How is your week? Mine is a lot of fun. I love what I do and the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people along the way. Life is a blessing! And once you focus on the positive side of it, its beauty is all you can see.
Thank you for the wonderful messages you sent me this week. I decided to pick up three questions and answer them. The questions I chose are: how to stay away from overdoing the fat intake on a low-carb diet; what could you eat when you go out with friends, but still stick to your healthy diet and are you gonna get hurt if you lift weights. Enjoy my opinion and share yours in the comments!
Hello, Ines! I really want to ask you a question. If I eat a high fat-low carb diet, how could I stay save from overdoing the fat intake? Because I catch myself, eating too much cheese and cream.
I think that this is one of the main worries, of most people, when they start eating a high fat- low carb diet (HFLC). I’ve mentioned it before, but when I started eating HFLC, I also had the problem of eating too much fat. And by “too much fat”, I mean, I ate more than I needed. I went from one extreme, to another- from not eating any fats, to eating fats in excess. I used to buy lard and add it to my pork steaks. I ate boiled eggs and I put thick pieces of butter on top. I think that back in the days, I had some periods in my life, which could make a good scenario for a comedian show.
So, initially I did not achieve the results, I have right now. Not because of fats themselves, but because by overdoing the fat intake, I overdid my overall calorie intake. And the laws of thermodynamics, are true for everything and everybody. Even for us and for HFLC diets. So energy doesn’t disappear. It always transforms!
I.e. by overeating on a regular basis, even with healthy food, you will always add up excess calories, which will be probably stored as fat.
So, what are you supposed to do?
Keep in mind, that pork steaks and eggs, have the perfect macronutrient proportion ( fats: protein), required for a HFLC diet. This means that you wouldn’t need to add lard to your steaks or half package of butter to your eggs. Use additional fat, just in order to prepare them. For example when you eat eggs, put some butter in the pan, so you wouldn’t need to complete half a workout, while you are trying to scour the eggs.
Thus, you will definitely skip making the mistake, that I used to make, by adding way too much fats.
When it comes to the quantity of food, you could initially make an excel file with a chart ( that is a really smart program) and write up your food intake for a week or two. This way you will get a better idea of the quantity of food and calories, as well as the macronutrient proportion you get on a daily basis. But I will say it again! I do not recommend it, because I am against getting maniac about numbers. But still, it is clear to me, that some people have absolutely no idea, for the macronutrient content of foods, and they are not good at listening to their body and giving it food in adequate quantities. So, in some cases this method might help!
If you are trying to stay away from exact numbers, then try the following. Just make an approximate calculation of the food intake you need. Then, start following this plan. After a week or two, check out your results- how do you feel, do you look leaner, are you hungry, do you feel satiety and so forth. If your results are satisfying, keep on doing what you do. If not, increase or respectively decrease your food intake.
Personally, I follow the second method. But I would say, that I already have a pretty good feel about what kind of food and how much food my body needs; and how I could “manipulate” my nutrition, in order to achieve my goals, without getting caught up in numbers!
When it comes to cheese and cream, they can be really misleading. I also had my moments of “I will just get the piece of cheese to be even” or “I will eat just one more spoon to make the cream even” and thus, “my perfectionism when it comes to making things even” doesn’t stop, until the cheese or the cream is completely gone!
Besides that, you know my opinion about dairy products ( check it out HERE), so my advice is to limit them, unless you are getting them homemade.
Or take just one of your meals during the day, when you will add some cream or cheese, but do not add them to all of your meals. If you add them to all your meals, you risk to add up a can or two of cream and a huge piece of cheese… and that is just the add on of your main meals!
I often go out with friends, but I find it hard to pick up healthy food. Is there something you could order, when you are in a restaurant, but still make sure that it will be healthy and that it will make you feel full?
Going out to a restaurant is the perfect place to eat what you want! Sure, you can not guarantee the quality of the meat and eggs, for example, but the same is true for the foods you buy from the store. What matters is to make the optimal, good decision- for you, for your health and for your body.
Personally, when I go out I love ordering a pork steak. You can order that everywhere. And usually, they are delicious!
Another option is a shepherd salad. I usually ask for additional 3 boiled eggs and some more olives.
As you know I love pork liver and I love eating liver with butter. Sometimes I might order this, but not very often because I am not sure for the quality of the butter they use. And because I really eat clean, I am pretty sensitive to low quality fats.
You could order an omelet ( but the butter quality is a concern once again).
Another option, might be a scramble in a crock pot. You can once again ask for more eggs or bacon.
Personally, I think that you have plenty of choices!
Excuses from the sort: “ I went out with friends, and there wasn’t anything healthy!”, are just this…lame excuses!
The problem doesn’t come from the fact that there isn’t anything healthy to eat, but from the fact that you are being misled by what your friends are eating.
But trust me! There isn’t anything torturing about eating a pork steak, while others are eating pizza. I’d say it is really good!
Ines! I’ve been working out with weights, but I am sick of the question: “ Ok, aren’t you afraid that you might get hurt, while you lift?” What am I supposed to answer? How could I make them believe that weights are not evil?
Here I have multiple answers. First, personally I’ve given up the need to “make excuses” for my personal choices and my activities. After all, everybody is free to do what brings him pleasure, not what others find right or acceptable.
The tries to persuade somebody in the rightness of your actions, in most cases ends with a huge failure. Nobody is capable of convincing his opponent, unless he, himself is open to hear and understand a different perspective. Alas, people, who have a similar attitude towards lifting weights, always refuse hearing the arguments you have about the positive effects of this type of training. So my advice is, if after the first one or two tries to share the positives and negatives of your workouts, and you do not see any effort from others, to accept you opinion or at least try to understand it, just pass by their remarks and do not lose yourself in explanations.
When it comes to “aren’t you afraid to get hurt?”, I would say that I know a bunch of people who injured in the gym, and a bunch of people who injured while they were running to catch the bus. I know a bunch of people who injured while lifting weights and a bunch of people who injured while they were going down the stairs or walking on the sidewalk.
What I am trying to say is that there is always some kind of a risk, no matter what you are doing. The question is, do we need to focus, just on the negatives? The danger of an injury would increase, if you do not give yourself some time to master the proper technique, or if you forget to leave your ego at the door and try lifting too heavy for your abilities.
When you make the effort to learn, when you are focused and careful about what you are doing, the risk will drastically decrease.
If you do not know how to cut with a knife, you might cut your fingers, while you are trying to prepare a salad. Does that mean that you will never get in the kitchen? I doubt it! I bet that you are more likely to make the effort, and learn how to cut carefully and maximally save!
And some pictures from the last couple days 🙂
P.S. If you liked this post, please take a minute and share it with your friends! I’d greatly appreciate it!
