Making Diet Changes

Our ages have caught up with us (49 & 55) and Hubby and I need to make some diet changes. He has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes for almost 10 years. I am now prediabetic. It runs in both of our families. He has always been able to control his with oral medication and staying mildly conscious of what he eats. But now he is at a point where he needs to be way more conscious of what goes in his stomach, his weight and his exercise level. He stays pretty physically busy as a wholesale representative. I am more sedentary..(office work and couch potato). We both could use to lose about 20 lbs. each.

We have always ate for pure pleasure and fuel. Diet changes are not coming easy. Pasta, potatoes and red meat have been staples all of our lives. For him, it is not a meal if his protein isn't in the form of beef, pork or poultry.

Anywho, how have others tackled this and hopefully, succeeded? Does anyone have any recommendations for books, websites, recipes that we could use to incorporate in our necessary lifestyle change? I know our situation is not uncommon and I was hoping I could find some advice from all of the super knowledgeable folks here!

Teri,

When I was doing Weight Watchers I found Calorie King a useful resource.
http://www.calorieking.com/

I'd say to not try to change everything all at once. Start with the easy changes & work your way up. If you drink a lot of soft drinks, start cutting those out. Huge waste of calories. We make a gallon of tea almost every day. A half cup of sugar to a gallon makes tea that is sweet enough, but not too sweet. We stopped using artificial sweeteners. I noticed that I was gaining weight around my middle & decided that they probably aren't good for me.

We actually eat meat with almost every meal. But I keep the white stuff (carbs) to a minimum. We usually do one protein and at least two veggies. Green beans, kale, broccoli & creamed spinach are big at our house.

My husband has never been a big breakfast eater. He's just not hungry when he gets up. But the past couple of weeks, he's been eating a bowl of oatmeal in the morning. It keeps him from being crazy hungry at lunch. The trick is to eat a lot of small meals/snacks (5) throughout the day so that you're never really hungry. So you're less tempted by bad stuff.

For cravings, we keep lower-sugar peanut butter (Smart Balance) and dark chocolate (at least 70%) on hand. One spoonful of peanut butter or one square of dark chocolate will usually kill any sweet cravings I have. Oh, and blueberries. I polish off a plastic carton a day. They rarely last for two days. Low carb yogart is also good.

When I was pregnant, I was gestationally diabetic. I got a book The Art of Cooking for the Diabetic by Mary Abbot Hess and Katherine Middleton. It became my bible and I still use the recipes. A consultation, if you have not already, with a diabetic educator and a diatician would be helpful to establish your guidelines. I am considered borderline, and I have found the lower carb approach works for me. Dana Carpender's cookbooks have some great recipes, also. The biggest problem I have seen with diabetic patients and their diets is they think they are limited, not realizing they have to change the way they eat, not limit themselves to what their "traditional" diet allows. They get bored, get cravings and fall off the wagon.

There is no reason you both cannot enjoy food. If you find the right plan and are creative, you will be eating "better" than ever!

I gained 60 lbs in under 2 years (145-205). This was the result of injuries & pain (foot, knee, leg & toe), dietary changes (I went from being a vegetarian for 3 years to eating meat again) & getting married (the woman can cook). The pain that I've had has prevented me from being as active as I was in the past (I used to hike between 25-35 miles per week on average), even with pain medication & ergonomic gear. I recently decided to change the way that I eat. I've lost 17 lbs since January 1st.

I drink mostly water & juice. If I have coffee or tea, I don't allow myself to add sugar or cream/milk (it's an acquired taste). I don't drink sodas (not even diet). There's research that shows that people that drink diet sodas don't lose any more weight than people that drink regular sodas (it fails to satisfy & may even heighten sugar cravings). I only eat low glycemic foods (do a Google search for "low GI foods" on a regular basis (I'll reward myself on the weekends with a light & sweet food if I lost a reasonable amount of weight that week). I eat more often to boost my metabolic rate. When you eat more often, you can actually consume more calories than you did before because you're training your body to burn calories more efficiently/quickly, which is good because if you're not taking vitamins this gives you the opportunity to get more nutritional value from your food. I only eat meat for dinner & I only eat the recommended portion (fist-sized). Below is a sample of what I'll be eating today (I don't eat the same thing every day). Keep in mind that this is a work in progress, that I still need to tweak some things for added nutrition & that there's no one size fits all solution when it comes to diet & health.

• 1st breakfast - 1 boiled egg w/ 1 cup of orange juice
• 2nd breakfast - 1 cup of assorted berries & 1 cup of yogurt (plain, non-fat w/ active cultures)
• 1st lunch - 1 cup of assorted nuts & an apple
• 2nd lunch - chunky tomato soup (not the crap in the can that's loaded w/ sodium)
• 1st dinner - whatever the hell I want as long as the meat portion is reasonable & vegetables are included
• 2nd dinner (aka dessert) - cherries & grapes

This website has been helpful to me in determining what I can & can't buy at the grocery store. Once I understand which foods I can eat, it's easier for me to come up with good recipes.

Mike's diet is an excellent idea. I also reccomend springing for GOOD fruit and produce when yo utilize this diet. It'll cost you a bit more but you're not buying sodas. And eliminate all processed foods like frozen/microwave dinners. Even the diet ones.

Have been using this site somewhat. http://www.drgourmet.com/

I like that he looks at food beyond the calorie count or one or two other factors, but at sodium, additives and all the other things we don't think about as much as well. I have been watching my sodium more closely, trying to cut out sodas and just eat a bit better...and this was one of the few sites I found that didn't rely on food that was pre-made, diet catch phrase of the week and laden with things I couldn't pronounce much less know what they really were.

The site is written by a medical doctor and he has plans for diabetics and coumadin users. If you sign up for the menu planner you can customize it to your preferences and it makes use of leftovers so it's not insanely expensive or wasteful.