Isn't low carb extremely difficult?

carbolysis said:

Hello!

I am really struggling very hard with low carb. While I am totally convinced on its health benefits, I am afraid it is extremely hard to follow.

When you eat mostly out and you mostly take ready to eat food from supermarkets, I can't think how you can do low carb. Everywhere the most available food to eat is a sandwich. At supermarket, all the ready foods have either rice, mash or pasta and if not, they have sauce that has tons of sugar.

I really wish we lived in a low carb world, but unfortunately that is far from reality.

Please don't tell me to cook my own food, I don't want to. I want to just buy my food and eat it readily. And I want to be able to eat out easily, in Subway, Costa, convenience stores or whatever is available.

I wish the convenience stores would sell cheese and salami in a single portion to snack, but they dont.

Any input?

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Subway do a salad instead of sandwich thing. Same price, just tell them not to add sauce unless you want them to.Its really nice and filling. Most supermarkets do a prepared salad bag in the salad isle, just grab one of those and a pack of ham or cheese or cooked chicken?

Not sure about there but we have salad bars in stores with all kinds of toppings, including proteins like egg, turkey, tuna salad as well as a large variety of veggies so you can build your own. We also have hot bars with ready cooked meat to buy by the pound. We have a deli case where we order deli meats and cheese

What’s wrong with some hard boiled eggs and single cheese packages?

Fast food places are burgers or chicken sandwiches without the bun. Eat the lettuce and tomato. Get 2 if ones not enough. Get salads and pick off the carbs stuff and eat it with a creamy dressing.

It really isn’t that hard but it does require SOME effort.

carbolysis said:

Hello!

I am really struggling very hard with low carb. While I am totally convinced on its health benefits, I am afraid it is extremely hard to follow.

When you eat mostly out and you mostly take ready to eat food from supermarkets, I can't think how you can do low carb. Everywhere the most available food to eat is a sandwich. At supermarket, all the ready foods have either rice, mash or pasta and if not, they have sauce that has tons of sugar.

I really wish we lived in a low carb world, but unfortunately that is far from reality.

Please don't tell me to cook my own food, I don't want to. I want to just buy my food and eat it readily. And I want to be able to eat out easily, in Subway, Costa, convenience stores or whatever is available.

I wish the convenience stores would sell cheese and salami in a single portion to snack, but they dont.

Any input?

Click to expand...

Packets of ham, cooked chicken, bacon, beef, salami, kabanos, all deli meats in fact. Cheese (and the selection is massive), bags of all sorts of salads, tins of fish, boiled eggs, crustless quiche. M&S have a huge range of foods that are ready to eat and low carb.

There’s a range of flavoured cauli rice that can be microwaved. Do you cook at all? Bacon and eggs for instance?

You will never be able to eat low carb in coffee shops but you can have cream in your coffee. When I see people eat that food I feel sad that they are damaging their bodies and wallets.

Kristin251 said:

Not sure about there but we have salad bars in stores with all kinds of toppings, including proteins like egg, turkey, tuna salad as well as a large variety of veggies so you can build your own. We also have hot bars with ready cooked meat to buy by the pound.

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that sounds wonderful. We have a deli counter round here for cooked meats and cheese, and whole cooked chickens, but thats about it. What part of the world are you in?

carbolysis said:

Hello!

I am really struggling very hard with low carb. While I am totally convinced on its health benefits, I am afraid it is extremely hard to follow.

When you eat mostly out and you mostly take ready to eat food from supermarkets, I can't think how you can do low carb. Everywhere the most available food to eat is a sandwich. At supermarket, all the ready foods have either rice, mash or pasta and if not, they have sauce that has tons of sugar.

I really wish we lived in a low carb world, but unfortunately that is far from reality.

Please don't tell me to cook my own food, I don't want to. I want to just buy my food and eat it readily. And I want to be able to eat out easily, in Subway, Costa, convenience stores or whatever is available.

