefits of the fruit outweigh the carbs. Another thing you can do with smoothies is add some finely chopped fresh spinach. I know it sounds weird - then again you're doing the whole "swamp drink" thing ... :D ... so probably not that weird. It whirls up really well in a smoothie and is mild enough that the blueberries and strawberries will cover the flavor. Nice way to get in an extra serving of veggies - I do it all the time.
 
I'd go ahead and add the blueberries and strawberries to your smoothie. The benefits of the fruit outweigh the carbs. Another thing you can do with smoothies is add some finely chopped fresh spinach. I know it sounds weird - then again you're doing the whole "swamp drink" thing ... :D ... so probably not that weird. It whirls up really well in a smoothie and is mild enough that the blueberries and strawberries will cover the flavor. Nice way to get in an extra serving of veggies - I do it all the time.

You just jogged a memory! I used to make a green drink w/ spinach/pears/water & ice in the blender. I've tried it w/ parsely too, both very good and take on the taste of whatever fruit is thrown in there. That would be a great thing to throw my vitamins in! So many facts, so little file space left in my poor head...lol

Hey, I retried my chocolate soy/whey powder this morning w/ rice milk...MUCH better:)

Thanks again, Kara. I'm really excited about all of this. You have a great day!
 
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