Yes, it is important to have any idea of how many carbs you are ingesting and make it part of a daily plan. I also keep track of what it is doing to my blood sugar, this keeps me in line. I also try to keep the majority of carbs to one meal, usually dinner, a la the CAD principles. Today it was lunch, tried to have lunch at Panera (bread central!).

Judynyc--beware of the gluten-free foods! Some of them contain starches and flours that will really do a number on your blood sugar. A few crackers sent mine over 265, and I'm not diabetic or pre-diabetic by standard measures. A rise like that will not dissipate for hours, and you can stash a lot of fat during that time. I'm kind of fed up with the whole "gluten free" (marketing) concept.

Yikes, A few crackers do that? Dr Davis often writes how the refined starches used in GF foods are worse than wheat flour, but I have never wanted to test it out. Corn and tapioca starch would seem particularly suspect, but some GF cracker are more whole grain based. Making substitute "crackers" which are rarely crisp is such a pain at times.

Lulumae...sent you a Private Message with some other info on T1. He could lower the amounts of insulin needed as a T1 but it would require giving up/substituting the four major teen food groups of pizza, soda, burgers and fries.

Thank you PaCarolSue for the link, it certainly clarifies the difference.


PaCarolSue wrote:
ESW I believe the UK uses the metric system whereas US does not. That's the difference in meter readings. Somewhere I have a chart that shows comparisons.

I found it!

http://www.joslin.org/info/conversi...monitoring.html

Thanks for your concern. I do not eat gluten free foods that are made with highly processed fours. I do enjoy the Mary's Gone Crackers that are made with the whole seed or grain and even then, I make sure to have 1/2 of a serving.
If a few crackers sent your blood sugar that high, I'd be doing some investigating. If I felt that my blood sugar was an in issue, I'd be checking it but it has never been an issue and is normal every time it's been checked.

I've been really enjoying a bit ( 1 tbsp.)of quinoa in my soup.

Exactly!
Making an eating plan for life needs to include many foods that give us pleasure. I wish I could say that I eat only for fuel...but I don't. When I first got to goal( 12/2005), I did eat just for fuel....but that was a long time ago and it got old. Things have shifted for me. One thing that I did do while losing was to learn how and which good carbs to include in my plan. Keep in mind that I did lose my weight following South Beach and not Atkins. I used the Atkins carb ladder as a way to add good carbs back in.....but as I lost my weight, I was eating 'good' carbs. I learned that I can have 1-2 fruit serving daily and 2-3 starches.

I ate corn on the cobb the other day with butter!

http://shop.marysgonecrackers.com/C...ackers~Crackers


Brown rice, quinoa, sesame seeds, flax seeds, caraway seed.

These are the ingredients in the cracker. As you can see, they are not made with any flour at all. I'm very aware of the ingredients in the foods I choose to eat. I tend to avoid most flours based on what I've learned over the years.

For those who are eating a bit higher carbs, there are pastas at Costco that are legume based. The black bean fetuccini I tried was ok, but looked unpalatable. I found some red lentil penne, though (only ingredient is red lentils) that cooks up looking and tasting like regular penne. Just has higher protein.

I'm not going to eat it right now. But it's good to know I can have my favorite homemade shrimp pasta once in a while, on maintenance. And Husband will get pasta, which he does eat, more often, if I can share.

I totally agree. After the years of trying different, but the same WOE, I have come to the conclusion that for me.... I have to watch the type of carbs I eat plus the calories I eat. At 64 years old I cant eat the same way I did in my 30's. Calories are as important as carb count for me. Keeping track on Fat Secret has helped a lot.

I'm in total agreement with you on all of this. 65 here and it all matters.

I'm intrigued by the bean pastas, having a hard time finding nutrition facts on them, though. According to one source, 2 oz. of the black bean pasta has 19 g carbs, 12 of which are supposedly fiber. It will be interesting to see how BG responds to that, does it really act like fiber?.

I'd really like to find a sub for pasta, I was just thinking today, if I had a way to make a good Mac and Cheese, I'd be totally happy and I could eat this way forever, no problem. Just once in a while it would be nice to have that comfort food.

The package that I have of the red lentil penne shows this:

a serving is 2/3 cup dry pasta

35 grams carbs, 2 grams fiber

Even when I was eating it, I never took more than a cup (measured) for myself, so about 17 gms.

I don't like mac and cheese; I'm safe, there. But if I were you, I might try the red lentil penne, and eat just a bit at a time with a good cheesy sauce. I think the black bean stuff would be so horrible to look at that it would be hard to eat. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't taste as much like "real" pasta.

The brand is Uddo's Kitchen. As I mentioned, it came from Costco, so of course, it's a huge box. Probably could get smaller amounts on the internet; I haven't checked.

The fiber should slow down the absorption of the carb. That's the whole point of not eating highly processed flours. Once the fiber is gone, it'll shoot your BS up by getting into your blood stream very quickly.

I have trouble with flour in general. I tend to binge on it. I've had to see it as a delivery system for my favorite sauces and find other ways to do that. Zoodles work when I'm in the mood.

There is a recipe around for making a mock mac and cheese using cauliflower.

Any good mac and cheese recipe should work. Try the http://www.djfoodie.com/Mac-n-Cheese Most of his are great! Sometimes I just make a "roux" of butter and cream (and might try xantham gum to thicken next time). Add more cream and lots of shredded cheese. Pour over cooked cauliflower, coarse mashed. Add seasoning to taste (salt, pepper, cayenne for kick) and more shredded cheese on top. Bake until cheese is golden. Yum!

Thanks!

I'm sceered to make mac and cheese out of cauliflower. I've always hated cauliflower. But I actually did go so far as to buy a head, then my husband laughed at me, and it went bad in the fridge. I did find a recipe using zuchinni which sounded interesting (but boiled? I don't think I could do that).

Today was a challenge. I skipped breakfast and was quite hungry by 10 AM. Stopped to pick up supplies, and they had doughnut boxes available both upstairs and downstairs. I went so far as to lift the lid on both (apple fritter!), but somehow didn't pick one up. Imagining the sickly sweet feeling I would get seemed to work.