Tips and Ideas

With the holidays here I want to visit this site/group more often! I don't find many people posting but hope that changes. I do go to many other forums to look for support or ideas on what others are doing to stay on track. But I do think we all actually know what it takes so that is not the problem. But having others to exchange ideas or struggles with is a big help. I find that for myself, holidays are not a harder time of the year to stay on track. I can be very good at controlling my eating habits when around other people. It is the time that I am alone that I struggle with. My days off work are the worst!! And even in the evening when I get home from work. These are the times I need to work on. Trying to stay busy is what I have found to be most helpful so far. That, and getting started on getting back on track in general. After the first week or two of eating better I know it gets much easier, but its just those first weeks that are so darn hard!! Best of luck to us all. Happy Holidays

I typically follow low carbs - high fats, moderate proteins (80-90 gr a day) diet. 

I have some food allergies so I had to eliminate a whole food groups (dairy, soy, plus most grains)

I eat eggs, meat, fish, and non starchy veggies... plus nuts.. specially the high fats nuts... Coconut is one of my staple: coconut oil, milk, flour, shredded etc. I use stevia as my main sweetener.  I cook a lot and bake a lot NSA/no grain/no starch products like cakes, cookies and muffins.  Due to allergies to soy, whey - I can't use any commercially available protein snacks (even jerky - have soy sauce and too much sugar) so I learned to make my own snacks.  They are better and I can chose organic ingredients.

going off carbs can be difficult... it is what we call "white knuckle time"  it can last 3-5 days decarbing...after that typically the cravings go away.  

the easiest one to follow is Atkins type induction diet...  

the problem is that one meal full of carbs can ring back the bad carbs cravings the next day...

good luck..

I agree that getting off carbs is very difficult but is essential to losing weight and keeping it off! While my Dr. and nutritionist do not require me to monitor carb intake I was aware that how much carbs and the type has always made a difference in my weight. My Dr and nutritionist asks me to keep sugar under 10 grams per food and fats to under 5 grams (they do make exceptions for certain food such as nuts). I have read a lot about using coconut flour but have never personally tried it. Do you use it just like regular flour or are there important differences when coming to baking? I have a hard time coming up with meal ideas, I can only imagine how difficult that must be for you having so many food allergies!!! Life is so busy I don't know what I would do if I couldn't rely on those grab and go type snacks and meals.

my food : I try to have for every 20gr of protein - 10 gr of fat and no more than 10 gr net carbs.

problem with limiting fat to 5gr is that most calories comes from proteins and carbs.  Body is trained to convert proteins into blood sugar. But not fat... Too much protein will also cause insulin spike.. (google food insulin index) Too much insulin = fat storage, hunger, etc.. 

i.e. calories: 900

• 90 gr of proteins: 360 cal
• 50 cal carbs= 200 cal
• left over: 460 cal= 50 gr of fat... = 5 meals 10 gr of fat each.

Coconut flour has a lot of fiber.. so you use much less and need to add more eggs and more baking powder. 

I am a good cook and I am adventurous cook.. now I have a basic how the batter needs to look like - taste like - so I just put things together with no recipes.  most of the time the stuff is good if not great...sometimes it is  floot , but even if it is a floop - it is eatable..

there are so many websites FB sites for low carbs -high fat cooking that adapting some recipes to what I need is not that difficult. 

Even if I weren't allergic - most of the protein bars are IMO glorified candy bars.. even before I discovered I had allergies...I never could eat just one (i.e. Power Crunch bars) and they made me more hungry...

my simple muffing recipe: 

• 1 cup almond butter (NSA  = no sugar added)
• 3 eggs + 1/4 cup almond milk 
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt , stevia (1TBS liquid) 
• flavoring (I am allergic to vanilla so I use orange)

in blender mix eggs with milk, and sweetener, it should double in volume. Add that to well blended almond butter.  mix well.. add shredded coconut  mixed with baking powder.  If too thin add bit more milk. It should be consistency of thick - fluffy - pancake batter.  that can be used to make waffles,  bake as muffins or muffin tops ..

when I want to do more "fancy" I may add some chopped nuts or some berries - like cranberries or blueberries.. 

I typically make 3-4 times that volume make 4-6 dozens and freeze ... one batch 4-6 dozens takes me 2 hrs total to make bake and clean after...