For those of you who've managed to stick with this diet long term...how do you do it? What is some tangible advice/tips to stay on track? What do you eat in a day (sample breakfast, lunch and dinner).
THANKS
The only thing you are taking out of the diet is grains, processed foods and sugar.
That leaves, protein, some dairy, nuts, seeds, vegetables and small amounts of low glycemic fruit. Any bread or bread like products can be reproduced/replaced.
Nothing to stay on track. All motivation is given by the hundreds of recipes to replace those items you may miss like bread. Bread base recipes are made mostly with nuts or coconut flour. Easy! Desserts are made with eggs, coconut, dark chocolate, etc. Stevia or honey in small amounts replaces sugar. Easy! Tons and tons of info online!
Go For It!
I have to tell you, one of my secrets to success is consistency and creativity. If you have actually heard Bernstein speak about his diet, it seems totally boring, he eats like the same thing every day. And like Bernstein, I choose to eat essentially the same thing every day for breakfast and lunch. For breakfast I have a cheese omelet, sometimes with some sausage or bacon on the side. For lunch I have a soup, always a soup without grains, potatoes or rice, sometimes with a few beans but always low carb. Like Bernstein I also eat cans of small fish, sardines, herring, etc. This means that I can almost always just totally skip "carb counting" and bolus essentially a fixed amount cause my meal is always the same.
But for dinner I splurge and I cook meals from scratch. Despite what seems like a restricted set of ingredients you actually have a very broad range of foods you can cook. I have lots of "go to" meals based around rotisserie chicken and foods made form the chicken. I eat wild salmon a couple times a week and I have other standby's such as mashed cauliflower or my totally awesome chili.
After years on this sort of diet, I've lost cravings for "sweet" and rarely eat anything sweet or have dessert. But that is just me.
I've been low carbing for 5 years, for me the biggest motivation comes from my meter. I just hate high readings, so this keeps me on my diet.
I think it really helps if you like to cook from scratch. Adapting recipes and finding ones that will work just as they are is something I enjoy. There are a wealth of low carb recipe sites on the web full of delicious recipes you can mine for ideas.
Staying on track is just a question of "Mindfulness". Awareness of what you are putting into your body that will aid and not hurt your diabetes control. Your motivation is to live a long and healthy life, to enjoy your time with family and friends, to learn, to experience, to enjoy waking up each morning and knowing you can make the most of the time you have. It means being creative with protein and fats while limiting carbs to those low on the glycemic load list. Take the plunge and learn! Lots of great information available if you have the will to learn...no magic, no secrets, creativity and effort.
my problem with the bernstein diet is i'm still hungry after i eat what he allows- the grams of carb and protein do not satisfy me. since i don't inject insulin, i may just try eating more frequently within his parameters. tomorrow i'm going to try not to eat any dairy or artificial sweetner and see if that cuts down my appetite. i did eat like that for 3 years, just eating til satisfied/not counting carbs, and kept a good weight and fairly good bg numbers(A1c 5.6-5.3).
i'm getting stricter now because as a 49 yo female, i can't get the extra weight off. do others count grams of protein as well as carbs? do you follow the rule of small numbers which entails not overfilling on food (ie the chinese restaurant syndrome?)
I have little concern about my ability to stay on track. Like Dr Bernstein I don't vary my diet that much. Breakfast is a 3 egg omelette made with 1/4 heavy cream, bacon or sausage, and hot salsa on the omelette. The eggs are from our own free range chickens. We recently tried store eggs and we could barely eat them. They were terrible so I just purchase more chicks so that we will have eggs through the winter. Lunch is a raw vegetable (currently from our garden) and a 1 oz piece of hard cheese. Dinner is meat with one or two vegetable sides. I am eating 15-20 carbs per day. I do occasionally have a mid afternoon snack of a handful of nuts. I do not have a bedtime snack.
Because I am trying for a high fat diet, I cook foods in bacon grease, tallow, or butter. One of my favorite dinners is beef fondue with mushrooms cooked in tallow (which I render myself).
My motivation is simple. I want to avoid complications so I am really motivated to keep my BG normalized. So far that is a work in progress. My last A1c was 4.7 and my fasting BG is in the 70's. My postprandial highs are less than 110 and I am working on keeping postprandial highs below 100. I do take metformin (2x500mg).
i don't show up as glucose intolerant/diabetic on my OGTT, so my endo will not give me metformin. do you have to fight hunger on your plan? that lunch looks super small.
No, I do not have to fight hunger. Since starting to follow a very low carb high fat diet after my diagnosis I have lost 30+ pounds and now have a BMI of 21. I credit the high animal fat consumption for the lack of hunger.
Likewise, as far as hunger goes. After breakfast with fatty sausage, I start to feel a little hunger around 2PM about the time I finish my gym workouts. A late lunch is often sufficient for the day. I occasionally with snack at night on sugar free Jello.
what's your recipe for chili?
doesn't chili usually include beans?
Hmmmm....the diet is high fat, but not necess "high" protein.
Would "too much" protein be detrimental to our health? kidney?
The studies seem to suggest that if you have impaired renal damage high levels of protein may cause an acceleration of kidney failure. If you have normal kidney function you can eat virtually any amount of protein without concern. Dr. B does not recommend high levels of protein, he recommends a very low carb, moderate protein and high diet.
hi brian, you say you cook dinners from scratch. do you cook your lunch time soups from scratch too, or do you buy something? if so, what brand? i don't love sardines, but i don't hate them. i am concerned about BPA found in can linings, so i buy Wild Planet Wild Sardines which are packed in a tin without BPA lining according to the box. i still eat canned stuff occasionally with BPA, i just try to avoid it if i can, like buying artichoke hearts and olives in glass jars instead of cans. i try to stay away from artificial sweetners too, but if i get a strong craving for sweets, i will use them as i figure they are better than high blood sugar.
If you're hungry, add fats. that is what satisfies your hunger, gives you energy, and has no carbs. You should not have to 'follow the rule of small numbers' with food -- you should be satiated from the good food you eat. So if you're still hungry, add the fats. Saturated, that is! butter (on some cooked cauliflower, for instance), coconut oil (i even eat it with a spoon), sour cream, coffee with cream.
Sample breakfast lunch and dinner would be really helpful!