Saturday, October 4, 2008

Wanna see inside a low carb fridge?

One of the biggest things that annoy me about people who do not understand the low carb lifestyle is the assumption that I live on meat, cheese and bacon and not much else. Oh God. If they only knew. Although, yes I DO eat those things, there can be days or weeks I can go without bacon, and cheese? I laugh. Cheese isn't something I eat a lot of unless it's cream cheese, and again, days or a week can go by without indulging in that.

Another thing I hear is "I can't believe in a diet that doesn't allow fruit." I eat fruit. I have strawberries, grapes, apples and pears. Granted I do not eat those a lot as they can cause my blood sugar to get wonky since I am diabetic. But, there are a lot of people out there that follow a low carb lifestyle that do. The trick is to not eat too much. There are lots of people who only eat fruit thinking it's "healthy". The fact of the matter is fruit is full of sugar, so if you eat 5 servings of fruit, you're not doing your body much good, then you add in other things you might have eaten that day, bread, low fat yogurt, milk, cereal, and well you got a recipe for disaster right there, and I can guarantee you will be much hungrier than I will have been eating my way. Also, if I eat fruit I eat it with protein and fat. Never just an apple, it's apple and peanut butter, grapes and cheese, strawberries and heavy cream. Helps stabilize the blood sugar, and keeps you feel satifsfied.

So without further ado.. here is my fridge:




As you can see, I have 39 eggs. Eggs are the perfect food. The whole bottom half of my fridge? Vegetables. I have green beans, broccoli, peppers, zucchini, squash, cabbage, spinach, iceberg lettuce, celery. Some apples for Aisy's lunch, oranges for snacks. Milk for the kids, heavy whipping cream, real mayo, butter, cream cheese, green goddess dressing, ranch. In the little lunch meat drawere we have some REAL american cheese, ham for Aisy's lunch, a package of bacon, some sausage. There are also some non low carb things, but those are mainly for the kids, or remnants that I am loathe to pitch. Like the Miracle Whip (I really missed that when I first started) and Aislinn's BBQ sauce. Regular ketchup, syrup, and the Yoplait yogurt.

Speaking of yogurt, you can see the big tub of Stoneyfields whole milk plain yogurt. I add some Splenda sweetened flavored syrups and add some flax seeds if I want to eat this for breakfast and I use it for my lunch shakes. It's got a luscious cream on the top. Heavenly. Here is something interesting I want to point out. My kids wanted "regular" yogurt. So I got them a few cartons of Yoplait original 99% fat free yogurt. I was shocked when I compared the labels:

Stoneyfield yogurt.... I serving size 8 oz Yoplait..... 1 serving size 6 oz

Calories per serving 170 for both yogurts.

S. Fat... 9g Y. Fat... 1.5g

S. Carbs 13g Y. Carbs 33g

S. Sugars 13g Y.Sugars 27g

S. Protein 9g Y. Protein 5g

Ok, I know you low fatters are like THE FAT! AHHH THE FAT! First of all, do you see the difference in serving sizes? You get MORE bang for your buck with the whole milk. You get half the sugar as well. Caloric intake? Same. You could eat 6 oz of the full fat, and feel more satisfied than with 6 oz of the "healthy" yogurt because of what? FAT!! It helps you feel full!

Let's look at ingredients. I have the yogurts RIGHT here and I'm typing from the cartons:

Yoplait.... cultured pasteurized grade a low fat milk, sugar (SUGAR is the second ingredient!) strawberries, modified corn starch, high fructose corn syrup, non fat milk, kosher gelatin, citric acid, tricalcium phosphate, natural flavor, pectin, colored with camine, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3.

Stoneyfield Whole milk plain yogurt.... cultured pasteraurized organic whole milk, inulin, pectin, live cultures.

Granted, my yogurt is plain, but I have eaten it right of the carton with nothing, and it's so good. I can have whatever flavor I want using my sugar free syrups. I can add a scoop of cocoa for chocolate flavored. The point I'm trying to make is this though, it's best to eat it as close to it's natural form as you can. You go diddling with things, that's where you get in trouble. People are so scared of fat, but if it's good natural fats, you will feel satisfied and in turn eat less, I think overall.

But, this will only work if you eat low carb as well. If you are unable to give up things like bread and pasta, then by all means stick to low fat. High fat and high carbs is NOT good. You WILL gain weight.

Never in a million years would I think my fridge would have so many vegetables, things I WILL eat. Not just put in there for show. That big bottle of hot sauce was a joke for Tony. But, he makes me the most delicious wings with that.

Cream cheese. I make great things with it, like low carb muffins, or oopsie rolls. It's a staple for sure. The thing is, I have to buy a lot because the recipes I make call for a block, but I don't eat it all at once. You know? I am just looking at this pic and realized I have the low fat Philly in there! SEriously, I did not notice that when I bought it. Ugh.

Another plus to low carbing. Heavy whipping cream for my coffee. Kind of hard to get used to at first, now I can drink nothing else.

Ok, now here is where it gets ugly. My cabinets. This was right after a grocery shopping day. A MAJOR one as you can see. I have ramen noodles, Chef Boyardee chips, chocolate and natural granola bars. All that is for the kids or remnants from days gone by. I do have some protein powder, the chocolate is mine, I have a square or two on occasion. It's dark chocolate. Those granola bars are less in sugar than regular ones. Some Splenda is in there, fiber powder, tuna, peanut butter. Jonny asked for some Sun chips. They're still in the cabinet unopened. I have a can of something called Caffe D'vitta. Sugar free instant mocha cappucino that I don't really like, but will come in handy if I want something different. The kids LOVE mandarin oranges. HEre's a tip. Buy them in the asian/hispanic foolds aisle. About half the price!
Then YIKES.

Big ole tub of cheese balls. Those have been there for about a month now. I'm getting ready to pitch them. An old bag of tortilla chips that need to be pitched. Some old coffee I don't drink anymore, a box of cake mix that will be donated, doughnuts that are for the kids, two bags of chicharonnes,pretzels, and mini rice cakes for the kids. Under that is all the stuff I moved over there that I will donate later. This again was right after a grocery shopping excursion, so the cabinets are fuller than usual. I will say this though, I shopped on Wednesday, and those snacks? STill unopened. I take that as a good sign that my kids are slowly coming around. They still love their Chef Boyardee though.

So there you have it. For myself, I am doing well, and working toward getting my kids there. I am proud of the changes I have made for us all.


3 comments:

The Six of Us said...

I'm also a plain yogurt fan and then I doctor it up with sugar free stuff, or I put it over fresh fruit if I feel fruity. ;)

I was waiting for you to comment about the peanut butter in your cupboard. Myself, I've converted over to natural because the other stuff is full of lard. I actually like it better than the "regular" peanut butter now, but it did take some getting used to. It's gritty and stirring a new jar is a pain.

I wish I liked eggs. Whenever I eat them I have to choke them down even if I put in cheese, etc. I usually want to puke after eating them, so that makes eating a higher protein diet hard for me on many days. They do keep me feeling full much longer, but the nausea after eating them is a bit much. LOL I'm glad you like them! That's helpful. :)

Sandi said...

The peanut butter is really my one guilty pleasure that I don't indulge in too much it comes in handy when I have PMS and kills that sweet/salty craving and a spoonful of Peter Pan can tide me over between meals if I need it. There was a time when I was eating it WAY too much but, I cut back drastically.

I used to do the natural, but it seemed like no matter what I did I could never stir it up, and the last bit would always be like dry, brittle bumps.

Anonymous said...

I'm very happy to see all your condiments located in their proper location, Sandi!