RE: protein packed recipes? (Warning: Long & somewhat irrelevant

[Guest guest]

Jamie,

I have a saga that is similar with the veggie/weight loss thing. It

turns out you and I are not alone!

 

I have been a low fat Queen since the early 90s, before they

invented all these great low/no fat products. It was harder then,

but I managed to drop 40 pounds I had happily put on matching my

husband bite for bite. I'm a happy eater. I keep telling him that

if he'd just threaten to leave me or something, I would be sure to

lose weight. <LOL> So far, he's not getting into that.

 

I kept my weight off for probably five solid years, but about three

years ago, it started to inch up. Thirty pounds in 3 years, which

was almost 30% of my body weight. I am small and very small boned (I

still wear my baby rings on my size 1 finger.) so although I realize

that weight issues are relative to the person, I know you understand

that 30% is a chunk for me. My doctor and gyno were quick to hand me

excuses: " You're 42, your metabolism is changing; " " your MIL's

cancer and supporting her is stressful; " " you'll lose it, you're

exercising. " Finally, about 3 weeks ago I got fed up. I said, " I'm

not making excuses for myself, why should I accept them from YOU?!? "

 

(Getting to the POINT)

 

They referred me to a dietician, who had me record every bite I put

in my mouth. (Good practice, I guess!) It turns out I'm eating 1500-

1700 calories a day, 22-28% fat intake, no junk food, I don't snack,

no fast food and I don't drink soda pop or juice drinks. I also

exercise. I do Ashtanga Yoga 6 days a week, 1.5 -> 2 hours a day.

Ashtanga Yoga is a vigorous, weight-bearing, aerobic form of Yoga. I

have great muscle definition, it's just covered with this nasty layer

of lard. Pretty, huh?

 

So the dietician reorganized my meals. I have been apparently " carb

bulking " like athletes do before a sporting event, with my sporting

event being a nice night's sleep. This is the source of that annoying

tummy I can't lose. She called that a " Carb Belly. "

She told me to have my (big) pasta (only with tomato sauce!) dinner

not at 8-10:00pm, but to move it to lunch.

She told me to pay more attention and add fruit and vegetables back

in, not just doing it in my imagination.

I needed to add in protein. It didn't have to be meat, thank

goodness, but could be soy protein, beans (I make a killer hummus),

or other such sources. She didn't recommend dairy at all, because of

the effect it has on calcium and me being veggie.

 

She said with my low caloric intake, she didn't even care that on

business days I have a Blondie at 3:00pm. She did suggest I cut it

in half and make it last for 2 days to reduce the saturated fat.

Then she gave me the Diabetic Exchange system and we talked about

how to do that.

She also suggested looking at Weight Watchers 123 for it's portion

control and distribution of food throughout the day.

 

So.. I'm finding I'm eating far more food than I have in years. It's

very strange to eat so much and hope to lose weight. I am losing

about 2lbs a week, except for last week when I visited my mother for

5 days. We won't even talk about that.

 

Probably more information than you needed, but there I am! <G>

Apparently this is a trap that many veggies and low/no fatters are

falling into all over the country. We only imagine we're eating as

well as we should, when in fact we're living on pasta.