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My Weight Lose To Date Following a Mix of the SouthBeach and DASH DIET.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

New Life Style Changes

I haven't posted in a while. Truth is I have been very busy. I decided to go on the South Beach Diet with a friend at work to try and lose some weight. The diet seemed healthy and resonable so I decided to give it a try. A few days later I went to see the doctor, my blood preasure is still up. Last year around March I had stage 2 hypertention. My blood preasure was 165/112. I was 31 years old. I am now 32, and my blood preasire has gone down since then but only to bounce between the prehypertention and stage 1 hypertention stages. Basically I sat at 28 points to hight on the top number and 8 points to high on the bottom. I told my doctor about the diet changes, she said that was a good idea then also suggested the DASH DIET. I went out and got some books on both diets and started reading. I like a few things about each so I decided to mix a little of both diets together and see what happens.

I am losing weight and as a result, I also feel better and according to a few people look healthier too. They say my face looks less puffy, red and shiny. Stomach wise I have noticed a difference too. I do look a little thinner. So I guess my version of the 2 diets is working for me.

What I did was replace potatoes with water chestnuts and dried beans. I also replaced pastas with spagitti squash, which actually tastes pretty good, and according to http://www.thecaloriecounter.com/Foods/1100/11493/Food.aspx only containes


Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 cup (155g)
Amount Per Serving
Calories
42
Calories from Fat
4
% Daily Value*
Total Fat
0.4g
1%
Saturated Fat
0.1g
0%
Polyunsaturated Fat
0.2g
Monounsaturated Fat
0g
Cholesterol
0mg
0%
Sodium
27.9mg
1%
Potassium
181.4mg
5%
Total Carbohydrate
10g
3%
Dietary Fiber
2.2g
1%
Sugars
3.9g
1%
Protein
1g
2%
Vitamin A
3%

Vitamin C
9%
Calcium
3%

Iron
3%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:
Calories:
2,000
2,500
Total Fat
Less than
65g
80g
Sat Fat
Less than
20g
25g
Cholesterol
Less than
300mg
300mg
Potassium
2,400mg
2,400mg
Total Carbohydrate
300g
375g
Dietary Fiber
25g
30g
Which is pretty good, basically you don't have to worry about consuming this type of "pasta".
I also gave up rice, and found a noodle which is made out of beans, peas and water in the east indian food section and the grocery store.
Plus on top of all that , I also cut down on my sugars by buying diabetic treats for when I want to indulge in a sweet snack that doesn't come in the form of fruit. Yes chocolate, I didn't have to give it up.
I also gave up bread. Not totally, I will still use pita bread and occassionally12 grain bread when I really want it. But for the most part I don't really eat it anymore.
With the DASH DIET addins I kept the fruit, because I love fruit, and the DASH said thats ok, and I started to remove a lot of salt from my diet.
Now here's the catch, we all read lables right? Go look at the lable on a can of beans o veggy. Guess what it's loaded with SALT! I read lables for soups, sauces, you know the "extra" stuff", but I never thought to look a darn can of kidney beans! Hense why I switch to dried beans, lentils and peas. Less salt, much less.
Now cookig with dried foods really isn't that fussy. What i do is make a large batch at a time and freeze portions for future cooking. I use my slow cooker for this. I take a large bowl, mixed up 10 different dried varieties of beans, lentils and peas, soak them over night, drain, rince, then add several cups of no salt broth because the dried foods will pick up the flavor from the broth, then cook them in the slow cooker for 2 days on med heat. I just stir occassionally and make sure there is still enough broth in their for them to soften up. When I got my batch of dried foods ready I cool them down, divide them into cooking portions and freeze what i don't need right away. This way I don't have to go through that process everytime I want to cook something.
I include beans in almost everything I make now, and the water chestnuts are a great dieter's food too. They also pick up the flavors in which they are cooked in and go great in stir-frys and stew. You can get sliced or whole. I have only found them in a can so far.

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 4 waterchestnuts (28g)
Amount Per Serving
Calories
14
Calories from Fat
0
% Daily Value*
Total Fat
0g
0%
Saturated Fat
0g
0%
Polyunsaturated Fat
0g
Monounsaturated Fat
0g
Cholesterol
0mg
0%
Sodium
2.2mg
0%
Potassium
33mg
1%
Total Carbohydrate
3.4g
1%
Dietary Fiber
0.7g
0%
Sugars
0.7g
0%
Protein
0.2g
0%
Vitamin A
0%

Vitamin C
1%
Calcium
0%

Iron
1%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:
Calories:
2,000
2,500
Total Fat
Less than
65g
80g
Sat Fat
Less than
20g
25g
Cholesterol
Less than
300mg
300mg
Potassium
2,400mg
2,400mg
Total Carbohydrate
300g
375g
Dietary Fiber
25g
30g
I also switched all my dairy to low fat or partly skimmed. I drink diet pop, which eventually I will cut out completely, but I'm not ready for that right now.
At first it was a little frustrating eatting this way. I really didn't enjoy blanching and freezing 2 cases of tomatoes because the canned stuff had a ton of salt in it, but it was something I knew I had to do and eventually I will get use to all these changes.
For right now I am feeling better about this and the biggest thing and making sure I have plenty of good snacks around because on this diet you actually get to eat! I am also having a bit of a tough time going through the canned list and finding whole fresh food alternatives to prepare in advance so I can cut out more of the salt. I am taking it one step at a time and slowly making progress so eventually I will get there.
Basically what I am doing is trying to cut out all the salt in things I can controll and replace with easy solutions so I can have the salt that you still need each day , 500mg minimum and the max is based on your calorie needs. A 2000 cal diet requires only 2400mg's of salt per day. I guarantee you intake more then that each day if you are not watching the lables on everything.
To show you what i mean, I like Diet Coke, I am not prepared to give it up in the next year, I drink about a case a day and I am slowly cutting back but there is 50mg's of salt in each can. If i cut out 50mg's x how many cans I drink in a day, worth of salt in my foods diet then the salt in the pop which is labled sodium by the way, now has room for my intake each day. Same goes for the tomatoes, and the dried beans vs the canned beans. Eventually I will find myself a nice healthy balance of salt intake and my health concerns, which are very serious by the way, will calm down.
High blood preasure is not something you want to ignore, it's not called the "silent killer" for nothing. The MAYO CLINIC has a ton of good information on the subject that you should look into. You will be surprised and what you read and glad you educated yourself on the subject. You will also live longer and healthier if you follow their advice.
Thats all for now, thanks for dropping by, please check out the Mayo Clinic books I suggested at the top of the blog page. You might also want to look into the SOUTH BEACH DIET too, it was created by a doctor so their has to be some importance to that diet I would think. :)

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