How To Eat Low Carb
Cutting carbohydrate consumption is crucial for staying healthy, crucial. Protein and fat are essential, carbs are not. We have gotten progressively sicker following government guidelines to include more carby foods like whole grains and fruit into our diets, too much grains and fruit as it turns out along with a bunch of other processed food. Believe it or not, I frequently get asked about this, below is how I do it. I want for nothing in the way of sweets.
Part of what makes this easier for me is not eating breakfast. The list is a typical day.
- Cereal
- Bread
- Pasta
- Most fruit
- Rice
- Starches
- Soda
- Cookies
- Regular ice cream
- Regular tortillas
- Beer
- Probably 100 other things not on my radar
1. Coffee
I have a latte with almond milk around 7am. The "milk" has a fraction of 1 carb. Mid-morning, I have regular coffee with a little butter in it. IMO, neither the "milk" nor butter are enough to start the digestive process which preserves the fast.
2. Meat/cheese/eggs/fish
My first meal is usually between 11am and noon and is some combo of meat, chees, eggs and fish. This is zero carbs.
3. Quest Bar & Ratio Yogurt
Quest bars are filling and yogurt is pretty important. Quest bars have 4 grams of carbs and Ratio yogurt has 2 grams of carbs. I usually have these about an hour after breakfast so by 1pm or so, I've only had 6 carbs, plus a touch more from the "milk."
4. Snacks
I snack on Cheese Bites from Trader Joe's which have no carbs, Chomps (kind of like a Slim Jim) which have no carbs, almonds which have 3-4 carbs for the quantity I eat, peanut butter which has 4-5 carbs for the quantity I eat and dark chocolate which is 2-3 carbs for the quantity I eat. A handful of blackberries has 3 grams or a handful of blueberries has 8 carbs which are both low for fruit. I don't all of those things every day, more like rotate among them. At worst I am at maybe 26 or 27 carbs by dinner time.
5. Other
After I lift weights, 2x week in the morning, I have protein powder in water which is 2 carbs. Mid afternoon I have an iced latte which might be less than 1 carb with the almond milk but occasionally I add in a half ounce of Bailys Irish Cream (actually the Costco knockoff) which has 5 carbs in it. So if I've consumed all that in a day, which would be rare, I am at about 34 carbs for the day. For a little context, 1 cup of Raisin Bran cereal has 41 carbs and good luck eating just 1 cup.
6. Dinner
I don't diligently track carbs for dinner. Plenty of dinners are zero carb with meat/fish and broccoli. We make Mexican food a couple of times/wk, I eat low carb tortilla which have 4 carbs each and usually I'll have three of those when we have Mexican. The refried beans have a few carbs to be sure but don't ever exceed 1 serving of those. When we have pasta and sauce, I eat something called Miracle Noodles which although flavorless are zero carb. With burgers, we'll often have some sort of French fry and those do have carbs but no where near as much as cereal. We do have a couple of legit carby, processed food dinners in our rotation but using minimal sauce brings the carb quantity way down. I doubt dinner ever exceeds 40 carbs. For context a serving of 2/3 of a cup of pasta has 42 carbs and good luck eating just 2/3 of a cup.
7. Dessert
There are plenty of keto ice cream choices which range from 2-4 carbs. I get ice cream like this on a stick for better carb control. As mentioned above dark chocolate defined as 72% cacao or higher, is very low carb.
8. Total
So at the absolute worst, I'm at 79-80 carbs. Half the time though, dinner is zero carb and I never eat all those snacks. Under 50 would be the more realistic count with some days under 30. It wouldn't be much of an adjustment to get under 20 if I thought I need to. Quest bar, Ratio yogurt, dark chocolate, blackberries and ice cream would add up to 17.
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