More Food, Less Calories... Naturally

Hi,

I have not posted here for a long time. I got off track and did not want to continually share with you about my "always" doing the wrong thing. I have put back on more than half of the weight I had taken off and that is so discouraging to live with and have to admit.

I recently stumbled across a guy named Jeff Novick who is a humorous nutritionist. Listening to his video on Youtube was easy because he has such a logical and simple approach. He is a vegan who endorses the McDougall Program. I've had a problem with the McDougall Program ever since I did it in the mid '90s. It was while I was on that program that my feet started to daily swell up. I concluded that it was from his "starch based" approach.

After I discovered that I am a carbohydrate addict, it began to make sense. I know that if I sit for too long at the computer in conjunction with eating junk food, or even healthy food that has starchy carbs in it, my feet will become the size of posts. In listening to Jeff Novick I became tempted to try out some of what he says without actually going vegan, again. I think I need some animal protein in my diet. It helps to keep my blood sugar stable.

I am feeling motivated to try out his calorie density theories. He talks about the volume of a food in relation to the number of calories for that food. It is a way of reducing your calorie intake without limiting or reducing your actual volume of food.  On one of his charts he shows the different calorie counts of a pound of certain foods. On the left he has broccoli and on the right he has olive oil with fruits, meats and unrefined carbs in between the two extremes.  Even though it would be ridiculous to actually try to consume a pound of olive oil, the numbers on the chart let you know whether a food has a low or high caloric density which is useful information.

Some food, like the broccoli, has a much lower calorie count for one pound than others. He points out that vegetables whether cooked or raw continue to have the same calorie density. Meaning that if you were to eat a pound of broccoli you would end up being very full because it has a lot of volume, but it would not put fat on your body because the calorie count would still be low.

His presentation reminded me about the volume of vegetables and how you can eat more and suffer no conscience or remorse because it has lots of nutrients and will not make you fat. He also lists fruit which has more calories than most vegetables but way less than, say, olive oil or oreo cookies. The foods that are calorie dense and therefore to be avoided are processed foods (i.e.: oreos) and meats or animal proteins.

I found his DVD called "Calorie Density, How to eat more, weigh less and live longer" and ordered it. He has no qualms about cooking his veggies, which I like. I know I used to be married to the idea that my veggies needed to be raw to be of benefit but have since found that my blood sugars don't go up when I eat cooked veggies and I like the fact that I can buy them frozen and they don't go bad so fast as raw does.

I was also tempted to try to eat grains again, because he says that "whole grains" while being more dense than veggies are not as dense as oil.  But this time, I went back in my blog to my previous "grain experiments" and after re-reading them, decided to not go through that again, so I am back to the tried and true: veg and meat approach. I'm going to do a lot less protein, this time, though. I don't need to eat half a pound of hamburger in one sitting. This will reduce the number of calories per meal and allow for more vegetables, meaning larger meals with fewer calories which should, hopefully, allow for a loss of actual weight.

I guess I'll try it out and then let you know how it goes. 

Be back soon,

Marcia