Welcome
to
Our Story and we are Sticking to it!!
by
Mike & Sue (Casey) Kasinger
How We Did It
Between us we had tried virtually all of the popular diets that have come out in the last 25 years,
yes we lost weight on most of them but it didn't last very long, but we kept trying. Mike had his best luck with a low fat, low Carb diet that he setup for himself and Casey valiantly experienced some of his unique recipes. Casey had considerable success with the Adkins diet, since we both regained most of our weight back plus, more studying was in order; Mike is a gourmet cook so he read everything he could on food and it's effect on our bodies. A never say die,live on the edge kind of people, So we put together all the good points of many diets we had tried successfully and came up with the information below. We were very fortunate to have obtained a contract to camp host a busy campground for the summer, so we kicked the plan into high gear with dramatic results. We were very supportive of each other, (high "fiveing" every pound lost) and we were committed to loose the weight and keep it off. This is a slow process but slow is good because we learned forever what to do and not to do. We both look and feel great, plus much more energy.
In six months Time
(Mike went from 40 inch waist to 34 waist-40 lbs lost-Casey from size18 to size 6 -50 lbs lost)
Casey is more active than Mike
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This is our plan, it is written to help individuals with a desire to control and loose weight as we did, by understanding and changing their lifestyle as we did.
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When we are young (under25) our metabolism works very well, so we can have foods that are high in fats and sugars, because our activity is much greater and physically works better. As we age our metabolism slows down, but we still have the same wants and desires to eat the same as we did as Young people, this is OK if you significantly increase your activity level, otherwise you need to lower the consumption of sugars, sodium,fats, calories and increase your intake of fiber.
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Active Adult Males
3000 calories per day, 30-40 grams of fat per day, 30-40 grams of fiber per day, and not exceed 300 total grams of carbohydrates per day.
Active Adult Females
2000 calories per day, 25-30 grams of fat per day, 35-45 grams of fiber per day, not to exceed 300 total grams of carbohydrates per day.
in other cases lower sodium will help with water retention and avoid all saturated fats
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All these levels will be discussed individually later.
it is understood that this is a lifestyle change; you should always consult with your physician before changing your eating habits.
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We enjoy such items (our new style) as: ( see the food preparation guide)
Eggs Benedict-Hollandaise sauce --------------French toast
Bacon (turkey) and cinnamon rolls ------------Pancakes
Hamburgers-------------------------------------- Oven Fries
Steak ---------------------------------------------- Pork Chops
Roast Turkey --------------------------------------Meat Loaf
Chili------------------------------------------------ Frito Pie
Bake Chicken --------------------------------------Potato salad
Pasta dishes----------------------------------------Pizza
By repairing the recipes
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A discussion of intake levels
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Active adult male:
3000 Calories per day to maintain weight. 1500-2000 Calories per day to loose weight.
Active adult female:
2000 Calories per day to maintain weight. 1000-1500 Calories per day to loose weight.
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Read Labels on everything especially when you go to fast food establishment, it is not uncommon for an average order of burger, fries and drink to exceed your maximum daily calorie intake for the entire day, so read the sheets provided by the establishment.
A helpful hint; everything fried is loaded in fat, also try ordering without mayonnaise or cheese, this will lower the calories and fat grams considerably and remember that ketchup has a lot of sugar in it and mustard a lot of sodium. Fries can be replace with baked chips or apple wedges. Fried Chicken: 1 order of three pieces will triple your daily fat grams needed, (don't get fooled by grilled some are deep fried) the excess fat is stored in fat cells for future energy.( this is OK if you are a marathon runner or mountain climber you will probably use this energy) So you say I'll have a salad instead, this may be OK if you pay attention to the type of salad dressing you use or if it comes with fried chicken pieces, you may be better off with the burger with mayo and cheese. Again Read the sheet provided by the restaurant. After a while you will get to know these values quite well.