I wish the convenience stores would sell cheese and salami in a single portion to snack, but they dont.

Any input?

Click to expand...

I would agree and say it’s not easy and if like me, you don’t enjoy/have time to prepare food, it can become boring but keep exploring and trying different things. To begin with I used to get very down doing the food shop! Now I just laugh, especially at all the Christmas stock and the horrendous amount of sugar everywhere. I was drooling over the desserts then got excited by a special on almonds

I was recently away for the weekend so was out of routine and we ate out every meal which I was dreading but here’s some examples of what I ate in attempt to keep carbs lows:

Breakfast - cooked breakfast (eggs/bacon/sausage/mushroom)

Lunch - Leon’s superfood salad (nutritional values available online which is great)

Dinner - tapas, perfectly low carb. I had prawns, chicken and mushrooms.

For snacks, although rarely needed I tend to have nuts/babybel/ricecake bars. I also love Graze, which they do in share size bags or individual portions (veggie protein/punchy protein or if in need of a treat the salted caramel chocolate one!).

Subway go for the salad. Costa is more of a challenge but there are some lower carb options (check their nutrition menus out online). I also enjoy Pizza Express/Nando’s as there are low carb alternatives available.

Hope this helps.

In the worst scenario, I take the sandwich and just eat what's inside, then give the bread to someone else. When eating out, some types of cuisine are harder than others, but I do find most restaurants have a large enough menu to find low-carb options. I remember at the beginning finding it very hard, the very words that you used. Now, 10 months later, it seems much easier.

Like Kristin251, I find pre-prepared foods available in supermarkets in "hot bars" along with salad bars (we are both in the U.S., I don't know whether this is common in the U.K. but I would have thought it was). I don't use this much because we cook pretty much everything from scratch, but if I were eating out a lot, I would be using this heavily.

Finally, even if you don't cook at all, you can do what I do and buy pre-prepared salads (mixed salads already made-up, in plastic containers), put them in the fridge at home, then eat them later at home or take them to work to eat there. I throw away the plastic sachet of dressing that comes with the salad (it usually contains most of the carbs!) and make my own dressing, just plain olive oil and vinegar. Nuts are also great for easy snacks.

We are all different and low carb may not be for you but it may be worth a try and in my case it was was prize of lower blood sugar a loss of weight of over 4 stone and feeling so much energetic without feeling hungry. I have put some ideas below of are ways of how I dealt with going low carb

Buying from supermarkets - for lunch as others have said often have single salads , or boiled eggs and spinach ( more of a snack) . I used to buy cooked chicken pieces or other meat say ham and a dip - just look at the dip and make sure low carb and some supermarkets do mini kebabs which can be eaten cold.

Eating out - all day breakfasts ask them not to give you the toast , you often get offered more of something else. I would avoid baked beans as well but some people are OK with them. Lots of places do omelettes. I also found if there were no low carb options I would buy say a bacon roll and ditch the roll . Other meals for example curry just cut the rice . Pizza places often have nice salads - some have hot meat in the salad or have their low calorie option which reduce the amount of pizza base. Beef burgers / chicken burgers leave the buns - they are often like pap anyway . Steak / gammon and chip places often have a salad as an option . I recently was at a harvester and ate off their Xmas menu and had 30 carbs ( I eat about 60 a day so not super low carb ) I can quite happily have a club sandwich and leave the bread and feel full . I avoided the dessert and if available had cheese.

Eating at home -On ready foods you can buy just get the meat ( chicken wrapped in bacon or look at ones with cheese sauce often low carb but check) or buy meat and an alternative say Bearnaise sauce or full fat mayonnaise and grill the meat or stick in the oven and have a cauliflower or runner beans , asparagus or broccoli a few minutes in the microwave or buy a ready made salad . This took about the same effort as a ready cooked meal . I cannot eat fish but there are I am sure good fish options smoked salmon ?

