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  #1   ^
Old Sun, Feb-19-06, 01:12
Cavendish's Avatar
Cavendish Cavendish is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,095
 
Plan: Anti-Estrogenic Diet/PP
Stats: 198/194/140 Female 5 ft 5 in.
BF:27.9%
Progress: 7%
Location: Seattle
Default Menu ideas for SP newbies...Actually any ideas...

I was hoping that some of you who have followed SP for a while and with some success could share with those of us who are fairly new some ideas regarding meals. I have read through several journals, and am getting a feel for it, but really would like some new ideas that include whole foods that I could find anywhere. I know that there are several of us who are new to the program, and we would greatly benefit from your experiences! What is a typical daily menu for example while you follow the plan? What are your primary sources of carbohydrates? What success have you had? Feeling better? Losing weight? I know a lot of people start the program, then after they have gained several pounds cut back on carbs to lose weight...Have any of you (who are not diabetic) followed her 15 g. per meal guidelines with any success, or do you have any wisdom to share regarding that? I have read the books, now I need some true life experiences...We would be very grateful for your input!
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  #2   ^
Old Sun, Feb-19-06, 06:14
BawdyWench's Avatar
BawdyWench BawdyWench is offline
Posts: 8,791
 
Plan: Carnivore
Stats: 212/179/160 Female 5'6"
BF:
Progress: 63%
Location: Rural Maine
Default

Me, too! I need some ideas, mostly for breakfast.

First of all, the terminology is confusing in this. There are four food groups: proteins, fats, veggies, and carbs. In this case, "veggies" means non-starchy veggies, and "carbs" means starchy veggies and flours and grains, etc.

For example, this morning I was planning on having oatmeal for my carb, a touch of cream and butter on the oatmeal for my fat, a couple nitrate-free sausages for my protein, but what the heck do I do for my veggie?

And for snacks, do you have to get all four food groups in? If so, then the examples she gives in the book don't cut it. Some examples she gives are:
  • Almonds with cheese. That's mostly protein and fat with only a few carbs in the nuts. Where are the veggies and other carbs?
  • Unsweetened applesauce and cottage cheese. That's just protein and carbs and a little fat. What about veggies?
  • Sunflower seeds. Again, only some protein and fat.
  • Mozzarella cheese and LC crackers. Fat, protein, and carbs. No veggies.
I'm really trying NOT to be anal about this.

(Psst ... does anyone know if "anal retentive" has a hyphen? )
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  #3   ^
Old Sun, Feb-19-06, 12:28
Ksrt Ksrt is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 42
 
Plan: zone
Stats: 205/165/130 Female 5' 5"
BF:
Progress:
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Hi,

I don't have a lot of menu ideas, just make sure that everything you eat is real food (I eat baby carrots at snacks and sugar snap peas for breakfast) but pick things you like.

I can tell you this. I was a patient of Dr. Schwarzbein and I gained 40 pounds when I first started her diet after low carbing (Atkins) for many years. I thought she was crazy and every day I wanted to ditch this diet and go back to low carbing or starving. But somehow I knew that I wasn't going to get there by limiting my eating. I started eating fruit, milk, and grains, things I hadn't touched in a decade. I am also hypothyroid and I know that when I was low-carbing too much, my thyroid didn't work right even with medication. Through Dr. Schwarzbein I learned to stop dieting and start eating again. Every meal I eat contains some good protein, good fat, a vegetable, fruit, dairy, and grain product. I eat more food than I ever did in my life. And I haven't lost much weight, but I have lost some.

But Dr. Schwarzbein is now my favorite doctor ever because I know I would have dieted myself to death's door. Since I've been eating, my thyroid medication actually works. What have I lost? Insomnia, irregular periods, foot pain, joint pain, tedonitis, shoulder pain, depression, heart palpitations, and water retension. I am on my way to losing weight, my hair and nails are better and I feel more normal than I ever did when I was on any diet.

