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What is a Glycemic Index?

We have all seen it on food packages or heard people talking about it, generally it is used when someone refers to something as a low GI type food. But what does it really mean? Why do we need to know if something is low GI? Is it beneficial?

The Glycemic Index or GI is a system which ranks carbohydrate rich foods, things like bread, sugar and fruit, the system ranks how quickly your blood sugar rises after you’ve eaten them, it is something people with diabetes find very useful.

Food with a moderate to high GI level can give your blood suagrs a spike but they won’t keep you satisfied for long.

Moderate to high GI foods include, sugar, lollies, many types of biscuits, soft drinks, alcohol, white bread, short-grain rice, rice noodles and most processed breakfast cereals.

Foods with low GI release their carbohydrates into your system slowly. They will help you feel fuller faster and keep you feeling full for longer.

You can find low GI in most fruits, legumes, peas, wholegrain bread, rye bread, sourdough bread, rolled oats, natural muesli, basmati rice, noodles, pasta, yoghurt and milk.

So in answer to the questions at the beginning of this post we should all now have a good understanding of what GI means and how the low GI foods can help us feel satisfied for longer. The list I have mentioned above includes a lot of low GI foods, if you know more please feel free to add to the list by leaving a comment.

Tags: carbohydrate, foods, GI, glycemic index, low GI

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Do you get enough fibre?

I have found that since I have started on this journey of losing weight, I am finding out interesting things about foods that I never knew before, so from my research on the internet and in books I am finding about how beneficial some foods can be and how some foods are not.

Take fibre for instance, did you know that fibre can help us feel fuller whilst cutting down the kilojoules, and both types of fibre, soluble and insoluble help with health risks.

Research in to soluble fibre has shown evidence of reducing the risk of heart disease and some cancers. For people who have diabetes, it helps regulate glucose levels.

Insoluble fibre reduces the risk of bowel cancer.

Get more fibre into you diet, here are some ideas to help:

From ths shop grab wholegrain breads and cereals, snack on things like air popped popcorn.
Have an apple, orange or grapefruit each day.
Add things like barley, oats or oat-bran to meatloaf, soups and stews.
Add beans to soups and salads

Share some of the ways you get fibre into your diet.

Tags: cancer, fibre, losing weight

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A small gain, time to reveal my downfall

I have a confession, I really enjoy drinking beer, and even mroe so I enjoy drinking free beer, I don’t know why but I believe it tastes better, I went to a house warming on Saturday night, I didn’t drink heaps, but over the course of the day I drank 6 beers in total. The thing is I never used to like beer, infact I hated the taste, but as I got older I grew fond of it, very fond of it, I don’t drink it to get drunk, I have my limit and that’s it.

Probably not the best idea seeing as though I am in the weight loss game, it didn’t help me this week and thankfully my gain was .2kg, I can work that off this week and also some extra. mmmm extra dry… See I can’t help it, I love a cold beer especially this one.

So I have decided no beer this weekend. It can be done, I have no house warmings to go to.

Tags: beer, weight loss

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Vitamins A, C and E

How are you going with the calcium and potassium? Did you try the banana smoothie recipe, if not check out my previous post.

Did you know Vitamins A, C and E are packed with loads of antioxidants?
Antioxidants are believed to prevent and repair damaged body cells, promote a good immune system and help protect us from some diseases including cancer.

To boost your intake of these great vitamins A and C, eat a variety of orange, yellow and red fruits and vegetables, as well as plenty of green leafy vegetables (which are also loaded with iron)
Eat baby carrots and strips of capsicum for snacks.
Try throwing some citrus fruit into salads too.

To get more vitamin E cook with olive, canola, linseed/flaxseed, sunflower or safflower oil, or use these seeds in salad dressings.

You will probably find you already include some of these items and if so that is really great, well done.

Tags: antioxidants, immune system, vitamins

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Do you get enough? Part 1

You know when you start eating properly and watching what you eat, sometimes you might not be getting all you need, and by that I mean all the stuff you need to be healthy, like vitamins and minerals.
Another thing is if you are a vegetarian you have to be extra careful to make sure you get all the nutrients you need to be healthy. In the next few posts I am going to cover off some of the things you should be including (as well as me) in your diet.

Starting with calcium, potassium and magnesium

All of us know the main benefit of the calcium, it’s great for our bones, but did you know it may also reduce the risk for colon and other cancers, as well as the risk of kidney stones.
It also works along side magnesium and potassium to help regular muscle contraction.

Here are some tips to include these in your diet.

Obviously calcium is found in milk, but to add it into foods without drinking it by the glass you can add powdered milk to soups and casseroles. You could also try making hot chocolate, coffee and rolled oats with skim milk and not water. Try adding low fat cheeses tro soups, salads, sandwiches and baked potatoes.

To include potassium into your diet, add tomatoes, capsicum, broccoli and potates to soups, stews and omelettes, have a banana as a morning snack, have some rockmelon after dinner as dessert.

Some tennis players will have a banana as a food snack during a game to give them an energy boost.

