Eat the rainbow

Eat the rainbow
Eat the rainbow

Tuesday 25 February 2014

LCHF for beginners







LCHF

First of all, what is lchf? 
Low carb and high fat. And that is exactly what it is. You eat low carb food and you eat a lot of fat. 


Here above we have some of the marvelous things that a LCHF diet includes of: 


  • Meat: Any type, including beef, pork, game meat, chicken etc. Do not cut and throw away the fat on the meat and eat the skin on the chicken.
  • Fish and shellfish: Especially fatty  fish like salmon, mackerel and herring. 
  • Eggs: boiled, fried, poached, omelettes
  • Butter, coconut oil, olive oil
  • Vegetables that grow above the ground: all kinds of cabbage, asparagus, zucchini, eggplant, olives, spinach, mushrooms, lettuce, cucumber,avocado, peppers, tomatoes etc.
  • Dairy products: always HIGH FAT option like butter (margarine is NOT allowed), cream, sour cream, Greek/turkish yogurt, cheese. Avoid lowfat and flavored products.
  • Nuts: mostly pecans, Brazil nuts and macadamias (have a carb % under 5)
  • Berries (a good option is to eat them with whipped cream or coconut cream)



This is more or less how a plate should like: 




and this is how the lchf food pyramid looks like :






Have you noticed  that its basically the upside version of the "standard food pyramid" ????


Being a vegetarian(like me) does not make eating LCHF impossible.
I eat a lot of :


  • coconut derivatives: coconut milk, coconut cream, coconut oil, coconut flakes, fresh coconut, shredded coconut, coconut oil
  • dairy : quark, cottage cheese, Greek/Turkish yogurt, cream, whipped cream,Philadelphia cheese (full fat of everything)
  • cheese: mostly goat cheese (as goats have a similar gastrointestinal physiology to ours)
  • eggs : boiled, fried, poached
  • avocado 
  • nuts : mostly Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts and pecans as they are higher in fat. But I also eat a lot of peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds and cashews
  • All vegetables: spinach, lettuce,argula, zucchini, cauliflower,eggplant, broccoli, peppers, cabbage, pumpkin, 
  • olives and olive oil 
  • mushrooms
  • red pesto, pesto, kale pesto, argula pesto
  • berries
  • nut butters
  • quorn and other vegetarian alternatives to meat like seitan. 
  • Alcohol: white wine
  • seeds: mostly sesame, flax seeds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. 
  • sea weed noodles and konjak noodles
Here is what a "lchf" buffe dinner looked like for me and my mum:



I believe that LCHF is a flexible diet and you yourself can make a meal High in fat and low in carbohydrates depending on what you serve with it ! 
You can make a meal high in fat by , for example,adding extra healthy oils to it. 

This is why I also eat: 
  • some fruit 
  • sugar free chocolate and cacao 
  • protein powder (casein and whey) 
  • root veggies (like carrots)

I make my own low carb chocolate by mixing chocolate protein powder with coconut oil :) 


Do I miss pasta, pizza, rice, muesli and bread ????
The answer is no because I have found alternatives to it: 
RICE = cauliflower rice
PASTA = spiralized zucchini, konjak noodles, seaweed noodles, fitness noodles
PIZZA = coconut flour pizza, almond crust pizza, hazelnut flour pizza, no crust pizza (you use a layer of cheese instead of the crust) 
BREAD = I make seed crackers that I eat instead of crisp bread, I use a slice of cheese instead of crispbread that I top with coconut butter or peanut butter, and Lidl has a amazing lchf bread made of flax seed flour.
MUESLI= I make my own muesli and granola that basically consists of different nuts, seeds and coconut chips
CAKES = the list of lchf cakes is endless and trust me, they taste much better than the healthy low fat sugar free versions. 




I´d like to remind you all that I decided to go low card  NOT with the aim to loose weight but to get control back of my life. I was so tired of feeling tired, moody, anxious and hungry all the time. I was tired of not being to  sleep at night because my anxiety was so high. 
This does not mean that I will eat lchf every day from now for the rest of my life. I am not finally able to enjoy my life again and not to panic to much when it comes to planing the future. When I am in company I will eat what I am served and not be the "complicated guest" (that does not eat this and that does not eat that) but when I am home or with my family,  I will eat lchf. 






4 comments:

  1. This is so usefull! I want to start a low carb diet but all of the information can be so overwhelming - would you ever consider making a 5 - 7 day meal plan for total beginners? It would be incredibly helpful! kisses!! :DDD <33

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    1. Thank you so much for your comment :) I am not allowed to make meal plans untill I get my degree in nutrition (in 7 months!) but I can advice you on how a typical LCHF day would look like (here in the comments). Are you vegetarian? Do you have any allergies ?

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    2. Ah okay! That would be great thank you! I'm not a vegetarian and I have no allergies so hopefully that will make it easier for you :D

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  2. Hi! Thanks for all the great info. I have a possibly dumb question but I know in the past when I've eaten similar to this I've allowed myself to continue eating beans and lentils. What are your thoughts on this? I know these foods are high in carb but I've heard their protein content kind of counterbalances that. Also do you eat quinoa? I know it's technically a seed but most people eat it instead of rice so I wasn't totally sure.

    Thanks!

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