Low Carb Keeps Me Healthy
I get a lot of flak about my diet. I eat low-carb most of the time. Not super-strict, like Atkins — though I’ve done the Atkins Diet and liked it pretty well — but more a “careful carb choice” approach.
I eat far less bread and fewer grain products than most people I know. I avoid starchy vegetables like potatoes and corn, as well as sweet vegetables like carrots and peas. I don’t eat beans. My vegetables tend toward the green, leafy kind. Or the bright, crunchy kind. Kale, spinach, bell peppers, tomatoes, all kinds of lettuce ….
I eat lots of meat. And more fat than most people. Olive oil, coconut oil, butter, nut oils, and sesame oils are “frequent flyers” in my cooking pans.
I eat very little sugar. Fruit, especially berries, pomegranate, mango, or melon, is my dessert. Some peanut M&Ms once in a while. A Cappuccino Blast as an occasional treat. A slab of high-quality dark chocolate is my “naughty” pleasure. But no soda, no candy (except the M&Ms), none of that stuff. I make sugar-free desserts occasionally, when I want something sweet for after dinner.
I don’t count calories. I don’t count fat grams. I consider carb grams.
And I eat a topsy-turvy meal plan compared to most Americans. Breakfast is my biggest, most calorie-dense meal, with lunch a close second. Both of those meals may be as much as 1000 calories apiece. Supper is small and frugal, often only 500 calories or so. I seldom snack between meals — I don’t need to. The fat in my meals keeps me satiated until the next one. Since the typical American eats a small breakfast and lunch, and a large dinner, my meal plan puts me in the “odd” category.
So I get a lot of flak, especially from people who don’t know that most of my excess weight is due to several rounds of steroids that I had to take in the last few years. Steroid weight is second only to baby weight when it comes to being hard to get the pounds off. And since I’m 100 pounds overweight, well, I get a lot of flak.
A lot of people also assume that I’m terribly unhealthy. I’m not. Besides the avoirdupois and some serious allergies that cause a constant, chronic cough, I’m actually quite fit. And I can prove it, thanks to my doctor’s recent decision to do a complete blood workup and lipid profile on me.
Most people who are very overweight, like me, have high blood pressure. My blood pressure stays pretty steadily around 120 over 70, which is what it was when I was 16, weighed 100 pounds, and ran ten miles a day.
Most people who are morbidly obese, like me, have high cholesterol. My doctor did a lipid profile and my results are excellent:
- Overall cholesterol 143 ….. (good is less than 200)
- HDL (good) cholesterol 46 ….. (good is anything above 40)
- LDL (bad) cholesterol 74 ….. (good is less than 130)
- Triglycerides 115 ….. (good is less than 150)
The average coronary risk for women in my age group is 4.44.
Mine is 3.11.
Most people who are as overweight as I am are also diabetic. I was diagnosed with diabetes in 2008. But I do not take insulin or any diabetic medication at all. My diet keeps the diabetes well under control. The proof is in my A1C test, which came back with a 5.7. Diabetics are doing well if they keep their A1C under 7.0.
AND my estimated average blood glucose came back at 116.9. Since I test it only once a week and it invariably shows between 85 and 90, my doctor tells me that I’m to keep on doing whatever I am doing, because it’s working.
Oh, and for those who keep telling me that I’m going to kill my kidneys with my high-protein diet: my BUN is 19 (normal is between 7 and 25), and my creatinine is .98 (normal is .6 to 1.3). My kidneys are very happy — probably in part because I don’t tax them with coffee and soda, but instead give them at least three-quarters of a gallon of water a day.
Obviously, my diet works for me. I am slowly losing the steroid weight and all of my important health indicators are outrageously excellent. And that’s the only confirmation I need. Low-carb keeps me healthy.