Tagged: 31 superfoods

Getting Family Support

A big question I get concerns other family members. “How will I get them to eat 130 carbs a day?” Well, my answer is that you might now want to have them eat that much. Let’s look at this problem together and come up with a strategy. We have two goals.

  1. We’d like our families to support our efforts to fight our Type 2 Diabetes.
  2. We’d like our family members, as much as they are able to do so, to avoid getting Type 2 Diabetes.

There is a national epidemic of Type 2 Diabetes sweeping the nation. It is estimated that 1 in 10 people in our nation may soon have Type 2 Diabetes! Much of this is due to a terrible diet. We hold three to five major holidays a year that focus on giving kids candy. We believe being good neighbors means giving kids cookies. And, we often plan to end every meal with something sweet. There are approximately 40 carbs in a slice of apple pie. If you add that to mashed potatoes, a roll, salad dressing, a sweet drink and some carbs from the sauce, you could easily have your entire 130 carbs there. This is why we as a nation are obese and why Type 2 Diabetes is an epidemic.

Add to that, kids like sugar, see their friends eating sugar, and wonder why their strange parent(s) won’t give them normal food like everyone else. I’ve also met married couples where the one without Type 2 Diabetes says “I’m sorry you have this condition but I don’t and I’m not eating like that.”

It’s not as simple as saying “everyone needs to eat what I eat and how I eat it!” There is more and more research that suggests that some people tolerate carbs better than others. If this is so, it may be that people who are Pre-Diabetic or Type 2 Diabetic are less able to process carbs than members of their family who do not have that problem. I live with a family full of athletes. It is nothing for a member of my family to run 4 or 5 miles a day. Runner’s World recommends that a long distance runner eat 3-5 carbs a day for every lb of weight. If a runner weighs 150 lbs, he’ll need to consume as many as 750 carbs to keep glycogen in his muscles for running.

In other words, his meals shouldn’t look like mine! I shouldn’t be giving him or anyone else a guilt trip because they eat more than I do. It’s not as simple as everyone eat 130 carbs a day. You should visit your doctor and work out a plan. My recommendation of 130 carbs a day is for Type 2 Diabetics or Pre-Diabetics who want to aggressively fight Type 2 Diabetes. My target weight is 180 lbs. I intend to continue my daily 40 minute workouts of interval training for the foreseeable future. For that lifestyle, 130 carbs (or 135 in my case), is sufficient to lose weight, stay energetic, and control Type 2 Diabetes. I can’t say this loud enough: Talk to your doctor! While the general target for Crimson Riders is 130 carbs a day and 40 minutes of exercise 4-5 times a week, I actually eat 135 carbs a day. In other words, I tailored my lifestyle to me!

So, I have two key things you can do to help you achieve your goals and help your family. The first, is don’t feed your family garbage. Cookies, sponge cake, candy, and junk like that is not loving. Those are empty carbs that burn too quickly to give them any benefit. Feed your family good foods from the 31 Super Foods list, including carbs! High fiber carbohydrates with low sugar amounts like oatmeal and quinoa can fuel your family without spiking their blood sugars. Second, understand that they may eat more than you if they have an active lifestyle that demands more carbs. Just because your kid eats three slices of the almond crust pizza (which is delicious and we’ll post that recipe soon) doesn’t mean you have to eat three.

One final word about this. Some Crimson Riders don’t have Type 2 Diabetes or Pre-Diabetes. They love people who are in that boat! If you are married to or live with someone affected by Diabetes, lovingly and gently encourage them to fight the disease by eating the Recommended Daily Allowance of Carbohydrates (130) for an average person who works out for the minimum amount of 20-40 minutes four times a week. Don’t eat garbage in front of your fellow Crimson Riders. It means so much when your partner lives well and encourages you to do the same.

How are you supporting the people you love in terms of developing a healthy lifestyle? No complaining! Tell us what you’re doing that’s working!

Jim Lenze

Sources
http://www.runnersworld.com/for-beginners-only/what-are-my-carb-needs-for-half-training

Let’s Get Radical!

