July Week 2: Bouncing Back Eating Plan

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me! Fool me multiple times,shame on sugar and carbohydrates!

During the time of my almost two decades in clinical practice, I have seen many weight mastery success stories. Over this time, I have also seen many successful weight masters get delayed or thwarted on their journey to weight mastery and often the major culprit is consuming too much sugar and/or carbohydrates.

To me, the defining distinction of someone who finally masters their relationship with weight and themselves is the person who learns the skill of consuming less than 150 grams of carbohydrates a day. And, if these masters wind up going over that amount and eat too many carbs, even over multiple days, they know how to quickly shift their food intake and bounce both their mind and body back from the influence of too many carbs and move forward on their journey with very little damage.

This week, I would like to explore that skill of noticing you have gone too far and stopping yourself from overeating carbs with a focused way of eating to re-balance your mind and body and get back on track as soon as possible.

BOUNCING BACK EATING PLAN

1. STAY ON TRACK DAILY BY EATING BELOW 150 GRAMS OF CARBOHYDRATES A DAY: The best cure for getting on track is staying on track in the first place (we learned this last week). According to nutritional therapist Julia Ross, when we eat over 150 grams of carbohydrates per day, we throw both our body and our brain’s balance off.
   
   We throw our body’s balance off by creating blood sugar imbalances that cause us to feel hungrier (false hunger) and therefore eat more.
   
   We throw off the amino acid balance in our brain, depleting our stores and we trigger our reward system neurotransmitters that go into overdrive, stimulating us to eat more carbohydrates.
   
   The impact is that we end up feeling more hungry, thinking about food more and it becomes very hard to stay within our body’s calorie budget for weight release.
   
   The best cure is to stay within this range—which is very do-able, especially if you make the majority of your carbohydrate intake wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables, which not only fill you up, but nourish you and balance your system.
2. INTERCEPT THE SIGNS OF CARB OVERLOAD BY EARLY DETECTION: Last year, I was in Europe, land of amazing bread and chocolate. Because I have learned the skill I am speaking of, I was able to not only survive but thrive with my eating, feeling in charge the whole time. Did I eat bread and chocolate? Heck yes! But I kept it to a minimum and counter balanced my carb intake with plenty of protein.
   
   However, the last couple of days, because of travel plans that got changed, I was put in a position where my protein intake fell below where I like to keep it, around 60 grams per day (a good minimum for most women) and ate more carbs as a result.
   
   What happened? I started feeling hungier and craving more carbs of course. Fortunately, I know the feeling of the pull of the “too many carbs” feeling and was able to intercept immediately.
   
   What are the signs of carb overload?
   • Feeling hungrier.
   • Meals don’t satisfy your need for food.
   • Thinking about food and your next meal more.
   • Over eating and binge eating.
   
   The next thing to do is get into action by changing your eating. Do not take the overeating, binge eating or “bad” eating, personally, it happens to everyone. Just commit to getting yourself back on track as soon as possible.
3. USE THIS REFOCUS EATING PLAN FOR THREE DAYS STRAIGHT
   When we over eat carbohydrates and imbalance our mind and body, we need to strive to restore balance as soon as possible. The good news: both the body and brain bounce back from imbalance quickly and we can turn off the drive to overeat and quell our hunger and need to think about food all of the time by using just a few powerful eating tools for about 3 days straight.
   
   a. Once you intercept your carbohydrate imbalanced eating, make your very next meal protein based.
   b. Drink water to flush out your system. Don’t drown yourself, but just make a point to stay hydrated.
   c. Focus on eating 15-20 grams of protein at every meal and 5 grams or more at snack time. Make sure your protein intake is about 60 grams a day for a woman and 80 grams a day for a man.
   d. Keep your carbohydrate under 100 grams per day for three days. This will shut down your hunger and switch off the drive to eat carbs. How do you do this without feeling deprived? Keep your carb intake to fruits and vegetables for the most part—this will keep your carbohydrate intake low and perhaps one serving of refined carbs per day.
   e. Keep this way of eating going for three days straight. This gives your mind and body the time to recover and get back on track.
   
   Start to tune in this week and try keeping your food plan in this range and try the bounce back eating plan if you find yourself getting off track. I hope you will discover, like I did, the magic of this mind body stabilizing formula.

Have a great week—I am leaving you with a simple but satisfying no sugar recipe—one of my favorites!

LOW CARB, HIGH PROTEIN RECIPE FOR PLAN

• Banana Eggs (1 serving)
• This makes a great snack or breakfast—its sweet but light.
• Mash up and sauté a banana in a pan with some non-stick spray or a teaspoon of butter. Saute for about a minute. Add in ½ cup egg whites or an egg plus one egg white. Stir the mixture whole it cooks and the egg sets.
• Serve.
• Carbs 27 grams
• Protein 23 grams
• Calories 200- 250 depending on the eggs and size of banana.

Here's to a balanced week!