I'll try to make this short...

[jillybean]

As some of you may know, I am a recovering/recovered anorexic. I can no longer stomach the foods I ate in abundance then: grapefruit, tuna, spinach leaves, brocoli, lettuce, rye bread, steel cut oats. Can someone please help me find foods that are low on the glycemic index but that are not on my list. I craved nothing but donuts and pizza and ice cream for two years. I gave into all of those cravings. I honestly think it was some weird part of my recovery. I am now interested in eating healthy again, but have such an aversion to the above mentioned foods! I read the book "Intuitive Eating" and it was great, but anytime I want to eat healthy, I think of the foods I listed and instead reach for the cookies or chips. I can't seem to picture myself eating vegetables again. Corn, potaoes, maybe, but they are very high in starch, aren't they? I love bananans but someone told me they stay in your system longer than flour. What the heck!?! I am not going to cut out sugar and flour, I don't think I can right now, but some sort of balance has to take place here and soon! Any piece of advice, even if it'a a cyber pat on the back, would be nothing but welcomed!!!!

 

[getyourfreakon0402]

Hi Jillybean!

Here's a big cyber pat on the back!!!!!!!

Why are you worried about the glycemic thing? Oh, but I've got an idea...maybe if you forget about the evil of starches then you'll be able to eat them instead of cookies which it sounds like you're a bit sick of. I heard this interesting analogy of what we eat and building a good fire...you need to have a big slow burning log (aka starch or protein) then you can and some kindling (veggies or fruit) and some spark (fat/sugar). Now, you know what my advice is gonna be....forget about what is good or bad. It sounds like if you did that then you'd be eating more of the foods that gave you sustainable energy. Maybe you need some new ideas of what to eat - find a cookbook and pick some random recipes, try a new restaurant, make your friends cook for you what they eat etc. Do you like ethnic foods? Pick a couple and explore! Have fun with it. You'll be fine, really, honestly...and we are all cheering for you!

 

[Lynda]

I'd try the Cooking Light magazine. Get a few issues at first and try some of their ideas. The recipes are very healthy and tasty. In the most recent issue, they have 10 of their favorite recipes from the previous year. The chicken with peanuts stir-fry is absolutely delicious. They have some great vegetarian dishes, too. Why not have chips occasionally? I am currently having 2 of those Girl Scout mint cookies every day as a mild indulgence.

 

[Gayle]

jillybean,

I'm with Linda, the Cooking Light recipes are great. My mother-in-law gave me the their year end cookbook, which is a compilation of a year's worth of the magazine's recipes. I use it everyday.

Gayle

 

[fit@home]

Here's a big hug for you.......

((((((((((((JILLYBEAN))))))))))))))

I think the other's have given you some good advice. I'll keep you in my prayers!!!!

Hollie

 

[clareMc]

Jillybean:

I am sending you a huge cyber hug, from one who also wasted too much of her life in her twenties trying to control her eating and missed out on so much pleasure and health. Make a return to vegetables a pleasure trip. There is life beyond potatoes and corn.....

Take a grocery basket and go cruise the aisles of a really good supermarket. Look at the variety of shapes,colours, textures that are on offer there and let your mind wander around the possibilities. Buy an excellent Vegetarian cookboook: I have the Green's restaurant book by Deborah Madison, and let your eye roam. What takes your fancy? Rather than thinking of specific vegetables that are on or off a hit list, think "what is in season and what different ways could I cook it?"

Brocoli is so over done as a vegetable I never eat it any more. Asparagus is on sale in my shop right now and so I am going to try drizzling them with a little olive oil, a variety of chopped fresh herbs, some blanched almonds and microwave them for 4 minutes and see what I end up with. I adore collards or greens of any type just steamed lightly and eaten immediately with a light touch of salt.

Soups are wonderful things for making vegetables a part of your diet in an extremely palatable way, and they absorb the juices of the cooking process so wonderfully, they are revolutionized. One of my favourites from the Greens Book ues a curried stock base that you make yourself and one of the best parts is making it from scratch on a lazy Sunday afternoon, because the aromas waft around the kitchen and you just can't wait to eat that soup!

Red peppers: high on antioxidants and such a deep hue. I buy as many as I can and throw them into any dish possible in abundance. Think:salsa! Think: guacamole with avocado pears (basically two mixed with Worcestershire sauce, yoghurt, black pepper, a couple of tomatoes all blended or with chunks of tomato for texture--takes 5 minutes to prepare and often in my house becomes the dinner for the evening) and eat with crudites, strips of peppers, pieces of celery, baby sweet carrots, whatever. Just forget the broccoli. There's no reason why you should ever have to eat that vegetable again!!!

