Last week, my acupuncturist Dina put me on a low-carb (NOT NO-carb) diet for two weeks and also told me to keep a food diary and write how I feel each day. As soon I heard low-carb, I dreaded it partly due to my experience years ago with trying to do the Atkins diet which I failed miserably at. I fantasized about pasta constantly and I felt like I was going crazy. 😦 After four or five days, it was over – I quit!! BUT, although it hasn’t been the easiest thing to do this week (especially for a food lover) to cut down my carbs, I have done pretty well – with only one day that that I cheated a teeny bit (when I made homemade noodles to go with my Osso Bucco over the weekend). This low-carb diet (no more than two pieces of fruit a day) is probably why I’m not banging out a post every couple of days – I don’t want to think too much about food at the moment.
Doing the grocery shopping tonight was a nightmare with all the tempting foods just screaming at me (like pretty cupcakes). But really, it’s noodles that I crave and think about all the time. I nearly had soba today but I stopped myself and returned it to the pantry with merely a sniff.
Do I feel better? I am not sure yet but I think so, the aches and pains in my back are better and feel less inflamed. Quinoa has been my best friend this week (it is a good substitute to brown rice) and so has cabbage, cauliflower and cucumber (to fill me up).
So, tell me what restrictive diets have you been on and what you craved the most?
Here is a photo of my first dinner on the low-carb diet – it was weird but tasted good:
sorry to hear you aren’t feeling well. I hope you will be able to eat the things you love soon. In Japan, there are several doctors who say that you shouldn’t eat raw veggies that they should be steamed or boiled. This is to take out whatever carbs they have. Don’t know if it actually works, but maybe you could try eating your veggies this way.
Anyway, hope you feel better soon! Take care and big hug from Japan.
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Thanks Kat, that is very sweet of you. It’s funny, my mother swears that you CANNOT eat raw spinach – do you find that people in Japan don’t eat it? Obviously it’s ok to eat because people do it all the time in the states but I just want to know why she is so against it.
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It is weird because you will never seen raw spinach salads around here, only the boiled or steamed Japanese style. Most of the salads here are not entree size and you mostly only see it at breakfast buffets. Most places have cooked veggies only though. Must be a States thing to eat raw veggies, huh?
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My husband hates that i eat raw veggies, in particular carrots. Yet he eats raw cabbage as a side salad when he goes to a Japanese restaurant! I love raw carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower! I’ve never heard of eating raw spinach though. Does it taste ok?
I had no idea that veggies and fruit were carbs. I thought it was only pasta and bread.
Are you having pains Michelle? I didn’t know.
I will send healing to you tomorrow night. Thanks for your lovely email. I will respond later…i’m just doing some surfing on friends sites at the moment to catch up on what’s been going on. I feel so out of the loop at the moment!
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Oh i forgot to say…I went on a Low GI diet last year. It only lasted 2 weeks because sad to say, you can’t have any chocolate or sweet things. I really did my best but it was very hard as i was an absolute chocaholic. Not anymore but i still love my sweet things. 🙂
A very long time ago i went on a diet that i made up by myself. I totally cut out any fats that were not naturally in the food, and all sugar. I excercised for 2 hours every day and lost 30kgs. Sad to say that when i got married it started creeping on again, and now i’m back to my original weight! Boo Hoo. 🙂
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Ironic that you mention Quinoa, and then soon afterward, I post about a new Musubi specialty shop here in Honolulu that features a 10-grain rice Musubi, with one of those grains being Quinoa!
Yup, Mana Bu’s should VERY HIGH on your priority list of to-do eats when you come back home!
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Azumarisan, that’s weird that Japanese people don’t really eat raw veggies isn’t it? If you eat raw spinach, it’s best if it’s baby spinach – you can get it pre-packed in the salad section of your local supermarket. Most veggies don’t have a lot of carbs but fruit definitely do – they have sugar. But what my acupuncturist wants me to avoid is mostly the refined junk carbs.
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