Hi Sharon
Below is a description of my usual daily food choices, just for info really. It's from an email I sent to another member. I am a very-low-carber, so it probably won't suit you, but I've posted it so you can see a basic low-carb diet. This one is based on Atkins Induction.
You can choose how many carbs you want to eat a day, then add extra Low GI foods to the diet I follow until you reach your target. You could add in fruit. As you increase the carbs, you drop the fat a bit, but don't be frightened of natural fats.
My Daily Food Choices
"On my 'basic' Atkins-derived diet, I have a two-egg omelette almost every morning for breakfast; plain, or with mushrooms or cheese. If you don’t want eggs, you can eat bacon, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms – in fact, the full English breakfast, only without bread, potatoes or baked beans.
Occasionally I will have about 30g of Lizi’s granola, or Allbran sweetened with Splenda. Either will take you over your daily carb allowance at first, but sometimes I need the fibre.
There’s no reason why you can’t have salad for breakfast; chicken salad is really very nice in the morning. If you’re short of time, prepare a plastic box full of tomato, sliced pepper, celery, radishes, cubes of cheese or a couple of Baby Bels, cold meat – bite sized pieces. Shove it in the fridge overnight, get it out in the morning, and grab a piece every time you pass while you’re getting ready.
That does really well for snacks too, or you can sit it on the passenger seat and grab a piece at a time while your driving.
I usually have a large mixed salad for lunch with either fish (mackerel; tuna; salmon
or meat (usually poultry); and/or cheese; sometimes an avocado. Mayonnaise.
Supper will be fish or meat (red, poultry or good sausages) with veg (from: broccoli, cauli, leeks, green beans, courgettes, cabbage, a few carrots and so on; low-carb). Sometimes I make an enormous ratatouille and eat that as my veg over a few days. Butter and/or grated cheese on veg. Mayonnaise (full fat).
Snacks (I don't snack every day) are mainly cheese, cold meat, rarely a few nuts (a small handful – almonds, hazel, brazils, walnuts, pecans, macadamia), a few olives; and if I need a 'crunch', oatcakes or sesame Ryvita, with butter. They’re about 5g carbs per biscuit; no more than 4 a day – if you’re being really strict, you shouldn’t eat them at all at first – 20g per day is your allowance!
Vegetables – I eat up to 14oz of salad, and 14oz of the allowed veg, every day. In practise, it’s probably about 8oz of each – 14oz is a lot of salad!
No fruit at all in the early stage. If I have fruit, it will usually be berries; apples, plums, and apricots/nectarines in season. I certainly don't eat fruit every day.
Cream or live yoghurt with fruit; milk in coffee (1 or 2 a day) and on the cereal if I eat it. I have two pints of semi-skimmed delivered every week, and usually throw some of it away. With milk, the higher the fat the lower the carb; that’s why cream is allowed. I don't eat cheese every day, despite the above. I probably eat 1 pkt (half-pound) of butter a week. Oil is always cold-pressed extra virgin olive - I've just discovered it contains almost 16% saturated fat - nothing is simple, is it?"
Please ask any questions you like.
Viv 8)
