Low GI Diet

Part 2 of Operation Marshmallow to Muscle:

"The Low GI Diet is the safe and healthy way to lose weight with smart carbs. The Australian authors of the bestselling series on the glycemic index, The New Glucose Revolution, explain how choosing low GI carbohydrates—the ones that produce only small fluctuations in your blood glucose levels—can help you feel fuller longer and increase your energy levels, making weight loss achievable and sustainable.

The Low GI Diet includes:
*a 12-week action plan based on smart carbs and smart moves—lose up to ten per cent of your current body weight
*the tools and tips you need to maintain weight loss for life
*delicious recipes, meal plans and a menu survival guide
*the GI tables—with the GI of all your favourite foods.
*Easy to follow, and based on making simple substitutions to the way you eat now, The Low GI Diet will change the way you eat for life."

Is it any coincidence that chocolate is low GI?!!!!! *just kidding - while it is low GI it is also high in saturated fat so all things in moderation!* :-)

Well, I'm almost at the end of the first week of 12 weeks and I have probably eaten more healthily than I have for quite a while. Its a food plan I can live with because it contains a lot of food I enjoy: fruit, vegetables, wholegrain cereals, etc. Portion size is probably my biggest trap and because I am not doing a great deal of running I need to scale down the amount I eat.

For each week there are goals: food goal, exercise goal, activitiy goal ie incidental activity, and Food for Thought.
So, for example, the food goal for the week:
Increase my awareness of what I eat and why (now that can be pretty scary!)
Exercise goal:
pretty much taken care of - I jog/walk 4 times a week and go to the gym twice a week
Food for thought: what is the GI of my diet?

In short, this is a meal plan that I can live with.

As it says in the book: "One of the loudest messages in this book - despite its title - is don't 'diet'.
Don't severely restrict food intake, don't skip breakfast, don't skip meals, don't follow fad diets - you are just asking for trouble. Instead, we want you to adopt simple lifestyle 'manoeuvres', only some of which are specific to food. The aim is to maximise your muscle mass (increase your engine size), minimise your body fat (decrease the cushioning ie the marshmallow) and keep you burning the optimal fuel mix for lifelong weight control (high octane energy with built-in engine 'protectants')."

I know, sounds pretty basic, but its amazing how complicated we can make things sometimes.