Pasta, love it!
Rice, love it!
Bread, love it!
BUT they never loved me back. Sound familiar?
Over the years I previously thought I ‘do better’ at the whole weight loss game if I eat no carbs or eat a very low carb diet, so signing up the 90 Day SSS plan has been a real eye opener for me and completely changed if, how and when I eat carbs.
I’ve tried brown pasta and if I’m honest it’s not the same as it’s big brother, proper durum wheat pasta. Brown rice on the other hand I quite like (?!?!?!). But I also can say from previous experience that life without carbs or very little can be a miserable and difficult existence long term. Family look at you like you’ve gone mad when you declare ‘I’m eating low carb at the moment’, and it can be quite difficult to grab something on the run for lunch on the high street. The nicer more appealing salads have noodles or pasta in them, and the low carb alternative is no where to be seen.
Weight loss in our family is such a bone of contention as to what works and what doesn’t. Yesterday was Mr Burble’s 40th birthday BBQ with family. We meticulously planned the meal to include a few potatoes to accommodate the family and made sure that nothing we served required a burger or hotdog bun – sneaky eh? We did our workout mid morning and our carb refuel was set to be a slice of a beautifully decorated birthday cake. Despite us losing over half a stone (that’s 7lbs+) each and 8.8 inches and 11.5 inches, no one’s noticed or said anything. We’re both noticeably slimmer, wearing different clothes than we would normally. Anyway, enough moaning, I’ve gone off topic………There was a discussion at the table about carbs, and why you shouldn’t eat carbs unless you’ve worked out. We haven’t told anyone that we’re currently following The Body Coaches plan and tried to impart some of the things we’ve learnt without actually spilling the beans. One family member is currently doing Weight Watchers again, and while we’ve been doing our C1 thing, they’ve been counting away. We’ve met up on several occasions to celebrate birthdays and it’s been surprising how we’ve had our slice of cake and had a good result at the end of the cycle, yet this poor family member struggles to maintain let alone lose weight for that week.
It’s funny how as a society we have been conditioned to eat a ‘healthy cereal’ every day and eat bread without thinking. Pasta and rice on the other hand unless you eat their brown so called healthy versions have been relegated to the stodgy food isle with complaints of bloating and feeling sluggish if eaten while sales of the ‘free from’ versions have rocketed. Well, that’s all hooey according to the latest research (HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!) Since having my children I am rather partial to a documentary about health and fitness. Trust Me I’m A Doctor touched upon some research which showed that cooking pasta, cooling it and then reheating it before eating changes how the body processes the starches (in a good way). It’s quite unusual for there to be pasta leftovers, but I do love reheated pasta, especially if you chuck it in the wok with a little olive oil and make the pasta a little crispy.
Mens Health also featured this little known fact a few months ago (binned my copy) but in the latest edition there are lots of lovely pasta recipes because they deem pasta to be ‘your new weightloss friend‘ (August 2016 Issue, pg 84) and this week the Daily Mail have published an article about how unripe bananas, whole grains, beans, white rice and even pasta are all part of a class of carbs called ‘resistant starch’. For me this is great news, mainly because pasta is in my Italian DNA but also because I’m now on the eve of starting C2 of the 90 Day SSS Program and I’m delighted to see lots of bread, pasta and rice back on the menu more than once on training days. My brain is bursting with lots of recipe ideas, all of which I’ll be posting here, but thanks to Joe Wicks and his plan I now understand that in order to eat these lovely dishes with controlled carb portions, I. MUST. AND. WILL. EXERCISE.
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