Games We Play
Jan. 9th, 2009 04:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribI'm overweight. Not massively so, but still, it's not debatable. Like most people, I'm overweight because my caloric intake exceeds my caloric output.
Recognizing the fact that I'm overweight, I looked around for a solution. I came to the realization that controlling my weight can be thought of as a game. The trick, then, is to find a game that I like to play.
Now, this could be a traditional game, like, basketball. I know how to play basketball, and played it at school all through grade school and high school. But I don't actually like to play basketball. I played in school because that's what one did in a small Central Illinois town, and when the season was over, I didn't play.
Fortunately, I've found a game that I like to play, and it's called the South Beach Diet. Essentially, the South Beach diet consists of several ways to reduce one's caloric intake without counting calories. Some of the rules include:
1) Avoid hidden sugar. For example, most folks drink a glass of fruit juice with breakfast. What most people don't know is that the typical glass of juice has the same amount of sugar as an equivalent amount of pop. Also, a lot of "healthy" breakfast cereals, such as raisin bran, have quite a bit of added sugar.
2) Skip the starches. Potatoes are limited to an occasional thing. (That McDonald's regular-sized order of fries is like 300 calories). Rice is only marginally better, especially white rice. I've found that a lot of places will gladly substitute steamed vegetables for a starch.
3) Processed flour is not your friend. White flour is low on nutrients and high in sugar. Wheat flour is better, although in general, baked goods should be enjoyed in moderation.
I first went on this diet about three years ago, and it worked. Last year, I stopped playing the game. Unfortunately, diets are like golf - higher scores are worse then low scores!
Recognizing the fact that I'm overweight, I looked around for a solution. I came to the realization that controlling my weight can be thought of as a game. The trick, then, is to find a game that I like to play.
Now, this could be a traditional game, like, basketball. I know how to play basketball, and played it at school all through grade school and high school. But I don't actually like to play basketball. I played in school because that's what one did in a small Central Illinois town, and when the season was over, I didn't play.
Fortunately, I've found a game that I like to play, and it's called the South Beach Diet. Essentially, the South Beach diet consists of several ways to reduce one's caloric intake without counting calories. Some of the rules include:
1) Avoid hidden sugar. For example, most folks drink a glass of fruit juice with breakfast. What most people don't know is that the typical glass of juice has the same amount of sugar as an equivalent amount of pop. Also, a lot of "healthy" breakfast cereals, such as raisin bran, have quite a bit of added sugar.
2) Skip the starches. Potatoes are limited to an occasional thing. (That McDonald's regular-sized order of fries is like 300 calories). Rice is only marginally better, especially white rice. I've found that a lot of places will gladly substitute steamed vegetables for a starch.
3) Processed flour is not your friend. White flour is low on nutrients and high in sugar. Wheat flour is better, although in general, baked goods should be enjoyed in moderation.
I first went on this diet about three years ago, and it worked. Last year, I stopped playing the game. Unfortunately, diets are like golf - higher scores are worse then low scores!
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 02:32 am (UTC)I was a little surprised to learn that potatoes have less glycemic impact than white flour or white rice, and all my recent research points to insulin effects as fundamental to weight gain. One calorie is not the same as any other with respect to how calories affect the body. Alas, one body is not like every other with respect to food metabolism, so the whole thing is diabolically complex and obscure.
There are some wonderful descriptions of our current knowledge of food metabolism in Gary Taubes' book Good Calories, Bad Calories.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 06:44 pm (UTC)From a calorie perspective, most commercial juices other then orange juice have natural sucrose AND added sugar (fructose). Even the "all-natural" brands, since fructose is natural.
One has to look for the no-sugar-added variations.
http://www.nutrimirror.com
Date: 2009-01-10 07:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-13 06:34 pm (UTC)http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/sugarbusters/a/sugarbustrlists.htm
Jerry Critter
critterscrap.blogspot.com