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Fiber
Fiber is very important it helps the digestive process, and combat cholesterol, since we don' digest all fiber it makes us feel fuller plus as it is eliminated, fiber will remove some fat in the system. (but is not a magic bullet) We found that adding additional fiber to most dishes that we got enough fiber. ( At lest 3 or more grams per serving) We use high fiber breads and rolls; Also there are tortillas on the market that are very high in fiber, Read the lables. We eat an apple every day before our main meal, this helps with fiber and apples have naturally got pectin which will help control appetite.
When introducing fiber in the diet go slow at first, too much could cause some un-comfortable moments
moments. Casey found that walking a least 3 miles every day activated the fiber better.
Remember when reading label's that a prospective product should have at least 3 grams of fiber per serving.
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Fat
It is important to monitor your daily intake of all fats, ( all fats have the same amount of calories)
but in most cases are not created equally; for example animal fats have considerably more saturated fats than do vegetable oils, (palm oil is an exception) saturated fats generally find a nice home in your fat cells. Consider this; preparation is the key to reducing fats in the diet, trim excess fat from meats an slow cook or marinate to tenderize, on poultry most of the fat is found in the skin, remove the skin prior to cooking. White meat has less fat. If you eat out, not all food is grilled as billed. ( find out how it is prepared) Turkey is considered the lower fat meat (maybe) it depends on what part and how it is prepared For instance if you bake a turkey by traditional methods it no longer is low in fat. Traditional way is to place stuffed turkey in a roaster basted with butter or a couple slices of bacon on top and dusted liberally with salt. What happens is most of the fats into the stuffing and the rest goes into the meat. Remember grilling meats is best. (same goes with fish) if you prefer steamed or boiled this is good also. We discovered that if you use a small amount of Olive Oil with water and fry eggs in this, that we could have fried eggs with less fat. Remember that fat is prime contributor to what makes us fat so keep tabs on the amount of fat grams, but not go totally fat free, we need some fats in our diet.
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Carbohydrates (Carbs)
Carbs come in many forms;in this case we will talk mostly about sugars. Reduction of Carbs helps to naturally control calories. Here are some examples of popular foods high in Carbs, Sodas,
pastries, candies, alcoholic beverages, ketchup. pasta sauces, cereals. breads, cakes and pies, all products that use sugar in processing. Actually almost all processed foods have added sugars. So Read the labels if a product has 8 grams of Carbs or less per serving this is OK. Natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables are complex sugars and OK within moderation. It's the simple Carbs in processed sugar that converts to glucose, then is stored in fat cells for future use, again there goes the fat cells, A very important thing to remember, products might say sugar free but read the label it could have added fat to enhance the flavor, also a product may say sugar free but may be sweetened with corn syrup or a by product of corn syrup, (Beware these are simple sugars) confused? Well you aren't the only one, most people are (if it has been processed avoid when possible)
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Sodium
Sodium is found mostly in salt, potassium is also found in salt,we need potassium there are other sources of potassium such as bananas, broccoli and kiwi fruit.
Excess sodium is a prime contributor to high blood pressure, it also helps retain excessive water in your system that you don't need. 300 grams daily is generally more than enough for the average person. You will find sodium in most processed foods even soda Read the labels
Food Preparation Guide
How we do it
We started by looking at our favorite foods, to see if we could modify them to accommodate our new change of life style, and found that we could easily change most items. The following are some examples of recipe repair.
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Low Fat,Low Carb Hollandaise Sauce:
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1/2 cup fat free plain yogurt
1/4 tsp mustard
1/4 tsp lemon juice
stir this all together and warm to desire serving temperature.
can be refrigerated several days.
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In Summary:
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we purged our pantry of items that would not blend well with our new life stlye. Also we purchased a good calorie counter guide. (The Calorie King Guide)
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We also use the 20 minute rule, which is using moderate servings, we wait 20 minutes to see if our hunger has been satisfied, usually this is so, if not we have a little more. A web site with a lot of info http://www.sparkpeople.com
Watch this blog for up-dates,hints and recipes
