Monday, December 11, 2006

i love cabbage

Our nutritionist told us a few months ago that John is insulin resistant. It took me several months to actually believe her. I’m a skeptic, and I had a hard time believing that it’s even possible to eat as few carbs as she suggested we eat. Let alone advisable.

But now I see that it is true. And for health reasons, it’s a good idea to finally pay attention and do something about it. What’s more, I may or may not have an insulin resistance myself, but I DEFINITELY get carb cravings when I don’t eat a ton of them. So what this means is that we have to change our diet around. Someone who’s insulin resistant should eat protein, vegetables, and one serving of a carb item (like rice or pasta) for each meal.

I’ll be honest and say that in the past some of our meals consisted only of carbs. :( I don’t generally like meat. But I loooove carbs. Give me a good loaf of bread and some cold cereal and I’d be fine eating only that for a few days. That’s not good for John, however. (Or me, but that’s another story…)

So last night I made a meal that consisted only of protein and vegetables. No carb at all! You’d expect a meal like that to be boring and gross. (Or at least I would.) But it was delicious! What was it? Well, I drew on my knowledge of Bulgarian cuisine, and morphed it into: cabbage and chicken! Doesn’t sound good on paper, but it was delightful to eat. And low in calories and carbs. I am so proud of myself for creating this dish. I think we’ll be eating it fairly often…

4 comments:

Mrs Andy said...

Insulin resistance is a real thing. I've researched it in my quest to know more about women's health. IR in women can be a factor in Polycycstic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) which is one of the leading causes of infertiltiy in women. What did your nutritionsist say about eating whole grains as opposed to just simple carbs or the carbs most Americans eat? I'm really curious.

Also, you need to put up your recipe for the dish you made. I'm not a huge cabbage fan, but I'd like to see what you made. :)

Anonymous said...

I'm on South Beach, I've lost 12lbs and counting and feel great. That low carb thing is COMPLETELY TRUE!!!

Maisy said...

I may be commenting too late for you to read this, but, eating a diet devoid of refined carbohydrates (fruit & veg are still carbs you know!) is the only way I've ever found of totally ridding myself of PMS. Truly. You may be able to avoid PMS by just ridding your diet of sugar. (Notice how I say 'just ridding your diet of sugar', I know it's not that simple, however once you make the change you stop wanting to eat sugar and processed foods.)

Ali

holli jo said...

Thanks for your comments!

Eden: I'll post the recipe soon. My nutritionist doesn't really distinguish between 'good' carbs and 'bad' carbs, and I disagree with her there. One of the reasons it took so long for me to believe her in the first place.

amy: Congrats on the weight loss! I'll have to look into South Beach.

Ali: Yeah, I know veggies are carbs, I just don't call them carbs since my nutritionist refers to carbs and means rice or pasta or legumes. And because I don't buy into diets that restrict veggies because they are carbs.

But I did want to find out if cutting out 'bad' carbs would ease my PMS. Because I get PMS bad. Only, I get such carb cravings it's hard to imagine not having those cravings anymore...