Learning curve.

I am learning all about low carb eating.  As I posted earlier, the reading of nutrition labels continues to be an education.  Also, am very put off that apparently if the store makes it in house they only have to list the ingredients, not the values.  Albertson's grocery store makes a wonderful yogurt parfait, but it is large and there is no way to know how many carbs are in it.  I would reason that it is similar to the large yogurt parfait from McDonald's, but have not investigated the weights to see how close they are.  The 5.3 oz. size carries 31 carbs.


I now have the finger pricking and blood testing down.  So much so that I am pretty sure I can stop logging my results each time since I can pull that info up on my glucose meter.  I am doing pretty good with the carb counting as well.  In fact, I am quite proud of myself.  I made this recipe last night for a pork chop dish in the slow cooker. It was pretty good with the stuffing cooked with the meat.  I added some green beans for an extra vegetable.  The pork chops were so moist and tender.  The stuffing however was a little hit or miss.  Great flavor with the apples and dried cherries, but the edges seemed to be cooking hard and dry so I added a little more liquid, which in turn made the layer on the bottom kind of mushy. The recipe is from the Sparkpeople website.  GREAT site for information, support, and tracker for weight loss. Anyone that is trying to loose weight or just change to a healthier life style should really check it out. However, in my brilliant half thinking mind mode, I did not catch that there was a corrected version of the Pork chop recipe which had about 9 more grams of carb.  Not a lot, but I was calculating based on the wrong information so ended up eating too much and my glucose level went a little higher than I like, but still with in my doctor's guidelines.


To me it just proved that my slow cooker is cooking way to hot, especially to be on low.  I may have to check in to purchasing a new one.  I also want a panini grill.  Which by the way, Hungry Girl has come out with a line of flat breads for sandwiches and sliders that are lower in carbs, fat, and calories.  If you are trying to loose weight, you really should check her out.  She has a show on the Food Network channel where she takes the everyday things we like to eat and gives you a healthier version.  If you go to her website, you can watch episodes online if you don't have access to the Food Network, which I think you can watch the episodes on their site as well.  While she does lighten the counts a bit, as far as calorie and fats, some times the lighter version is still a little heavy in the carbs for my restrictions.  I went to the Goodwill store and on Amazon (got to love that place) and purchased some books related to all the changes I am making.  Sadly, several of the books I bought at the Goodwill store were published before the new changes.  It is a bit interesting however to see how the medical community has changed the thinking on their dietary guidelines over the years.  Back in the early 1900's a diabetic was treated with a starvation diet of whiskey and coffee...only.  The whiskey offers about 800 calories and seemed to make the patient a little more comfortable while being starved. The last few years has seen a change from a high carb, high starch, no sugar diet tracked by and exchange system to just simply counting the carbs.  I like this system, it is much easier and don't have to formulate any numbers.  I have also purchased the newest version of MasterCook software for my computer.  I love this program, you can enter any recipe you have and it will automatically figure the nutritional and cost analysis for the dish.  Some other things you can do with the program: calculate changes in recipe for servings (go from a recipe for 2 servings to make it for 6 servings and vice verse), plan menus, generate shopping list, pantry and freezer inventory, has technique tips and videos as well.  You can purchase it from the publisher website, or from Amazon and such.


Which takes me to the next point of my learning curve.  One problem with learning and focusing on the carb count, I am not taking in enough calories.  Need to figure that one out because when you don't take in enough calories, your body reads it as starvation mode and tends to hold on to fat more.  


Due some health issues, family members not just mine, I have been unable to get to the gym this week so far, but am not giving up.


So, goals for the week end and coming week:
Clean house (so grand baby can come over)
Do ALL the laundry
Clean/organize/defrost deep freeze.
Get to gym
Clean up my work room so I can actually do some sewing once again.
Make menu plans for September.


Now that I have wasted way too much time on the computer this morning, I need to get a couple of errands done.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.