Meg Lingard - February 2014 - Eat a low glycemic diet all month

My February goal was to eat a low glycemic diet all month.

I made it to February 14th. Darn Valentines Day... and those delicious chocolate covered strawberries! I felt so good having sugar out of my system for those first few weeks, but once it was back in I had a hard time not craving sugar and treats for the rest of the month.

This is a goal that is pretty personal to me. It's something that I feel very strongly that I really need to do in my life but it has been so hard for me to really do it. Thus a goal... and it will continue to be a goal until I get this figured out and it has become a part of my lifestyle. I've sort of been dreading this post because 1- I feel like I failed myself this month and 2- I don't know how to even write this down without making it a little personal, but I think that writing it out might help me to really reaffirm my conviction to do this.

So a little Meg history: I learned early on in my marriage that I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome which means a lot of things, but for me it boils down to having a very hard time getting pregnant, staying pregnant, and having babies. I've also learned that it's really quite easy to gain weight and really tough to get it off.

I realize that I am very fortunate to have the children that I have because so many women I know who have PCOS have not been able to have children at all. I'm very, very grateful for that. I've had five pregnancies in the last seven years that have resulted in my amazing 6 year old son, a sweet little baby boy who died when he was born at 21 weeks (this was almost 5 years ago) and my miracle baby who just turned 7 months old. I should probably throw in there that during these precious years where I've been trying to grow my family and deal with this, I was also diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and took a baby making "break" to do chemotherapy and play the waiting game to see if my cancer came back or not.

Phew... is it hot in here to anyone else?

I've felt very betrayed by my body over the past few years. I always thought that I was pretty healthy and took good care of myself... but maybe I was wrong. Surely someone who is taking good care of their body doesn't get cancer in their twenties and is able to get/stay pregnant when they would like to right?

I hit a turning point a little over a year ago when I met an amazing midwife who knows a lot about PCOS. It was through following her advice to eat a low glycemic diet, take a diabetic medication, as well as a fertility drug called Femara that we were able to bring our little sweet baby boy into our family. I will be forever grateful for this midwife and her amazing wisdom that helped me. I have had a hard time sticking to this diet though since that time and really feel like I need to be proactive with my health and stop giving my body things that are clearly hurting it. Easier said than done.

They have linked PCOS with insulin resistance which is were eating a low glycemic diet comes into play. Basically, any foods that raise your blood sugar will cause you to produce more insulin. When you have problems with insulin resistance, eating this way will help stabilize your insulin and hormone levels. I'm not sure what it was that caused me to have cancer, but studies have shown that cancer cells feed on sugar. I feel like with my history it would be in my best interest to limit these things in my body.

So what foods raise your blood sugar? Anything with sugar (including honey) and most carbs like bread, tortillas, rice, potatoes, etc.  I bought two books to help me figure out what I should be eating and hopefully find some good recipes.

I used The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies back when I was trying to get pregnant and really liked this book. I decided to get Trim Healthy Mama because one of my friends has done this diet and has been raving about it on Facebook. I looked into it and saw that it was a low glycemic diet and decided to try it out. Basically they have you eat a low glycemic diet and take it a step further by separating your meals into meals with fats and meals with carbs, and you are not to eat those two together.

This is where my problem this last month came in. These books TOTALLY contradict each other! Foods that have been tested and show to have little impact on blood sugar in The Glycemic Index Diet are not allowed with Trim Healthy Mama (such as corn tortillas, maple syrup, agave, bananas...). This really sort of tripped me up. I found myself spending lots of time doing research on low glycemic foods, trying to figure out what to do. I also have had a hard time with the whole sweets thing. I like that they use natural sweeteners but I have to say, I'm having a really hard time enjoying stevia. The after taste is so bad... maybe I need a different brand. I found this article about sweeteners that has helped me feel like maybe not all hope is lost. Maybe I could occasionally make a treat with natural cane sugar or raw honey and still indulge once in a while without having to eat stevia.

I decided to give the THM diet a go and ate according to their plan for a few days and I was so so so hungry! I had a hard time wrapping my brain around what sort of meals I could eat without combining carbs and fats. I only stuck to that for a few days and decided to abandon that for a while.  I don't love feeling like I'm starving all the time while I'm breast feeding as well, that makes me a really grumpy mom ;). I will keep reading it and see what I learn, and maybe when I'll revisit it in a few months... not sure. But I did learn a lot from that book and from reading lots of blogs from women who have followed that eating plan.

So no, I did not eat low glycemic all month. I would say I did about 60% which is better than not at all! I started the month out strong and then ended it by attending a baby blessing where I ate donuts, chips, and soda pop... sheesh!

My goal for eating a low glycemic diet all month turned into: figure out what foods you should eat, try different recipes, learn to forgive yourself when you mess up and not totally abandon the plan because of a few mistakes. I seem to be an all or nothing person so I had a hard time with not eating "perfectly" this month, which made me want to eat all the naughty comfort foods that I am all too familiar with.

But here is what I did gain and learn this month. Here are a few recipes that helped me and will be a part of my healthier lifestyle:

 - I love German pancakes. I made them with oatmeal instead of flour, coconut oil instead of butter, almond milk, and eggs. They were delish! I topped them with strawberries and greek yogurt mixed with stevia.
 - I love me some In N Out. Instead of a bun I had it protein style, wrapped in lettuce (the ones with the buns are my husbands).

 

 - I found this awesome recipe to make homemade peanut butter cups! They were amazing! I used Truvia instead of honey.
 - I love sandwiches... so the bread thing has been hard. But apparently if you get bread where the grains have been sprouted it lowers the sugars and carb content and they become low glycemic! Trader Joe's has a good sprouted grain bread that doesn't taste like cardboard.
 - This is the trick I learned that has totally rocked my world!!! Making break dough and then letting it ferment in the fridge for 5-7 days. I had never heard of this before, but by having a long fermenting time it breaks down the carbs and lowers it's glycemic index. Keeping it in the fridge keeps it from tasting sour like a sourdough. I found the recipe here and tried it this week. I used spelt flour because it is a lower glycemic flour. I must say... it was the best pizza dough I've ever made.

 - Last but not least, my favorite treat to indulge in is strawberries and cream. Instead of shaking a little powdered sugar on it I used stevia, and I actually don't mind the stevia with this.

I did make progress, and have a better idea of what I need to work on to be successful with this. So even though I didn't eat perfectly all month, I learned a lot and feel good with the progress that I made. I read a quote the other day that said, "Looking back, finding out what doesn't work is more valuable then hitting it out of the park first try." Very, very true.

**Goal for March - Read all the talks from the last general conference before the next conference.