To get a benefit all at once, try a banana smoothie, all you need it some skim milk, a banana, some ice and a teaspoon of honey (optional) blend all ingredients and drink. Great boost in the mornings.

To make sure you get enough magnesium add grains such as barley and oats to soups, salads and yoghurt.

Tags: Add new tag, calcium, cancer, magnesium, potassium, tomato

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Another successful weight loss week

Thankfully after last weeks gain, I have had a loss, I lost what I put on last week and doubled it, a total of .8kg, thus a total weight loss since starting 7.5kg! 2.5kg to get to 10kg!!

I am back into the groove and plan on getting my bike serviced this week so I can hop on when I go on paternity leave early November. The plan is to lose as much weight during the paternity leave and come back to work a new person. Someone they wont recognise, this is my new goal!

I have nearly 4 months to accomplish this. I am looking forward to the challenge too.

Tags: paternity leave, weight loss

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Last Thursday weigh in let down

I apologise for the lateness and slackness in me posting something on the site, I have held off, basically the reason is because I have put on weight. I fell into a trap, free lunch for the Australian Football Grand Final, I ate too much. Plain and simple.

I know how and where I went wrong, I also celebrated a little too much too, I got a payrise and we celebrated with wine. Maybe a little too much wine.

So all of this contributed, plus I did not find any time for excercise. I don’t want any of this to sound like an excuse and I know it is, but I admit I was defeated last week. I am hoping to make good this week with another loss, I don’t think it will be as good as my previous loss, but as always a loss is a loss.

So to let you all in, I put on .4kg. I know it isn’t a huge increase but a gain is a gain, and that’s a movement in the wrong direction, I thought it was going to be worse but it’s manageable.

Until tomorrow night, whether it is a loss or a gain, I will post asap.

Tags: australian football grand final, gain, loss

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Out for dinner, lunch at home

I have found this weekend to be a little tough, we had friends over for lunch today, so that was fine because I was in control of what we ate, making it easier for me to keep an eye on what I was eating, after my awesome loss of 1.9kg I have to maintain it.

Last night however was a different story, we went to a friends house for dinner and we were at the mercy of our friend who loves to experiment in the kitchen. When we first walked in to the house we were greeted with the smell of fresh baked bread, not something I eat at night. I try to keep breads and cereals to morning time, I try not to over load on carbs in the evening.

I thought it would be OK, cause if there is bread on the table I could just avoid it. So when it was time to serve up dinner we sat down to a french recipe of prawns and fish in some sort of tomato based sauce, underneath all of this was…you guessed it… the bread.

No avoiding the bread this time round, there was more bread on the table though, I stayed clear. The mead was delightful though, very flavoursome. We also had some of the plum cake my wife made warmed with a little ice-cream. I was OK with what I ate, and left feeling satisfied and happy about how well I had behaved with all the food options in front of me.

I plan to keep this up. I am headed in the right direction to my 10% body weight goal now!

Tags: body, french recipe, prawn, weight

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I lost weight

Another week has gone past and I know I have been a little slack in regards to my posts, however being Thursday and weigh in night, I have some really excellent news!

I have lost 1.9kg in the past week, that is a total weight loss of 7.1kg!

That is an amazing result, last week I managed a loss of .5kg, so I am really pleased with this weeks result.
I knew what had to be done, I remained focussed and kept my eyes on the food I was eating and the amount of water I was drinking. 2 litres every day!

OK I also started some excercise too, I have now started walking on a regular basis, which has obviously helped, now the goal for this week is to maintain what I have been doing. Did you know that you can make excercise a habit?

I did some research into the meaning of a habit.
I found that it can take roughly 30 to 40 repetitions for the average person to form a habit. Think about this, what sort of excercise could you do 30 or 40 times to make it a habit?
What sort of excercise do you like to do? Is it walking, which is a good low impact workout or do you prefer some resistance type training like swimming?

Could you do them enough (like 30 or 40) times so it becomes a habit?
After a while when you find yourself enjoying it more will it still feel like a habit, or will it feel like something worth doing because you have suddenly become passionate about it?

Well I am in the early days of creating my new habit, so far it has been fun and whats more is the fact that I have seen rewards for my hard work. Having the best weeks weight loss yet since this journey began is awesome and really backs up the need to get moving!

Share with us what sort of excercise you enjoy.

Tags: excercise, journey, weight loss

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Mini Goal No. 1 Complete

I wanted to share the exciting news, I had another loss this week of .5kg, thus making a total weight loss of 5.2kg, this means I have reached my first goal!! 5kg down, 35kg to go. The exciting thing is I am finding this weight loss quite easy at the moment, I don’t feel like I am sacrificing what I eat and I never go hungry.

Sure I know the .5kg is not a massive loss, but a loss is a loss, and I am happy to accept it.

I know what went wrong for me this past week and I know what I can do to improve this coming week which should hopefully see my lose another 1kg atleast.
The Royal Show came to Adelaide last week, I went and I ate some things I probably should not of. I assume this was the reason why I had a small loss. Thankfully the Royal Show only comes once a year.

Tags: adelaide, massive loss, the royal show

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