Think also: loads of red and orange peppers folded into a fluffy two egg, french style omelette or into a quiche.... Pipperade?


Experiment with vegetable and herb combinations so you think in terms of dishes, rather than, I must get my 5 servings a day in which stresses me out to think of!

Fruit can be easier to adapt to rather than vegetables. Cantaloupe, strawberries and blueberries have more nutritional weight than any other fruit going. High on antioxidants. And when Summer starts, there will be melon, nectarines, cherries, peaches and you probably won't have time to even think about eating brocoli or grapefruit!

Jellybean, try to let go of anxieties and let yourself experiment. Once a week, make a vow to try out some new receipe, some new ingredient or style of cooking. Indian food is some of the most wonderful on the planet. See Madhur Jaffrey cook books.

My thoughts go with you and I hope some of this helps

Clare

 

[EllenU]

Hi, Jillybean. I'm reading "Intuitive Eating" now myself. I think it's a pretty good book. I don't know whether or not you are trying to follow what the book recommends, but if you are, one thing I notice is that you are letting the "food police" tell you what you shouldn't eat. So what if corn and potatoes are starchy and have a high glycemic index. If your body wants them, trust your instincts. And you know what? They are actually pretty good for you too. If you love bananas, eat them. They have many health benefits. I eat at least half a banana every day, usually with my breakfast cereal, because I like them. It's a bonus that they are good for me too, but then again, that's probably why I like to eat them every day...because my body wants some of the nutritional benefits bananas have to offer. And about that glycemic index...what it doesn't reveal is how your blood sugar reacts when you eat high glycemic foods in combination with other foods. Eating a well balanced meal consisting of starch, protein, and fat may mitigate the effects of those high glycemic foods.

I think the other posters gave you some good advice. I also agree that Cooking Light is a good magazine. What I like about their recipes is that they seem well balanced to me.

Take care, Jillybean.

Ellen

 

[Beets]

I am just going to reiterate what some of the other posters have said. Don't go by the glycemic index of a food. This index was developed for diabetics who seriously need to control their insulin responses. If you eat a banana by itself, yes your pancreas will dump insulin into your blood stream to deal with the sugar, but that is okay if you are a normal, healthy person. If your body needs the energy, that banana will get used for fuel. Also, most people don't just eat a potato or just a piece of white bread for a meal. They also eat something with it that will probably contain a little protein and fat which will totally change the glycemic index of that potato or slice of bread. I don't even think about the glycemic index of the foods I eat. I eat foods high in fiber which take longer to break down and provide sustained energy. I have switched from white bread, white pasta, white rice to the brown versions for the fiber/vitamin/mineral content, not because of the starchiness.

I feel for you in your struggle with food. I have never been anorexic ( I love food too much to go that extreme) but I have been bulemic and I still have "issues". As you know, you are never truly cured of the illness-you just learn to deal with it. Like a previous poster suggested, go to the market and make it a point to try a new fruit and/or veggie each week. Force yourself to do it--I think you will find that you will realize that you really can love those foods again. Do it for the health of your beautiful body! Good luck and keep up posted on your progress!

 

[murph]

J-Bean

I have tried ALL OF IT. Forget it.
I eat what I want and if what I want is really bad--I just say Later, not a flat out NO. If later comes and I still insist, I do it. Take care of yourself. Murph

 

[Bobbi]

RE: J-Bean

Hello! I am reading the New York Times Book of Women's Health which is simply a compilation of the articles reporting on food and health science pertaining to women. You know, the nurse's study and studies like that. Anyway, you must start eating fruits and veggies! Lots of them. Did you know that about 500,000 deaths per year from cancer are directly realted to diet? Fruits and vegetables protect your body from all sorts of things that will kill you and rob your life of the blessing of good health. Then there's rice, preferably brown, and whole wheat and barley, spelt and quinoa. There is so much available you can eat an incredible variety and never consume those foods again. But maybe, Jilly, just maybe, the thing to do is to incorporate those foods into your diet in a healthy manner so that you are not in any way hung up on them. Finally, I eat salmon, chicken, shrimp, beans, tofu and soy protein isolate and the occasional red meat. When I emphasze the grains I find I am much less likely to crave sweet or starchy foods. When I want sweet or starchy foods, I eat them on a day when I consume very little fat and very lean proteins.

Bobbi http://www.plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif Chick's Rule!

 

[jillybean]

Thank you!!!

It's amazing to me how you gals seem to enjoy food, and it appears that you all eat pretty clean. I see eating clean as a lonely, boring highway. I guess it doesn't have to be that way. Thank you for the support. I bought some dill, red peppers, field greens, bananas (oh yeah - go me!) and other produce. Wish me luck! And thanks again!!!