Week Two - Thirty Day Reset
Well done for completing the first week of the Thirty Day Reset!
How do you feel in yourself for having less pasta, rice, bread etc?
Tracking is pretty time consuming but did you find it informative to know what you are actually eating?
What do you feel you did well?
Have a read about what we are going to do for the week ahead and set yourself some goals for the week ahead:
Week Two!
Plan! Plan out your food and send it through to me (in whatever form you need).
Carbs - (if you feel you are ready to) start to introduce more carbohydrates in to your diet but try to avoid 'white' rice, pasta, bread and potatoes. Try to have no more than 55% of carbohydrates within your diet and continue to stay away from processed foods. You can use the 'Two Week Plan' on the website for meal ideas.
Tracking - this week you may feel that you do not need to track your food as much as you know the content of the food - but to reach your goal, you may need to dig deep and keep tracking to know exactly what you are eating.
Exercise - plan out at least 3 x 30 minutes of high intensity exercise across the week and make sure you have 150 minutes across the week of moderate exercise (brisk walking, jogging or running). You can use the Trainerize app for this to record your exercise and there are supplementary exercise videos on the member's area (password:smile).
You can do this!
Additional Info...
Taking white bread and white potatoes, as well as white rice and white pasta, out of your diet can be helpful for weight loss. Because of the way your body processes these four foods, they can lead to cravings for carbohydrates, also called sugars. By eliminating them, you decrease food cravings, making it easier to eat less and lose weight.
The main problem with white rice, bread, pasta and potatoes is that they trigger a cycle of food craving. After you eat them, they release a sudden spike of sugar in your bloodstream. Your body responds to that extra sugar by releasing insulin. Insulin is a hormone your pancreas makes that allows sugar to enter your cells, lowering the amount of sugar in your blood.
Because your blood sugar level goes up quickly after eating these foods, your body may release more insulin than it really needs. The extra insulin causes blood sugar to then drop lower than normal. When your body senses low blood sugar, you crave more carbohydrates. When you eat them, they once again raise your blood sugar, starting the cycle over. The result of this process is that you eat more food, more often.
In addition, as you eat more of these foods, your body needs to process all the extra sugar. Although some sugar is burned off as energy, most is converted into fat, leading to weight gain.
To get beyond the cycle of food cravings, have a go at completely avoiding white bread, white rice, white pasta and potatoes for two weeks. After that, you can introduce them back into your diet in smaller, reasonable amounts.
Those two weeks can be hard because your body will have strong cravings for these foods. But during that time, the cravings should gradually decrease. Eating plant-based proteins such as nuts, beans and lentils can help. Lean meat and fish also can be good sources of healthy protein to include in your diet instead of rice, pasta, bread and potatoes.
Keep in mind, too, that the whole-grain alternatives of some of these foods can be healthy options if you eat them in moderation and keep portion sizes reasonable. Whole grains have not had the bran and germ removed through milling. Whole grains can be single foods, such as brown rice and popcorn, as well as ingredients in other products, such as whole wheat in bread.
Although avoiding white bread, pasta, rice and potatoes can be a useful step toward weight loss, it should be done as part of a healthy program that includes a balanced diet, along with exercise.