So my advice is to stop dieting, start feeding yourself, do not leave out whole classifications of food and do not eat anything that you cannot pick, hunt, fish, or milk. Eliminate any food allergies or sensitivites and get hormone replacement if you have low thyroid or estrogen (bioidentical hormones only). Then exercise, but not too much (Dr. Schwarbein would cringe at the 7 days of week of cardio, that's guaranteed to burn out your adrenals).

Remember it's about health not weight. You need to get healthy to lose all your weight. You can lose weight by lowering carbs too low but you can also turn down you thyroid and estrogen and burn out your adrenal glands. You will then be thin but not healthy!

Good Luck.
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  #4   ^
Old Sun, Feb-19-06, 16:18
BawdyWench's Avatar
BawdyWench BawdyWench is offline
Posts: 8,791
 
Plan: Carnivore
Stats: 212/179/160 Female 5'6"
BF:
Progress: 63%
Location: Rural Maine
Default

Thanks, Ksrt! I agree with everything that you said, and that's why I'm here. Even with LC I rarely ate any processed food. It was all real food. I don't even season my food very much.

It's hard for me to up the calories and carbs, but that's what I'm doing. I'm following Book 1, by the way. My NP at the Women to Women Center recommended that I begin there.
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  #5   ^
Old Mon, Feb-20-06, 05:09
Cavendish's Avatar
Cavendish Cavendish is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,095
 
Plan: Anti-Estrogenic Diet/PP
Stats: 198/194/140 Female 5 ft 5 in.
BF:27.9%
Progress: 7%
Location: Seattle
Default

Thanks Ksrt!

I agree it is all about the health. I'm lucky in the sense that I haven't damaged my metabolism too much yet, so I don't have a lot of the symptoms that many people experience, and have been a whole-foods advocate my entire life (one of the advantages of growing up on a farm, I guess.)

Your input is greatly appreciated. May I ask what you eat typically in a day?

When you began following Dr. Schwarzbein's program, what did you eat, and how does that compare to what you eat now? Did you follow her menus from the books, or did you make up your own? Or did you meet with a nutritionist?

I hope you have time to write back. Looking forward to your info...
Thanks again!!
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  #6   ^
Old Mon, Feb-20-06, 07:40
Ksrt Ksrt is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 42
 
Plan: zone
Stats: 205/165/130 Female 5' 5"
BF:
Progress:
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Hi all,

When I first started going there, I met with the nutritionist because that was what Dr. Schwarzbein had you do. But the nutritionist said I got everything right pretty quickly so I knew I was on the right track. They also told me I was the most compliant patient they ever had so you could probably get well being less perfect than I was trying to be.

I do not follow meal plans since I cook for a whole family and feel like the meal plans box me in. I feel you really have to find what work's with your lifestyle since this is a life plan, not a diet. Nothing wrong with the meal plans if they work for you. My way is to plan every meal around protein, healthy fat, vegetable, fruit, dairy and some grain or starchy vegetable. My breakfast is usually 3 chicken tenders or 3 eggs, a cup of milk or nonfat yogurt, 1/2 cup steel cut oats, 1/2 apple, 1/2 cup sugar snap peas, and 8 macadamia nuts. I will switch the fruits or vegetables around or the type of protein but I stick to this way of eating. My lunches are usually 2 oz. meat, 1 oz. cheese, 1/2 orange, 2 cups of peppers, 1 cup milk or yogurt and a starchy vegetable like 1/4 yam. Dinner is a salad with avocado, peppers, cucumber, carrot, tomato, lettuce, radishes, and cabbage, with olive oil dressing, with 3 oz meat, a cup of milk or dairy, a cooked grain or starchy vegetable (yes I eat rice and pasta, just a small portion like 1/8 cup) and some grapes. My snacks are usually wasa crackers with natural peanut butter, 1 oz turkey, and some baby carrots and I'll have popcorn with my nightime snack.

