GL Newbie

[GreenSaints]

Hi all

I'm fed up with my weight and I think the only eating plan I haven't tried is GL, so now seems to be the best time to try!

I've got PH Bible on audiobook which I've listened to, been on his website and I think I've got the basics. Few questions though, which I hope you can help with:

1. On his website, he mentions brand names (particularly for cereal) Are the own label OK as a substitution?

2. How can you tell if a food that is unlabelled on the website a low GL food? Like a sauce or dressing for example

3. Are there any meal planners or recipe sites you use regularly or are a good starting point?

Looking at what I normally eat, most of it is low GL, which is good as I'm a fussy eater, but I just eat way too much of it and too much pasta/sweets/chocolate etc.

Looking forward to responses. Thank you in advance

 

[CaliSweden]

Hi GreenSaints and welcome to the low GI/GL section of the forums! I've tried several different diets, and those didn't work for me as I love my carbs, veggies and fruits. I found that it works for me because I can eat many times during the day and not have to starve myself. Also I basically substitute out high GL foods for lower ones.

With buying food, always always look at the labels to see what the ingredients are. If it has sugar, or wheat at the top of the list I usually don't touch it.

1) For cereals All Bran and All Bran Plus is really good. Though I usually stay away from cereals as they're aren't as filling as say musli or oatmeal. With low GL you'll figure out and learn that you can eat a lot more of the low GL foods than you can high GL. In my Holford low GL diet Bible he shows serving sizes of different foods. For instance you can eat 125g of oat porridge versus 25g of All Bran. I used to avoid oat porridge before, but now I'm so in love with it, as I can change the flavor everyday with different berries.

2) As stated above make sure to look at labels when you're shopping. Watch out for lowfat dressing etc, because they tend to have a lot of sugar added to them. I'd rather take the full fat dressing so I don't get a sugar spike.

3) You can get some low GL cook books, or follow the ones in the book you have, or check out the low GL recipes we have posted in the top part of the low GI section of the forums. There are some really great recipes in there

I didn't get my books until 2 weeks after I started my low GL journey, so I learned from the ladies here. They taught me to just switch out my high GL carbs for low ones. For instance I ate a lot of beans, and quinoa for the first two weeks. Then I started venturing into other things as I started to learn what was low GL and not. It took a lot of looking at the low GL charts.

A really good thing is to eat a lot of veggies, especially dark leafy green veggies. You can basically eat a whole plate of it and it's ok I can't wait for warmer weather so I can start doing that again, I lost a lot more weight that way.

Portion control is very important in low GL dieting. I noticed my portions can get slowly bigger if I'm not careful. In the beginning I used a food scale to measure out my foods so I knew the exact serving sizes I should eat until I was able to do it by looking at it. Then I tried calorie counting too, though for me it was too much work. Two of the ladies here use MFP to count their calories to help out It works wonderfully for them, they're both almost at goal weight

Remember that if you exercise you're allowed to eat a little more in GL points or calories, depending to which counting system you use

 

[laurenista]

Hi and welcome
I have been off low GI for a week or so now an I would say I felt amazing on low GI and now I feel like s***! I'm coming back as of tomorrow!
Hope it goes well keep us up to date

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[GreenSaints]

Hi,

Thanks for your responses

I'm starting next week. Trying to work out my shopping list and get rid of all the junk in my house!

I would eat porridge/oats, but I don't like them! Plus, I can never eat a lot at breakfast.

I really need to find out about sauces, otherwise my meals will be pretty bland! I'm assuming spices and herbs are OK?

Thanks again for your help

 

[CaliSweden]

I didn't like porridge before doing low GL, I used to think of it as baby food. But I learned how to dress up the porridge to make it really yummy now. I use agave syrup to sweeten up things, it's low GI.

Breakfast is really important when doing low GL, not eating breakfast can cause a disaterous food day, as your blood sugar level gets too low.

Spices and herbs are allowed, they really help

 

[GreenSaints]

I'll try porridge again, but I'll get some All Bran just in case!

With other prepared stuff, do you find out the GI rating and work out the GL?

 

[laurenista]

herbs and spices are great!!
its really easy to make a nice sauce with some stock herbs and spices or my personal fave home made chilli sauce out of lime, fresh chilli, garlic, ginger and sprinkle of brown sugar

its also important to remember that you can use a higher gl sauce if the meal is overall low gl so if everything on your plate is low gl using a small amount of high gl sauce is fine

 

[GreenSaints]

Hmmm, this is getting a lot harder.

Do you have any recommendations to get me started? I've got the GL Bible on audiobook and I've just ordered GL for Dummies.

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[laurenista]

Portion size is very important! Make sure you have 1/4 of your plate protein 1/4 of your plate carbs and the rest veg/ fruit

Fill up on water/herbal teas. I have a glass before and with each meal and more in between.

