Eat More Lose Weight?

So, I have described th daily plan for eating for my Gestational Diabetes. It is what usually comes out to between 3-5 cups of food for every meal. Plus snacks and fruit. Since my diagnosis and being put on this diet I have gained 3 lbs, and nothing since my last appointment 2 weeks ago yesterday. My Nurse Practioner yesterday said that this is a very healthy diet and one that I could lose weight quickly on after the baby.
Now, here is the logic behind it. When you skip meals, your body doesn't know where or when the next source of nutrition will come, so it starts to conserve energy. (energy is stored as .... FAT) However when you eat a diet with large portions of easy to use (fruit, dairy and vegetables) and complex energy sources (carbs and protein), your body barely finishes using one meal before you start putting more in. Your body needs constant fuel. That is why the best "Diet GURU Corporations" all incorporate snacks into their well portioned meal plans. So what should the regular person trying to eat healthy and lose weight take from this. Eat breakfast, (Your mother was right it really is important). Have a mid-morning snack, (like a piece of fruit and some cheese and crackers, or yogurt and part of a muffin or bagel). Have lunch, and eat your salad with it. Green vegetables help our system to run smoothly, and they are easy to burn food. If you eat a salad first you are less likely to overeat when lunch comes, and at the very least you will eat slower. Have an afternoon snack, a piece of fruit, or a fruit cup. This will be much better that another cup of coffee, diet soda, or a frappaccino. Have a healthy dinner. Have two veggies and one starch, a protein and you can even have a roll.
First of all is you eat like this you will almost never be hungry. You will burn energy all day long, and you will start to lose weight. This is a healthy life style change type of eating rather than a quick fix DIET that teaches you nothing except that 1) Grapefruit and tuna do not a meal make or 2) That you never want to see another popcorn cake as long as you live.
This is a way to enjoy eating again, rather than stress over how much this will add to the waistline. After all, who wants to just eat to live, we should WANT to eat, we should live to eat good food...
Love, Sara

Diabetic Irish Breakfast

Our first morning in Ireland, we went down to breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The waiter thought we were with a tour group and asked us if we wanted the Traditional Irish Breakfast or eggs and bacon. We hadn't seen any menus, so we kind of assumed "How quaint they only have two breakfast offerings." So we all got the Traditional Irish Breakfast. We were expecting, potatoes (it is Ireland afterall), maybe oatmeal or other poridge, and Irish soda bread. No, No, and No. We got a tray with dry white toast (cold, not refridgerated but not hot). We all got coffee, we had to ask for tea or anything else to drink. The main plate was three kinds of sausage, Black (which I swear is related to blood sausage or scrapple), white (a little more like scrapple than anything) and either one huge or two smaller pork links, 1 fried egg, grilled tomato halves, and three or four sauteed mushroom caps. Needless to say James, the Texan Meatatarian, was happy. Mom and I were a little like "When in Rome.." Both of us knowing coming to the understanding that this vacation was going to be hard on our respective diets.
So, recently I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. For breakfast I can have 2 proteins and once starch. I have been having one piece of whole wheat toast, one piece of vegetarian sausage, and one fried egg. Mushrooms are on my list of foods that I can eat as much of as I want and I like them, so they end up on or in almost everything.
So the Diabetic Irish Breakfast is
One piece of toast.
One fried egg to your liking. One piece of sausage ( I like the patty kind, it layers better)
Sauteed mushrooms, 2-4 depending on size and liking (I slice them up for faster cooking)
Place the toast (buttered if you like) on the plate, place sausage patty, one fried egg, and mushrooms. I recently found that the mushrooms layer better between the egg and the sausage, but if I were serving this I would put them on top. Then I cut it up into bite size squares and eat. Between the whole wheat and the egg and sausage this is really quite filling.
The rest of my breakfast comes as a snack about two hours later, I usually have 1 c of plain yogurt and 1c of strawberries or raspberries mixed in, and another piece of toast.
This is a really healthy and satisfying way to eat, because you eat about every two hours, and your tummy is never not full. That keeps you from snacking on bad stuff or gorging when you are starving. Plus you body and brain always have fuel, so your body never feels like it is being starved, which is what happens when you skip meals. (then the body starts to save all it can)
good luck.

Where did she go??