My only caution is that if you have been low-carbing for some time, start small and work your way up gradually. Your body adjusts to these carbs and eventually loves them, but you will gain a lot of weight and feel horrific if you just start eating them after not having them for a long time. So do it gradually. Also I change the components of my meals often so i have less chance of food sensitivities and for variety of nutrients so these are just examples, but you can see the framework I use to put meals together.

Now my life is so much better. I can eat this way in restaurants and I can taste anything I want. The Atkins way is a way of deprivation. Now I feel free to live. I have been doing this for four years and if your metabolism is really damaged as mine was, it takes a long time to do this and you can feel very bad in the beginning. That's when many people ditch it. But I'm glad I stuck with it because I will never go back to the dieting way of life again. I really believe women especially are being done harm with the advice a lot of doctors are handing out these days. I had to avoid other doctors while I was first healing because all your tests look worse and doctors will want to put you on prescription drugs all the time. They don't understand healing, just covering up symptoms. Anyway, I'm off my soapbox.

It was also really hard for me to cut down the exercise. Now I do more yoga and ball work and weight lifting. Sometimes, I'll go for hard cardio but I listen to my body. I'll do the level of exercise that feels right on a given day. When I first started Dr. Schwarzbein told me to do no cardio at all. That was really hard but now I see I needed to give my body a break. Cardio now seems like stress to my body so I don't do much. And I only exercise 5 days a week.

Anyway, good luck with your health. I hope I helped some.
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  #7   ^
Old Mon, Feb-20-06, 10:12
BawdyWench's Avatar
BawdyWench BawdyWench is offline
Posts: 8,791
 
Plan: Carnivore
Stats: 212/179/160 Female 5'6"
BF:
Progress: 63%
Location: Rural Maine
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ksrt
My breakfast is usually 3 chicken tenders or 3 eggs, a cup of milk or nonfat yogurt, 1/2 cup steel cut oats, 1/2 apple, 1/2 cup sugar snap peas, and 8 macadamia nuts.

Geez, that's a lot of food. Much more, even, than it looks like Dr. S recommends. The very first example in the book for breakfast is scrambled eggs, sausage, 2/3 cup oatmeal with butter and cream, and sliced tomatoes.

Maybe the recommendations given to you by your nutritionist were based on a body more "damaged" than mine (that sounds like a slam, but it's really not) so that you need more food.

I like the plan, but I have no intention of eating all the food you mentioned nor of gaining 40 pounds. That may have been necessary for you to regain your health, but I don't believe gaining 40 pounds is in my best interest.

My menus so far have been around 1800 calories. More carbs and food than I'm accustomed to, but really only about 300 calories more.

I do thank you for your story and I wish you the best.
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  #8   ^
Old Mon, Feb-20-06, 11:58
ArticCat's Avatar
ArticCat ArticCat is offline
Organic Lifestyle
Posts: 214
 
Plan: SBP (Organic & Balanced)
Stats: 165/135/130 Female 5'6''
BF:
Progress: 86%
Location: Rocky Mountains
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Krst, I agree that that seems like a lot of food for the TSP. But I won't criticize what works for you, but I would spend a few days measuring your protein/carb gram amounts to see what it is adding up too.
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  #9   ^
Old Mon, Feb-20-06, 12:02
BawdyWench's Avatar
BawdyWench BawdyWench is offline
Posts: 8,791
 
Plan: Carnivore
Stats: 212/179/160 Female 5'6"
BF:
Progress: 63%
Location: Rural Maine
Default

Krst, I want to reiterate that I'm not criticizing either. Everyone is different. If this works for you, more power to you!
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  #10   ^
Old Mon, Feb-20-06, 12:13
ArticCat's Avatar
ArticCat ArticCat is offline
Organic Lifestyle
Posts: 214
 
Plan: SBP (Organic & Balanced)
Stats: 165/135/130 Female 5'6''
BF:
Progress: 86%
Location: Rocky Mountains
Default

I make all my meals and eat 4X a day, trying to get 30 grams of carbs and 15 grams of protein, I'm not as good about tracking my fat amount, but I try to through in healthy fats in at least a few of the meals. Here are some ideas for people...

Breakfast: 2 eggs, english muffin with butter, carrot sticks or cucumber slices

Lunchs: usually come from dinner left overs, but some other ideass...
Any of the snacks below
1 cup of mixed greens, goat cheese, 1/2 pear, macadami nuts, balsamic vinegar.
1 slice whole grain bread, 2-3 oz roast beef, mustard, veggies.

Snacks:
1/2 cup whole milk cottage cheese, 1/2 cup unsweeten apple sauce and veggies.
1/2 apple, 2-3 oz cheese and veggies
1/2 whole milk yogurt, cheese stick, veggies
Most of my snacks consist of milk products for protein and fruit for carbs and veggies.

As far as veggies go, I had the same problem fitting them in, so I buy celery, carrots, califlower, brocolli and any other veggie that I will eat raw, then I cut some up every morning and divide them into 2-3 bags and eat them with each of my meals. Sometimes I will add 1 tbs of peanut butter to celery sticks for the little extra protien and good fats.

Dinners
I get my dinner from a lot of low carb books because they have good recipes for the protein. I focus on finding a good meat or fish recipe and then I will add carbs, like cous cous, brown rice or artichokies and veggies, like asparagus, green beans, peapods. I keep my dinners simple, so that it is easy for me to see each group, instead of making things that mix a lot of ingredients together. I tend to get my fats from the olive oil I cook in or sauces that I make. I make cream sauces all the time.
Seared Scallops with Lemon Cream Sauce, Cous Cous, Asaparagus.
Cheeseburger on a whole wheat bun, brocolli
Marinated Grilled Tuna, Brown Rice, Green beans.

I steam all my veggies.

One other things I try to do is have fruit as my carbs at two meals and whole grains as my carbs at two meals. I also had a lot of success doing 15 grams of a fruit and 15 grams of a grain for a while. Eating the fruits helped my tide over my refined sugar cravings, so don't forget about fruit.
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  #11   ^
Old Mon, Feb-20-06, 12:22
BawdyWench's Avatar
BawdyWench BawdyWench is offline
Posts: 8,791
 
Plan: Carnivore
Stats: 212/179/160 Female 5'6"
BF:
Progress: 63%
Location: Rural Maine
Default

That's helpful. The only meal I have questions on is breakfast and getting the veggies in. If I have eggs, this isn't a problem since I love tossing in a bunch of onions and green/red/orange peppers or spinach or any number of other veggies into omelettes.

I did like your suggestion for 2 meals with fruit and 2 with grains. I might steal that one!

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  #12   ^
Old Mon, Feb-20-06, 12:24
ArticCat's Avatar
ArticCat ArticCat is offline
Organic Lifestyle
Posts: 214
 
Plan: SBP (Organic & Balanced)
Stats: 165/135/130 Female 5'6''
BF:
Progress: 86%
Location: Rocky Mountains
Default

I usually take a bag of carrot sticks or cucumber slices for breakfast. I'm not big on it, but I have gotten used to it now.
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  #13   ^
Old Mon, Feb-20-06, 19:33
Ksrt Ksrt is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 42
 
Plan: zone
Stats: 205/165/130 Female 5' 5"
BF:
Progress:
Default

Hi,

I know it sounds like a lot of food but i measure it in fitday and it is around 1800 calories. My carbs are about 36 grams per meal. She did start me out on a lot of carbs because my adrenals were burned out and you need to keep your insulin higher to take the stress off the adrenals. I probably could have eaten less food, but then my body would have rebuilt slower and it would have taken more time to heal. I'm actually still insulin resistant but my adrenals have healed. I was eating only small portions of meat, nonstarchy vegetables, and nuts before I started this and I couldn't lose a pound on 900 calories a day. Now I eat between 1800 and 2100 calories a day and i still lose weight. It's because my adrenals and thyroid work better now. Remember I was her patient and believe me, Dr. S wants you to eat. Also, she has raised her idea of carb allowance since the first book. She would only start you out at 15 grams per meal if your adrenals were perfectly healthy and probably wouldn't keep you there for very long. She started me at 25 grams per meal and I had the worst metabolism type.
I do try to choose things low on the glycemic scale.

