Episode 134 – Follow-up Questions and Answers About How I Eat
Posted on June 13, 2016
Last week’s Q & A Thursday’s episode we talked a lot about how I personally eat and we got a lot of questions about my list of foods and why some foods were on my unlimited list when they may be viewed as ‘less healthy’ by many people and why some foods were in my moderate or never eat list when they may be viewed as healthy by lot’s of people. We’re going to explain this a little bit today and hopefully it will help you make decisions about your own lists and choices.
Before we get into the body of this episode I want to thank Triple Threat Kay, Bryce, Nicole and Lisa for asking these very important follow-up questions, because I know it can get really confusing and hopefully we can clear it up here today.
If you don’t have time to go back and listen to episode 132 the abridged version is this, I break my foods into 3 categories, food’s I can eat an unlimited amount of, food I eat a moderate amount of and food I rarely or never eat.
We’re going to talk about foods on my unlimited eat list first, where the biggest confusion came from. Starting with, this question I thought potatoes were bad? and There’s a lot of carbohydrates on your list, why?
I came up with my own list based on the amount and the intensity of the exercise I do. Because I burn a lot of calories through exercise I require a little more energy, if I don’t eat enough carbohydrates from good sources, like whole grains and potatoes then I get cravings and am much more likely to make poor choices later in the day, which often means slipping to foods on my never eat list later in the day and over eating in the process.
When I go through periods of less exercise some of those carbohydrates get downgraded to a moderate amount, because I don’t require the energy and my body tells me I don’t need them,
Potatoes are actually really healthy, they have lots of good nutrients in them and one whole potato has between 100 and 150 calories, wheres a serving of pasta has at least double that and most people eat more than a serving. Because potatoes and whole grains are whole foods, very close to how you would find them in nature their caloric density is much lower.
I also have some other rules that guide me, one of those being when I eat any kind of meal or snack I need to have at least a protein and vegetable as part of it and I may or may not have a carb depending, I will never sit down and just eat a plate of potatoes, there’s always a mix. When you mix your food group together it takes longer for your body to digest, keeping you feeling full for a longer period of time.
The second thing about this list is a do things like I only eat a single plate of food at dinner, these types of things nudge me to eat a lot less. Even though it’s called my ‘unlimited’ eat list, I don’t end up eating an unlimited amount, I just don’t worry about how much of it I eat and all these little support behaviours help to keep it in check.
Now the next thing I got asked about is ‘Why are avocados and nuts on your moderate list, because they have healthy fat?’
This is definitely true, avocados and nuts are a healthier fat, but they are also extremely calorically dense and very high in fat. When you eat too much fat, even if it is good fat it still becomes fat on your body. So my moderate list would be half an avocado in a day and half a cup of nuts or less just in those 2 things is about 400 calories, but just a little bit more can easily push that up to 6 or 800 which without the added benefit of feeling more full. Which is why it’s on my moderate list, it’s just way too easy to eat too much.
On a side note to that, when I was first starting to make my lifestyle changes nuts were on my unlimited eat list and as soon as I started measuring them, meaning I would take half a cup or less in my lunch I lost about 10 pounds in 3 months. It was by far the biggest bang for my buck little change I made.
Now the last thing that was questioned was about the fruit juice. Here’s the thing fruit is very healthy, fruit juice is a lot less healthy. Fruit has a lot of fibre and is usually moderately calorically dense depending on the fruit. Fruit juice is very calorically dense and has a lot of sugar in it and usually doesn’t have any fibre. Most juices have more calories and sugar than soft drinks. Are they healthier than soft drinks probably but when it comes to weight loss or maintaining a healthy body weight probably note.
I did a very interesting video about this that you can find in the show notes.
One thing you need to understand is my lists and groups are personal to me and how I live. The way I eat is going to be different than how you eat, so you need to find what works for you in a sustainable way and yes it’s going to take bit of work.
There is some black and some white, but also a lot of grey. Because everyone is a little bit different.
If you need help sorting your stuff out contact us and we can help.