Scrambled eggs are easy as is bacon you can microwave cooked bacon if you do not want to cook it from scratch. Berries and cream or yogurt as a dessert or breakfast . I find Low carb Oppo ice cream is nice for the occasional treat.

Snacks You can buy single portions of cheese in most supermarkets usually up to 20 gm per piece or packets which have say 14 pieces in of 12 gm each ) or single salami sticks , or chirizo crisps, if like them olives , or pork crackling , couple pieces of very dark ( in excess of 85%) chocolate, handful of nuts .


Hope this helps

lucylocket61 said:

that sounds wonderful. We have a deli counter round here for cooked meats and cheese, and whole cooked chickens, but thats about it. What part of the world are you in?

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US. It is wonderful. Long counters of all kinds of veggies and meats to top salads with. Fruit too and desserts. Make your own dish with all. Charged by the pound.
The hot bars have about 10-20 selections with beef, chicken, casseroles, hot veggies, meats and gravy, egg dishes, crab cakes, pizza, taco bars, and all help yourself. Of course loads are carbs but they always have baked salmon, baked chicken and usually roasted beef with no sauces. Then chicken wings multiple ways. Fried, barbecued, baked etc. Always a potato dish. I tend to just get some veggies and a hunk of protein. The rest makes me drool.

Kristin251 said:

The hot bars have about 10-20 selections with beef, chicken, casseroles, hot veggies, meats and gravy, egg dishes, crab cakes, pizza, taco bars, and all help yourself.

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Hmmmm! I will help myself to that lot.

Gunna cook steak and eggs, with some left over veggies fried up for breakfast as that list has made me hungrier.

Tipetoo said:

Hmmmm! I will help myself to that lot.

Gunna cook steak and eggs, with some left over veggies fried up for breakfast as that list has made me hungrier.

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Sounds great to me. Now YOU are making me crave steak and eggs. But dinner coming up in a few hours. Might just pick me up a steak. Or some lamb chops.

Kristin251 said:

Or some lamb chops.

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We made a curry with lamb chops in the slow cooker the other day, the cheaper fore quarter ones.

We had one meal, and the remainder we put in containers and froze for another quick meal later on.

carbolysis said:

Hello!

I am really struggling very hard with low carb. While I am totally convinced on its health benefits, I am afraid it is extremely hard to follow.

When you eat mostly out and you mostly take ready to eat food from supermarkets, I can't think how you can do low carb. Everywhere the most available food to eat is a sandwich. At supermarket, all the ready foods have either rice, mash or pasta and if not, they have sauce that has tons of sugar.

I really wish we lived in a low carb world, but unfortunately that is far from reality.

Please don't tell me to cook my own food, I don't want to. I want to just buy my food and eat it readily. And I want to be able to eat out easily, in Subway, Costa, convenience stores or whatever is available.

I wish the convenience stores would sell cheese and salami in a single portion to snack, but they dont.

Any input?

Click to expand...

Costa is an impossible coffee shop to eat low carb in. Give Pret A Manger a go, loads of low carb choices. They even have the nutritional info including carb counts on the shelf edge labels

Kristin251 said:

US. It is wonderful. Long counters of all kinds of veggies and meats to top salads with. Fruit too and desserts. Make your own dish with all. Charged by the pound.
The hot bars have about 10-20 selections with beef, chicken, casseroles, hot veggies, meats and gravy, egg dishes, crab cakes, pizza, taco bars, and all help yourself. Of course loads are carbs but they always have baked salmon, baked chicken and usually roasted beef with no sauces. Then chicken wings multiple ways. Fried, barbecued, baked etc. Always a potato dish. I tend to just get some veggies and a hunk of protein. The rest makes me drool.

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WOW!!!

Tipetoo said:

We made a curry with lamb chops in the slow cooker the other day, the cheaper fore quarter ones.

We had one meal, and the remainder we put in containers and froze for another quick meal later on.

