Strawberry Spinach Salad with Chicken and Homemade Italian Dressing
Two nights ago, I can't remember why, but I started researching the Paleo diet. It's pretty intense. We have a few friends who did the Whole30 and lost a lot of weight while gaining lots of energy, and loved it. Though I am not looking to lose any weight until our baby's born (only 8+/- weeks left!), I definitely want more energy as this part of the third trimester is beginning to drag. I sleep a lot at night and sometimes nap, and still don't have bouncing energy.
A lot of what I realized through researching Paleo is that many people use it to find out which foods are giving them problems, such as dairy or grains. I am 99% sure that I have no problem with dairy or grains, but I know I have a sugar problem. The problem with that is that both dairy and grains turn to sugar when digested, not to mention sugar is in almost everything and is highly addictive. The body's reactions to sugar is very similar to those of addictive drugs. No, it won't do what meth does, but it releases similar endorphins that street drugs do and produces a dependency that is incredibly hard to kick. Check out this slideshow about sugar addiction.
The USDA recommends an American woman consume no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar a day, and no more than 9 for a man. There's 11 teaspoons in a Coke, so that means less than half a Coke assuming you're eating zero sugar anywhere else (which is impossible unless you make all your own food). Some of the sneakiest sources of sugar come from salad dressings, ketchup, any sauce, soup, marinade, crackers, bread (yes, even the whole wheat store kind), and peanut butter. In fact, the average American consumes 150 pounds of sugar a year, which converts to a pound of sugar every few days. That's crazy!
I've known for ages that I have a problem without a certain amount of sugar in my diet. I don't even drink Cokes or eat obvious sugary junk food (most of the time) but being pregnant has increased my sugar cravings and I've noticed lately more and more that I just want carbs. A biscuit with apple butter, a cookie (or several), pancakes, bread, whatever. None of these are long-energy and therefore burn up really fast, making me hungry again pretty quickly even though they're high calorie. Lose-lose for me, except for the quick release of endorphins right after eating them.
So yesterday I decided to start on a semi-Paleo eating plan. I'm doing semi because if it's too strict I'll probably go crazy, and that's not worth it while pregnant. I've read several articles about women who switched entirely when they were pregnant, but I'm giving myself the leniency to eat some cheese or drink some milk if I need it. I'm going to do my best, but making such a huge switch right now is a little scary, I'll be honest. I'll be eating lots of fruit to try to curb the sugar cravings, and if I make it through successfully, my taste buds should be retrained to not want anything sweeter than fruit.
I loaded up on meat, nuts, and produce yesterday at Earth Fare, and so far so good. I'm only on Day 2, but earlier today right before lunch I felt sick to my stomach and lightheaded. It could be because I needed more food earlier, but I was also just craving a biscuit. I always will reach for the baked potato before the steak, so switching to a high protein low carb diet is going to be difficult for me. Nevertheless, I'm going to do my best. There's no time like the present, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment