Just now really feeling well enough to write about it....

Last Sunday night (a week ago today), hubby and I decided to sit down and watch a movie on TV, something we seldom get a chance to do. Used to be that when we'd have a "movie date night" I'd pull out the hot air popcorn popper and pop us up a big bowl of popcorn to munch on while we watched. (After all, air-popped popcorn without any added fat was SUPPOSED to be a HEALTHY SNACK.) Well, obviously since finding our way into low-carb eating after hubby's type II diabetes diagnosis last February, popcorn could no longer be our movie snack of choice. [Just FYI, I've lost over 40 pounds since going low carb and hubby has lost about 25 pounds AND gotten his blood glucose under very tight control...so we're totally committed to staying low carb.]

"No problem re the popcorn replacement," I thought, "we've got several of those great big jars of peanuts downstairs. I'll just bring one of those up instead." BIG MISTAKE!

Hubby somehow managed to exercise reasonable restraint...eating maybe 1/2 cup of peanuts during the course of the movie. I, however, was not so restrained. I honestly don't know how many peanuts I ate - a few at a time - while watching that three-hour movie. But that 34.5 oz jar of peanuts was 3/4 EMPTY when I carried it back downstairs after the movie...and it had been almost full when the movie started!

Woke up next morning with the WORST stomach ache of my entire life. Felt like I desperately needed to throw up but could bring up nothing but air and a little stomach acid. Over the next several days I could not even force myself to swallow anything except water, coffee, and matcha green tea. My stomach and intestines were gas-bloated and in total revolt. For awhile, I worried that I might have given myself a bowel blockage that was going to require surgery to repair. Thank heavens that eventually "things passed" and I began to feel like I would probably live.

Net result, one week later, I am down 1.5 pounds from a week ago and feeling normal again. But the sight of peanuts still makes me nauseated. LOL!

Anybody have a recommendation for a safe, healthy, low-carb movie "snack food"? Or do I just need to learn to exercise restraint while I'm mindlessly munching while watching a movie?

Tough call.

I remember huge bowls of popcorn with entire sticks of melted butter poured all over them. Come to find out the popcorn is bad for me but the butter is good.

The problem with nuts is that they are very dense in calories, so if you eat them like popcorn, -- well -- it's different for different people.

Honestly, I don't know of anything that you aren't going to have to use some restraint with. If you find out, let me know.

I'll measure out what I'm going to eat beforehand.

A small bowl of nuts is common for me (about 1/4 cup) and to make them last, I chew each nut until it is dust in my mouth (perhaps 30-40 chews per nut - I don't count them).

I ate fried pork rinds for a while, but got tired of them. But I needed portion control for those too.

Sadly, the days of munching through the entire movie for me are gone for good. But I've adjusted, and would rather have my health.

I'll subscribe to this thread, so if anyone comes up with your answer, It'll work for me, too.

Bob

I would say the best thing you can do for yourself and your husband's blood sugar levels is to retrain yourself not to snack during movies. Have a big glass of water, but nothing to eat. It's hard at first, but like anything else, in time you find you can do it. I think it is harder at the movie theater when everyone around you is munching, but then you see all the Wheat Bellies (Carb Bellies) and know you're doing the right thing.

I have a feeling that remembering this experience will instill some restraint in you and you will react differently the next time you encounter peanuts ("remember the time I got so sick?".

I've been there and done that with overdoing it on nuts (although peanuts are legumes, not nuts - but you know what I mean.)

I second Liz with regard to retraining cues. I no longer care about having snacks while watching movies, even at the movie theatre. But, I do realize that environmental cues for eating can be very tough. They were for me, as well.

Whenever I've wanted something to munch on while watching the tube, I find that cutting up a bowl of crunchy raw veggies and coating them in some oil and salt works quite well. My favorites are broccoli, cauliflower and avocado. Coconut or olive oil both taste wonderful on them with salt (or seasoning of choice.) You can come up with your own favorites. The crunch helps take care of that "snack" feel, and they take a while to eat because you have to chew so much.

Sometimes I make a full meal of this by adding some strips of bacon and pouring the bacon fat over the veggies instead of the coconut or olive oil.

Like Bob I measure out a portion, eat it slowly, and that's it for the day. With nuts it's about 1/4 cup. Luckily I never was one to munch during movies, so it isn't an issue. Re-training is really the best thing to do - though easier said than done. For movies (at home) I like to knit - keeps my hands busy.

Hi Bev! I'm glad you are okay! OMG, i SOOO know what you mean about trying to find a "popcorn replacement" for movie night!The food and the movie go hand in hand. It doesn't really impact the enjoyment of the movie itself, but it adds to the experience. Not eating 'corn during a movie is like not eating turkey at Thanksgiving.

Popcorn and a movie was always such a happy tradition in our family! It started for me after my parents got divorced (I was about 16) and when I would go over to spend time with my dad, for lack of real things to talk about (he was a great dad, but rather emotionally unavailable) we'd say, "Hey! Wanna' watch a movie and have 'corn n Peps?!" (short for Diet Pepsi). "YES!" And so, he'd pop up a giant salad bowl for each of us of 'corn and pour tall cups of Diet Peps' and we'd "bond" as well as you possibly can with someone while watching a film and not talking. But, there was something about being together, just us, sharing an experience, enjoying the same thing at the same time. I loved it. It was and is a great memory I have of my father.