You may be wondering why I haven't been posting about all my wonderful recipes recently. The reason, I was sick. I had morning sickness, actually I had this weird variety of the same idea. I was nauseous all day but it was always worse at night. So, needless to say, I wasn't exactly in the mood to cook. That has passed, thank god. Now, I am dealing with low blood sugar. As my mother put it, "babies are like parasites, they don't care where they get the nutrients from, they'll just take it." If I don't eat like a Hobbit, I get dizzy, nauseous, and faint. (fortunately I haven't actually fainted yet.) So I eat like a Hobbit. I get up and have first breakfast, usually a small bagel, or a small bowl of cereal, or toast with peanut butter. Then I wait a little while and make second breakfast for me and Alex. This is usually scrambled eggs, and fried potatoes, and some vegan sausage. Then about two hours later I have early lunch, this is usually a piece of fruit, some cheese, a handful of nuts (raw or dry roasted unsalted) or a small salad. Then I get second lunch a little while later. This is often a bowl of soup and some veggies. Then I make dinner, lately just for me, this is sometimes leftovers from a big meal the night before, or sometimes frozen veggies and rice, with a little bit of chicken. (I can't stand the smell of fish right now, so I am not cooking with it very often. I try to save any red meat that I am going to eat for a night when Alex and I can go out together.) Then depending on how late dinner was, or how late I am going to stay up I get a second post dinner snackerel. Sometimes this is just a couple pieces of cheese and some crackers or a little bit more of dinner. Then I get desert, (sometimes not every night). Desert is usually, a Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich, or a small bowl of Sherbet.
So here I am eating 8-10 times a day, and it is only going to be more fun as I go along.
I will try to post some new fabulous cooking things soon. I am thinking some reviews might be in order, I have found some wonderful new HEALTHY, and easy products on the market.
Love Sara

What I can't eat...

Now that I am pregnant I am learning that there are a great many things that I either shouldn't eat very often or things that I just flat out can't eat.
Out of the five kinds of cheese in my refrigerator at this moment, I can eat two. We have Munster, Feta, Queso Fresco, Cheddar, and Colby Jack. I am not supposed to eat, soft or unpastuerised cheese.
One book said I can't eat deli meat. I guess because they cut so many different kinds that it can harbor bacteria.
I can't eat certain types of fish and no raw shellfish (yeah, I am completely heart broken about not being able to eat raw oysters). I do however, LOVE sushi, Teka Maki (tuna rolls) as well as any other sushi or sashimi is out of the question. I can have tuna (no albacore) mahi mahi, cod, or shrimp, but only a maximum of 2 times a week.
I can't eat soft cooked eggs. ( I guess if I use pasteurised eggs, maybe)
Oh and the whole no alchohol, drugs or tobacco.
I am supposed to lots of vegetables, especially the dark leafy and raw kind. I am supposed to eat lots of protien and calcium rich foods. The problem right now I can't eat big meals and I can't stomach the smell of most meat. So, I am pretty good on the vegetables, lots of salads, and grilled cheese sandwiches. I try to eat some meat at least once a day and i drink at least one glass of milk or OJ. This is going to be really interesting. I hope i get past the food sensitivity part.

Food Alergies and Intolerances

This might be more information than most of you want.
I found out recently that I have a food sensitivity to Oatmeal. I tried the oatmeal for breakfast everyday and after about a week and a half I found that I was getting constipated. (I warned you TMFI) I couldn't understand it. I was eating High fiber breakfast, having salads for lunch and eating apples as snacks. So I did some research on causes, and found that food sensitivity to anything could cause it. Food sensitivity is similar to a mild allergy. I am going to try oatmeal that is not instant, what is called steel cut or pin head oats. But I might just have to cut Oatmeal out.
I have also found that I am developing a sensitivity to milk, right now I only use milk for cereal (oatmeal) and when we have cookies. I think I am going to cut milk out as well. I find that it actually upsets my stomach rather than soothe it. I will keep you all updated on the trying of milk alternatives. I know I don't like Soy milk much, so Meg (my resident Vegan) reccomends rice dream and some of the newer nut milks.
If you want to join the band wagon, these milk alternatives are available in most grocery stores. Soy milk, Silk and Sun Milk (a sunflower and cows milk combination) are all available in the dairy section. The others (Almond milk, Rice milk, Rice Dream and a Hazelnut combination) are available in the standard shelves near the cereal, coffee, or baking aisles usually.
The vegan and Vegetarian options to meat and animal by products have come a long way in the last 5 years. Try something new, you might like it better.
Sara