This is my first post! We’ll talk about why your blood sugars are out of control even with a moderate diet. Let’s get started!

You’re lying on the couch because your blood sugar is running high and it feels like someone hit you in the face with a hammer. Worst of all, you did everything right. You had one serving of whole grain pasta with spaghetti sauce and even substituted lean ground turkey for the beef. You drank skim milk and skipped dessert! You even used whole wheat bread instead of French bread for the garlic toast.

But it gets worse! When you started to feel badly, you got your blood lancet and fired that trigger. It hurt, but no blood showed up. You pressed harder, fired again, and still no blood. You shook your hand so blood would go to your fingers and fired once more. Then the blasted meter said 220. Why?

You’re not alone. That scenario commonly plays out for people with Type 2 Diabetes. After the diagnosis, you committed to changing your diet, eating in moderation, and working our regularly, even if it meant taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

There are several obstacles standing between you and success. They are as follows.

  1. Moderate diets don’t work.
  2. You need more than a little exercise.
  3. You’re eating the wrong foods.

Let’s start with your diet. The Institute of Medicine sets the Daily Recommended Allowance (RDA) of Carbohydrates at 130 per day. The spaghetti dinner mentioned above probably included the following.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti – 37 Carbs
Spaghetti Sauce – 9 Carbs
Whole Wheat Toast – 14 Carbs
Skim Milk – 11 Carbs
Ground Turkey – 0 Carbs
Butter – 0 Carbs
Total Carbs = 71

If you watched breakfast, lunch, and snacks carefully, you might keep your carb totals down around 150, but that’s still more than the RDA of 130. Most people, however, eat around the same number of carbs at each meal and half that number at each snack. Here are those totals!

• Breakfast – 70 carbs
• 10 am Snack – 35 carbs
• Lunch – 70 carbs
• 3 pm Snack – 35 carbs
• Dinner 70 carbs
• Evening Snack – 35 carbs
Total Carbs = 315 carbs!

That’s almost 3 times the RDA! No wonder you have a high blood sugar! Moderation doesn’t work! But, it doesn’t have to be that way!

There are steps you can take, no matter where you are right now in terms of weight, fitness, or lifestyle. You can turn this around without spending money on gyms, diet programs, or embarrassing support groups.

Follow these three guidelines with consultation with your primary care physician!
1. Build a diet around healthy foods!
2. Limit your carbohydrate intake to 130 carbs per day.
3. Exercise for at least 40 minutes a day at least four days a week.

You might call that radical. I call it doable. It may also raise some interesting questions.
1. How will I find time to exercise like that?
2. What kinds of exercise should I do?
3. How will I convince my family to eat like that?
4. How will I overcome being hungry all the time?
5. Where can I find a list of healthy foods?

This site will help answer all those questions! And, remember this. I’m not a physician. I’m a man with Type 2 Diabetes. I started out with an A1C of 7.9 and weighed in at 250 lbs. I’m less than six feet tall and I’m over 50. After one year of fighting diabetes instead of living with it, I have an A1C of 5.7 and I weigh 215 lbs. I’m still losing weight and I don’t take any Diabetes medications. I didn’t develop a new pill or discover a secret. It’s diet and exercise!

I limit carbs in the following manner.

• Breakfast – 30 carbs
• 10 am Snack – 15 carbs
• Lunch – 30 carbs
• 3 pm Snack – 15 carbs
• Dinner 30 carbs
• Evening Snack – 15 carbs
Total Carbs = 135 carbs!

I use a YouTube videos for exercise. My wife and I center our diet on 31 superfoods that can be found in any grocery store and taste great! No secrets! No gimmicks! Just the right tools to fight Type 2 Diabetes!

I hope you’ll subscribe to my site and come back as I post blog articles and videos that answer the questions posed above. And those are just the beginning! What are your questions? Post them on this site and I will do my best to answer them!

Jim Lenze
A Crimson Rider!