I don't presume to tell anyone what's right for them, but you asked, so I shared. Nobody wants to gain weight, but for people with burned out adrenals, you have no choice if you want to actually heal your metabolism.
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  #14   ^
Old Tue, Feb-21-06, 04:49
BawdyWench's Avatar
BawdyWench BawdyWench is offline
Posts: 8,791
 
Plan: Carnivore
Stats: 212/179/160 Female 5'6"
BF:
Progress: 63%
Location: Rural Maine
Default

Krst, that's a lot to think about. I know sometimes it's deceiving -- it looks like a ton of food, and yet the counts are low, and vice versa.

Regardless, you've healed yourself and it's working for you. That's GREAT!!!! I'm getting the first of two adrenal test results back this week. We'll see what they say.

I have to say I'm feeling better by eating more. I'm sleeping better, I'm not getting as much muscle fatigue as before, and my mood seems clearer.

So, I'm in!
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  #15   ^
Old Tue, Feb-21-06, 09:43
Cavendish's Avatar
Cavendish Cavendish is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,095
 
Plan: Anti-Estrogenic Diet/PP
Stats: 198/194/140 Female 5 ft 5 in.
BF:27.9%
Progress: 7%
Location: Seattle
Default

Thanks everyone for your input!! It's great to hear some personal experiences and ideas. I started at 25 grams of carbohydrate per meal, and 15 per snack, and am averaging 70-100 per day. I mean to stick to SP for life, it is a great plan as long as I keep an eye on what I'm eating and actually count my carbs and fat, etc.

The first time I tried to do this, I gained weight (5 pounds--then just went on an out of control eating binge for a few weeks). However, after looking over my menus from before, etc., I think I gained the weight because I really overdid it on the fat, and I didn't count the carbs in cheese or dairy. I know that my adrenals are healthy, but that my metabolism is slightly whacked...so it will take some adjustment, but I imagine I will see some weight loss within the first three months. This time, I am going to be more careful, stick to her guidelines, and continue to exercise every day (but not in excessive amounts)!

Bawdy--
One breakfast that works for me sometimes is what I call vegetable hash--I take about 1/2 of a small eggplant, 1/4 of a couple of different kinds of peppers, some onion, and mushrooms--and dice it finely (I end up with about 2 cups raw vegetables), then I fry it up in a little butter--it is really good if you add some sausage to it for your protein, (or you can serve it with eggs) and toast or fried potatoes--or just as a side dish with yogurt and fruit. I have that a lot when I am not in the mood for eggs. I also LOVE Palak Paneer with scrambled eggs for breakfast. Or even just on its own with toast. (We eat out at an Indian restaurant a lot, and so it is handy in the morning when we have leftovers!)

Also something I discovered when I started this plan last time--in the European hotels they offer a buffet in the morning that always includes yogurt, museli, fruit, sliced cucumber, sliced sweet peppers, sliced tomatoes, cheese and ham slices, hard-boiled eggs and a basket of fresh whole grain rolls. (I won't mention the pastries...drool)

This gives me a lot of potential breakfast ideas. I can roll up some pepper slices in cheese or ham, and have it with a little museli and a couple of tablespoons of yogurt and fresh fruit, or make ham/veggie & cheese/veggie rolls and eat it with a fresh fruit plate--or even make a veggie, cheese, and ham sandwich. (People eat those for breakfast here all the time with a cappuccino...for some odd reason it never seemed right for breakfast for me until I came here--now it seems oh-so-continental!)

Thanks everyone for taking the time to share with us! I hope people will continue to add to this thread as time goes on.

Last edited by Cavendish : Tue, Feb-21-06 at 09:52.
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