Weight Loss: glycemic index
Friday, August 24, 2007
I don't have
diabetes, but I do visit web sites that recommend diets for
diabetics.
Glycemic index is about
ranking carbohydrate foods by how they
raise blood glucose levels. It's that sugar rush one gets after eating something sweet, then getting hungry a short time afterwards.
There are people who are satisfied by eating sweets all day. I'm not one of them. I get sick when I don't eat properly. Eating sweets makes it worse. I can't skip meals, maybe only breakfast. I get the shakes five to six hours after my last meal. I would pass out if I don't eat all day.
It seems like I have a diabetic condition, but I found out that this is something on the order of
low blood sugar,
the sugar blues, reactive hypoglycemia(?), or hyperinsulinism(?).
I'm one of the few people on the planet that
doesn't like chocolate. I can resist the call of that particular sweet. I get sickly (lethargic and queasy) if I eat a cake with too much icing.
One would think I'd have no weight problems with my disdain for candy or sweets. I've never had a cavity, because I rarely ate candy as a child. Instead, I crave salty spicy foods. When the kids on the block wanted lemonade, I made my own version called poisonade. In my lemon drink, I added salt. I added salt to tomatoes and ate them raw.
I've cut back on my salt cravings, but my food must be a bit spicy salty to enjoy.
Following a diabetic diet it turns out that highly refined foods are no good. This seems like a
no brainer.
Avoid foods that are
high in sugar, which are processed foods. Stick with raw foods or foods that have been processed at least once.
Does all of this sound familiar? Sure, keep to foods that haven't had the nutrients removed from it through
excessive processing. Seems like the
nutso raw foodies were right after all.
Labels: diabetes, diabetic, diets, glycemic, raw food diets
posted by GoldenAh
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Weight Loss: Eating Healthy
Sunday, August 19, 2007
In another attempt to ratchet up my healthy eating habits, I've added flax seeds to my diet. I toss in about a tea or table spoon of it to my blended morning breakfast drink. Flax seed is supposed to have all sorts of health properties: Omega 3 and whatnot.
I'm also looking at changing my morning drink to a yogurt / granola / wheat germ type of meal. I haven't put together the entire mix yet. I don't want to have to focus on stuff that I can't purchase at a local grocery store.
Hmm, that's got me thinking - I need to start adding bits of apple to my morning drink.
Finally, dropped another 5 lbs. I was hovering at the same weight for a number of weeks.
Man, this
stuff is hard. I am not one who loses weight easily. Yet, the thing is I
have to exercise for one hour daily and I cannot eat over
1400 calories per day. That's it in a nutshell.
Labels: diets, flax seed, granola, weight, weight loss, yogurt
posted by GoldenAh
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Hair Confession: Nappy Head Check vs Relaxed
Thursday, August 16, 2007
I
do not believe that black women who do
not relax / perm their hair are
more politically or socially aware, or even
nicer / friendlier than those who do. Nope.
People are complex, complicated beings. A hair style doesn't tell me anything about them.
I think a number of people do make interesting assumptions. Think of the evening news after a mass murder has been committed.
What do the people usually say? "But he was such a nice, normal guy." My favorite is, "That doesn't happen
in this kind of neighborhood." I always want to slap the person who utters that kind of nonsense. They are so caught up in their idea of specialness. Anything can happen in
any neighborhood. Sheesh.
I do, however, make assumptions with regards to relaxed versus natural hair styles. My thoughts relate to
health and normalcy.
I read my share of magazines, and the first thing I do is seek out pictures of black women. I'm always curious as to
how the media is portraying us lately.
I'm moderately pleased to see that natural hair is quite popular. The hair styles range from nappy kinky coily curls in Afros to twist outs big or small. All of which I regard as
normal.
Yeah, I said it,
normal. My
internal programming says that a black woman with a natural hair style is normal. Whenever I see relaxed hair, I regard it as abnormal. I'll explain why.
A relaxed hair style makes me think:
Wow, I hope she's okay. I know that may be
out of the norm thinking. In fact, a
hair study shows that relaxers don't make black women sick. In an age where coffee is good for you one day and bad the next, I'll take that report with a truckload of salt.
This report comes about because researchers have found that a particularly aggressive breast cancer targets black women more than white women.
I'm
not making any assertions that
relaxers cause breast cancer in black women.I automatically think there is a connection: I can't help myself.
To recap my hair fixation, if I see a natural hair style I think:
she looks normal. If I see a relaxed hair style, in the back of my mind, I'm hoping that the woman lives a long and productive life.
Labels: breast cancer, hair, health, kinky, nappy, natural hair, relaxed hair
posted by GoldenAh
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Weight Loss: What's For Breakfast?
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
I was talking with a friend of mine about recipes; she was sharing her vast list with me. I thought back to the Raw foods trend, and how I want to increase my raw or natural food intake. I'm not a foodie, because if I see food I will eat it. There are very few foods I am fussy about.
I used to only have instant oatmeal in the morning. I'd eat it each and every day without fail. I rarely skip breakfast.
A few months ago, I started eating one banana just to pretend I was doing the proper fruit thing in the morning.
Lately, I've decided to be more creative since my friend and I were talking about using the food processor / blender for cooking. I haven't used mine in years. We have kitchens packed with items we buy, use once, and never touch again.
A few weeks ago, I took out my blender. My goal? To create breakfast drinks.
The Bananas Whatever Drink:
- 2-4 ounces of water,
- 2-3 baby carrots,
- 1 banana (you could use half - my drinks are very thick),
- squirt of lemon (optional),
- ginger (optional sprinkle),
- cinnamon (optional),
- cranberries (optional),
- and last but not least half of a plain low-fat yogurt cup.
- Sometimes I'd add about 2 cashews or almonds.
Into the blender the entire mix goes, and that's breakfast. Doesn't make more than an 8-12 ounce glass. I drink this with multivitamins, followed by a glass of water, right before I work out.
The Breakfast Alternatives Drink: sometimes I leave out the bananas, cinnamon, and cranberries. I find that I like to add more carrots and add some fake sugar. Anything to switch up the drink.
I think my drinks are a nice tasting low calorie nutritious meal. They don't qualify as raw, but it's a change from having just oatmeal.
Labels: blender, breakfast, diets, food processor, raw food diets, weight loss
posted by GoldenAh
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