#Lowcarb Philosophy - My Own

There is low carb, and there is low carb. There are those that eat only organic and grass-fed and reject every sugar, starch, and sweet food (no matter what the sweetener used) out there. Then there are those who follow the most liberal of low carb plans which allow a couple of carb servings a day but limit total carb intake to 100g. And we're somewhere in-between. We can't afford to go organic/free-range/grass-fed, and I would gain weight if I were to follow the more liberal plans - which is more like what my husband likes to follow.

Since my surgery a lot has changed with my digestive processes and how my body handles food. During my long recovery I ate small amounts of carbier foods (applesauce, mashed potatoes, for example). And since that time I have never gone back to a strict starch-free diet although I don't eat sugars at all. I am limiting my intake of grains - even low carb grain-based foods, though. But baked potatoes are one thing that I haven't given back up, and probably won't. They don't seem to affect me in any way.

Back to grains though...I feel a need to really limit myself more in this department, especially wheat. I use CarbQuik, carbolose, vital wheat gluten, Wheat Protein Isolate 5000, and (rarely) wheat bran in my baking. It seems to be fine for my husband who has no issues with any of it, and for my 32MO grandson who eats white bread and buns and fast food when he's not with us, so at least that's an improvement for him when he's here... But though I can't put my finger on it, I just have a sense that I need to limit my intake of wheat specifically, and possibly all grains - even my oat fiber and flax meal. I will continue to bake as I have for my family, but think I need to do more to provide substitutes for myself so that I won't have to resort to eating what I've made for them, if I just want a piece of toast or something. And, I'm happy enough with my couple of potatoes a week that I don't feel as much of a need for bread-y foods anyway. So that's something I'm working on now.

Prepared foods is another issue I'm thinking about more. I'm not a fan. I like to fix everything - EVERYTHING - from scratch. In an ideal world this is how I would be. In my reality, however, I'm not stressing over a couple of frozen pizzas every month (which my husband loves!), or whatever. Whatever processed foods I buy are SO minimal, that's the only example I can think of! Oh yeah, spaghetti sauce. A single jar of which lasts us a couple of weeks. Looking back on this paragraph, I realize I'd be obsessing if I concerned myself with that, so I can release my concerns that I'm harming my family now - yay! (Sometimes it's good just to write things out...see them in black and white, and they make sense!)

As you can see, I'm pretty far from either end of the spectrum. I have my feet firmly planted in my own reality, the reality that includes strict budgets, unexpected car repairs, illnesses, a finicky 32MO boy who is here for most meals, and - especially since a major, life-changing, serious surgery 13 months ago - the realization that eating part of a frozen pizza will probably not shorten my life or impact my health in any major way. So I eat my 20-30gN of carbs - keeping my fat content high, consisting of meats and lots of vegetables, some dairy, maybe some seeds or nuts as snacks - nearly every day. And I go up to maybe 50gN, or even 75gN one day a week (or less). It's been working well for me all through the holiday season, I've even lost 7# in the last couple of months! :)

Not sure if my philosophy of low carb is evolving or what, but so far so good! Meanwhile, if you know of a REAL pizza crust, that tastes and has the mouth feel of a REAL pizza crust but is low carb, maybe I lied just a little when I said I'd stop obsessing about prepared foods... :)