Cutting carbs - where I never thought I would go

I never met a carbohydrate I didn't like - make that love! Bread, potatos, ice cream, pizza, french fries, sandwiches, breadsticks, corn, popcorn, cerreal, fruit - the list is endless. Carbs have been at the heart of my eating - and now they are all but gone ;-(

Well, for the last couple of weeks, anyway. When I was first diagnosed as a Type II diabetic a few years ago I was given a routine by a nutritionist who told me to limit carbs to 220 a day. I tried, some times, to do so. Sometimes I was pretty good at it. And while I have fought being fat all my life - a losing battle - I have also rejected fad diets. The common sense approach seemed to me to eat less. Period. End of discussion.

But I finally decided to give the low carb approach a try - I set (quite arbitrarily) an upper limit of 100 carbs per day. And guess what? For the present, anyway, I have found this very livable. I didn't think i would - and, of course, what you do in a couple of weeks hardly makes a lifestyle change. But it's an interesting start because it has brought two immediate benefits, one unexpected.

1. My blood sugar has dropped to very reasonable levels. That's good, of course. And the unexpected?

2. My sleep has improved. I'm actually sleeping six hours a night and sometimes 7.5! That's unprecedented for my entire adult life - and lack of sleep is at the heart of lot of many problems, including overeating.

So there's reason to hope. I am especially susceptible to overeating when I'm tired. I'm not nearly so tired now. So...here we go ... it's sunflower city! That is, I've learned to like sunflower seeds - 5 carbs per ounce, pumpkin seeds, 4 carbs per ounce, Newman's Lite Italian Dressing, 0 carbs per serving, salads, hardboiled eggs, egg beaters with sausages mixed in - hey, I didn't say this was all healthy! But it's low in carbs. If I can keep at it for three months I suspect I'll also lose some weight and at that point I'll go in for some medical tests to see if I've knocked down the sugar, but done damage elsewhere with the fat, etc.

Stay tuned.

Posted by Greg Stone at May 20, 2003 04:02 PM