I always have a stock of hummus, babybels, low fat yoghurt, nuts, veg and fruit for snacks

Homemade soups are really good and it's been found that soup keeps you fuller for a much longer time then solid food.

A big thing for me is concentrating on what my body needs! Stopping when I'm full and only eating when hungry. I try to eat a lot more slowly.

Most important is being prepared its easy to slip off plan if you haven't planned ahead. But don't deprive yourself and allow yourself a social life. A lifestyle change like this has to fit into your life not you fitting into the plan

Hope that helps

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[GreenSaints]

So, are there any staple prepared foods that you have on stand by? When you really can't be bothered to cook? Any low GL ready meals?

My downfall will be at the weekends - it always is. The worst thing will be no gravy with the Sunday roast!

Thanks again for your help.

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[laurenista]

I like to have a covent garden soup in the fridge but I've just discovered baxters are doing a soup designed to keep you full so I've got a few of them in the cupboard. Marksys do a fab fuller for longer range when you can't be bothered to cook. Failing that I always have leftovers in the freezer so I can just defrost one an know I'm getting a healthy meal.

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[CaliSweden]

The best thing to do is freeze some meals and keep them for the times when you don't want to cook. I have some leftovers frozen such as curry, soups, or chili usually in the freezer. If you really don't want to bother with cooking and you live in the UK, you might want to try out the Diet Chef on top of the low GI diet forums. They deliver premade low GI foods to your door.

My emergency or lazy food usually is peanut butter(organic no-sugar added) and jam(no-sugar added) on rye bread. I usually don't eat any premade foods, since we don't have any low GI/GL options here where I live. But if I eat out I try to pick the best choice, and sometimes I just say oh well it'll be my naughty day.

 

[Plumfoodie]

Hi GreenSaints and welcome.

Maybe you could tell us the kinds of things you like to eat and we can suggest ways to adapt them etc.

For example, here's a way to make gravy using stock and arrowroot: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/11/south-beach-suggestions-south-beach.html and in fact that site has plenty of dressing/sauce ideas too (http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2005/04/drinks-gravy-salad-dressing-and-sauces.html is a good starting point). Nothing wrong with having a small amount of normal gravy as well, you're better off avoiding the potatoes than a small portion of gravy.

Low GI/GL doesn't need to feel like a hardship or like you're doomed to bland food. Sometimes you may have to think outside the box, like why not have raita or a fresh homemade salsa with your piece of chicken or fish. If you don't like dry vegetables, you can toss them in a tiny bit of flavoured butter, and so on.

(I'm on my phone, hence the brief message, but I agree about the M&S fuller longer meals being useful in a pinch. My favourite 'intro' type book is Rick Gallop's Express GI Diet, it's very straightforward, the recipes are yummy and fast to cook, and you can get started without too much hassle. For some, his guidelines are easier to follow initially than, for example, strict counting of GLs over the day. There are also *tons* of south beach diet recipes online and these will nearly all be GI-friendly, although avoid anything labelled Phase 3 when you're trying to lose weight. Finally, breakfast really is important - even if you only eat something small and then have a good mid-morning snack, this gets the calorie-burning furnace stoked for the day.)

Edit: I really like Lizi's granola, it's GL counted.

 

[GreenSaints]

Hi

Thank you for your reply

Basically, breakfast, lunch and snacks during the day are fine. It'll be dinner and weekends where it all goes wrong!

We have a strict budget, so our meal plan for the week is on a rota of meals. Some of them include:

* Chilli and wedges

* Spaghetti, spinach, creme fraiche and bacon

* Homemade pizza (on Warburtons thin wraps)

* Roast dinner (either gammon, beef or chicken) with loads of veg (and gravy!)

* Breaded fish and oven chips

* Chicken curry (tandoori with brown rice)

* Omlette and salad

That's all I can think of at the moment.

All of these take about 10 minutes to prepare and less than 30 to cook (bar the roast) Any recipes need to meet these requirements as we both work long hours and travel far to work, so we don't want to slave in the kitchen!

Any advice and help is greatly appreciated

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[Plumfoodie]

Hi, I would really recommend the Gallop GI express book as there are plenty of meals there that fit into your timeframes and also use storecupboard ingredients, and he gives side dish suggestions with every one. Some examples of things we like to eat from it are bulgar wheat chilli, creamy (tinned) salmon and broccoli pasta, quick thai chicken curry (we buy a pack of coconut cream and freeze tbsp of it in an ice cube tray so we don't waste any), chicken fingers with apricot-mustard dipping sauce, pork tenderloin with lentils. All with 5-15 minutes prep and max 30 minutes cooking time listed.

