I recently spent a few weeks eating fewer carbohydrate foods. While I don’t like most sentences with the word “limit” in them, it was my choice to limit the carbs I ate, so I’m using that term for now.
During this process I learned the following: 1) I have a tendency to be a carb junkie! 2) When I eat fewer carbs, I crave fewer carbs, and 3) Having no carb at breakfast just didn’t work for me.
As far as carb intake, here’s what I did: 2 carb servings for breakfast plus fruit at lunch and dinner. Non-starchy vegetables, in large amounts, can also add up to some carb. I sometimes had additional carb foods at lunch or dinner, and whenever possible, they came from plants. For example, hummus (garbanzo beans) or corn on the cob, or baked beans. I would like to to try some new, plant-based items as well, in the future.
Other observations
- When I “limit” carbs, I’m actually getting plenty of healthy carbohydrate in my meal plan.
- There’s a lot of preparation involved with eating so many vegetables!
- Cutting out breads and crackers, leads to cutting out cakes, cookies, and other high-calorie carbs.
- I need to keep trying new things, because I start to get a little bored (and that has a tendency to lead me back to old ways of eating).
Most important, I have found that eating fewer carbs, while not cutting back completely or even drastically, has made it easier to achieve my target blood glucose level most of the time and with less work (and less insulin).
Note: After this experiment I went on vacation and ate carbs until the cows came home. I’ll write about that another time. Now I’m home and back on track.