After I got married, I wanted to carry on the tradition of Movie Night. SO, for years, we would do just that. Pop up brimming over-sized bowls of the white stuff (of course, organic and cooked with olive oil so it was very "healthy!" ), and pour on the melted butter and salt (or, for me, salt and vinegar sprinkles from Kernels in Canada), and drink soda and ENJOY! Munching throughout the whole movie.

Since starting HFLC, We have NOT had popcorn and a movie, and it really does feel like something's missing. (I know, I know, we shouldn't "need" something to eat while watching a flick, but I WANT something! The tradition and memory and the ritual of it is one I do not want to give up.)

Actually two nights ago, I decided to try to make some Rev Rolls from A'72, and they turned out okay, but, the interesting thing was (the recipe calls for cottage cheese) the cottage cheese that had "sunk" to the bottom of the egg white mixture and touched the butter-greased pan while baking ended up with a very nice CRUNCHY texture! So, more interested in pursuing the CRUNCH, I put the Rev Rolls aside, and I immediately grabbed another baking sheet, oiled it up with butter and spread some dry curd cottage cheese on the tray. I baked it for, I don't know how long, until they turned golden brown. They were SUPER CRUNCHY! It worked! The only problem is you don't get very many in a batch, and it takes a fairly long time to bake them (not like popcorn)... BUT, I think I MAY have discovered a viable replacement! Movie Night LIVES!!!
Roasted Dry Curd Cottage Cheese is the new No Carb 'Corn for Movie Night



'cause the show must go on!
Jam

oooo Jamackarch.... crunchy cottage cheese That sounds delish!
You gotta post that recipe on the recipe pages. And maybe make a YouTube video to boot to show just how you did it. I love large curd cottage cheese and just the thought of that flavor with a bit of crunch added in makes my mouth water.

Re Jamackarch's roasted crunchy cottage cheese. Soon as I posted my reply, I did what I always do when I hear about something totally different. I go on line and google it. Googled "crunchy cheese" and found this website...

http://www.specialcheese.com/bakedch.htm

Popped cheese! 1 g carb, 5 g protein, 6.5 g fat. Maybe a bit high in saturated fats than one would want on a regular basis but as an occasional low carb snack, sounds perfect. Except for maybe the price. LOL! The stuff is not cheap but I'm tempted to order some just to try it out. A special treat for our movie nights...and at those prices, I won't be able to afford to pig out too much. LOL!

Yes, peanuts aren't nuts, but then neither are pecans, walnuts, cashews, macadamias, almonds, pistachios, and Brazil nuts, either.

From Wiki:

Almonds are the edible seeds of drupe fruits — the leathery "flesh" is removed at harvest.
Brazil nut is the seed from a capsule.
Candlenut (used for oil) is a seed.
Cashew is the seed of an accessory fruit.
Chilean hazelnut or Gevuina
Macadamia is a creamy white kernel of a follicle type fruit.
Malabar chestnut
Pecan is the seed of a drupe fruit
Mongongo
Peanut is a seed and from a legume type fruit (of the family Fabaceae).
Pine nut is the seed of several species of pine (coniferous trees).
Pistachio is the seed of a thin-shelled drupe.
Walnut (Juglans)
Yeheb nut is the seed of a desert bush, Cordeauxia edulis

Hazelnuts, chestnuts, beechnuts, and acorns are true nuts, the rest aren't.

I wonder why so many people pick on peanuts as not being nuts and not the others?

Crunchy cheese sounds good, but I suppose portion control would still be in order. Perhaps not as much as the nuts though.

Bob

It's possible that, like myself, they may be unaware of how many of these other foods we call nuts are not actually nuts. Now I know. :-) I only pointed it out simply so someone didn't come up behind me and point out that peanuts aren't nuts. Oh, well. Guess I could have left well enough alone.... Interesting information, though.

THAT IS GREAT NEWS!!! What a promising development! (taps fingers together and wiggles eyebrows in a devious up-down manner)

Thanks for that!

I hope I didn't make you feel badly.

I've read that "peanuts aren't really nuts" comment about a zillion times, and I've never read, "almonds aren't really nuts" or cashews, or pistachios, etc.

So I guess I've taken it upon myself to educate the world, one thread at a time

It sometimes seems that the public has chosen to treat peanuts unfairly. They have the resveratrol that the health food people tell you will extend your life, without the carb content of grapes, plus they are a good source of Vitamin E and folate. One more thing, the fat is monounsaturated, which is supposedly the good kind of fat.

But back to the thread - they have a very low glycemic load, but are dense in calories (1/4 cup = 215 calories), and fairly low carb (1/4 cup = 2 carb after subtracting the fiber). <link>

So a quarter cup during a movie would be reasonable for me, but an entire cup would be out of the question.

Sounds and looks like the cheese crackers I often make - just put small chunks or piles of grated cheese on a silicon baking sheet and bake or microwave till bubbly and starting to harden.
Or spread out a load of grated cheese and bake till it looks like a lace-y plate then break into small pieces

Am I the only that thinks popcorn really isn't that bad? I haven't eaten it since I started Atkins because I can't pop it in the house(my dad's throat gets itchy when he smells popcorn), but if I go to a movie in the future, I don't think a small bag of popcorn would effect my progress. It's only 5 grams of net carbs per cup. I used to eat it when I've done low carb in the past and still lost the next day.

Microwaved no butter:

120 calories per ounce - 17 carbs per ounce - full of fructose - IMHO something sadly to be avoided.

YMMV.

Bob