So, looking at your list of meals, here are my thoughts, hope they might make things seem less daunting:

* Chilli and wedges - chilli is a great choice; to make more GI-friendly, ensure you include veggies in it and have 1/2 tin of beans per person, and cut out the white potato wedges. We make ours a bit more of a stew consistency and sprinkle a little lower fat cheddar on top. If you must have some wedges or you'll feel hard done by, have a few (!) sweet potato wedges. Depending on how thin you slice them they should cook in half an hour.

* Spaghetti, spinach, creme fraiche and bacon - again, this isn't a bad choice, but make sure your pasta portion is kept within guidelines (40-50g dry weight), use plenty of spinach, and have a side salad with a vinegar-based dressing or sauteed courgette or something.

* Homemade pizza (on Warburtons thin wraps) - hmm. if this list is your weekly rotation rather than a one-off example, I'd try to amend this one. but if you really want to stick with it, try to get wholegrain wraps or do it on something like a food doctor pitta split in half instead.

* Roast dinner (either gammon, beef or chicken) with loads of veg (and gravy!) - no problem here, lean meat and veggies is great. Try out different ways of making gravy as mentioned previously.

* Breaded fish and oven chips - again, I'd look at changing this one up a little bit depending on what you like. sweet potato, butternut squash or celariac chips are yummy, and there are plenty of nice ways to make fish that don't need to be expensive. One of my current faves for white fish is this one: South Beach Diet Recipes - Orangy Roughy in Scallion and Ginger Sauce (just use whatever white fish fillets you have; scallions are spring onions) Even just dredging with some seasoned wholemeal flour will add less starch than crumbs. Also add some side veg, maybe peas? They get a bit of a bad rap - yes, they do have some starch, but also quite a bit of protein. I'd avoid mushy peas though (and not just because I don't like them!).

* Chicken curry (tandoori with brown rice) - yum yum yum. Again, just make sure that your brown rice stays within guidelines (40-50g dry weight), that you're not using sugar in the sauce, and have some veg with it. Maybe a nice indian salad?

* Omlette and salad - this is a great option!

 

[GreenSaints]

Wow! Thank you for your reply

So, should I look for low GI recipes as well as low GL? I know the two are different, but it seems that they are similar.

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[Plumfoodie]

The two are interrelated. I suspect that your books cover this so I don't want to teach you to suck eggs, but basically:

GI - rated by how much the carbs in a given food raise your blood sugar

GL - rated by how many carbs are actually in the given food as well as its GI

So GI would say that melon is bad, it's high GI, but GL would say it's ok because you'd have to eat about 10 watermelons to get enough carbs to have a spike.

We all have to find what is liveable for us and what's liveable for me personally is a confusing combination of the two. I use low GI AND low GL recipes but I also keep GL in mind when cooking low GI ones - for example pasta is low GI and some authors would say you could have quite a large amount, but I still try to stick to the GL suggested portions. I don't count GLs to keep track of my food, I use myfitnesspal to keep track of calories instead as for me it's easier to know the calories of all foods I might eat than trying to work out their GL.

I have found that the Express GI Diet suggests GL-friendly portion sizes so this works for me. BUT if you are planning to count GLs to control your overall food intake then this would be more of a pain than just using GL books, because you'd have to calculate the GL of the recipes.

Does this make any sense? I've had a really long day, not quite enough sleep and it looks like so much babble when I read it back!

 

[GreenSaints]

Haha! Yes, it did make sense - thank you!

So you still country calories even though you low GI/GL?

I'm going food shopping tomorrow, so I'm hopefully prepared

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[Plumfoodie]

LOL oh I'm glad it made some sense, I don't think I could have done any better if I'd tried again!

I do still count calories, but I have some health issues and it is really easy for me to be either side of the very fine line at which I lose weight if I don't keep track, plus I prefer to choose recipes from whatever sources I fancy rather than trying to follow one set plan from one book (which is usually designed to keep the overall intake limited). Many people are quite successful though at just counting calories when they first start, to get an idea of what the correct amount of food looks like, and then going forward with that.

I think sometimes the low GI authors are misleading (and I was confused when I first started) - I believe that if you do low GL and count them as people like Patrick Holford tell you to, you will lose weight because controlling the GLs automatically controls your overall intake. But many of the low GI authors sort of indicate (without ever actually saying so) that if you eat low GI foods then you can just eat however much you like. Or at least they don't tell you that you do need to control how much, as well as what, you eat, if you are not strictly following one of their set-out plans.

At the end of the day, though, in my opinion even the calories in low GI foods count. They won't have the massive ballooning effects that high GI foods can have, but they still count!

Enjoy your GL-friendly shopping trip and get to posting some food diaries when you start!

 

[GreenSaints]

Yes, I agree about the calories. Even in diets where you can eat 'unlimited' foods, it's always down to those pesky things!

I've started a diary (as you suggested) as I'm hoping this will keep me focused and since I can easily write posts on my phone, I have no excuse!

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