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VERY fortunately for me I get huge nice lean premium lamb chops at my Costco ( Australian lol) for $8 pound. 10 big tender chops for about $22. Everywhere else is $21 pound and pale in comparison.

I perfected them. Hot grill pan with butter. Sear 1min. Flip and throw in a 425 oven 6 min. Let rest 6 min and perfectly rare / med but closer to rare. Excellent cold too. They are rather thick. Probably an inch and a half
In fact making them for an early Christmas on holiday for my parents and brother. They’ve all told me they won’t order them out as the aren’t nearly as good as mine.

Love me some lamb. Sampled lamb leg and won’t ever buy it. Not after chops.

I agree, it is hard at first, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, but only if yo want to see it. The environment is geared towards sugar even for savoury items. I would carry a plastic spoon, if you do diary you can buy small pots of full fat Greek yogurt in supermarkets, dark chocolate, 3 compartment berries - a great meal. Alternatively some supermarkets have bacon ribs, most have chicken, sausages, cold meats, cheese or kefir. There are mixed nuts that can go with either. Many supermarkets have a café, so I would get bacon / sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes and eggs.

You mention Subway and Costa, usually where these outlets are there are also Pret and similar which have low carb options (not specifically called low carb but there are options). There are usually independent shops as well, where as a paying customer you can ask for anything you want; if you see something that is cooked but you don't want the rice ask for vegetables or salad with no dressing, just ask (I have not been told no so far).

Depending on where you are on your journey it may not matter (appears to for you, but just to show what is possible), for example on Monday I went into London fasted and did several hours at a client on tea, with nothing to eat until my one meal of the day at around 16.00 at home; I can remember the time when I would have eaten twice in the same period of time.

carbolysis said:

Hello!

I am really struggling very hard with low carb. While I am totally convinced on its health benefits, I am afraid it is extremely hard to follow.

When you eat mostly out and you mostly take ready to eat food from supermarkets, I can't think how you can do low carb. Everywhere the most available food to eat is a sandwich. At supermarket, all the ready foods have either rice, mash or pasta and if not, they have sauce that has tons of sugar.

I really wish we lived in a low carb world, but unfortunately that is far from reality.

Please don't tell me to cook my own food, I don't want to. I want to just buy my food and eat it readily. And I want to be able to eat out easily, in Subway, Costa, convenience stores or whatever is available.

I wish the convenience stores would sell cheese and salami in a single portion to snack, but they dont.

Any input?

Click to expand...

Cooking would really liberate you from the relative scarcity of choice in the UK - I eat incredibly well throughout the week, lots of stews, eggs, salads and mung bean pasta bought from Holland & Barrett. Mix it with a low carb pesto (Sainsbury's own brand or ASDA Extra Special are good go-to options).

You can make a salad plenty indulgent - yesterday I slow cooked pork belly (with sherry, ginger and garlic) for 10 hours, then cut it up and mixed it into a salad. You can do the same with pork shoulder, a rotisserie chicken etc etc.

Pret is all well and good - occasionally I'll grab one of their chicken salads, but it's not quite enough to fill me up. One of their lower-carb side soups certainly helps.

I've recently discovered Tossed, a salad fast food concept, which I urge everyone to try. I eat the Avocado Kale Caesar, (hold the croutons) - their website posts some high carb counts, but for whatever reason my BG can handle it pretty well. Bear in mind that their salads are totally customisable. And they have bacon!

Nandos - you can eat the chicken livers or the Caesar salad. Or just the plain old chicken.

If I had to be one-stop-shopping in a supermarket, it's not ideal, but I'd pick up a punnet of berries, salt & pepper nut mix (Tesco), a relatively low carb cottage cheese ( always plain, & usually the no frills option is lower carb) and maybe something unglazed (or the least glazed thing) from the rotisserie counter. The supermarket lunch option is very much the last resort for me though.

Billy_Pilgrim said:

Cooking would really liberate you from the relative scarcity of choice in the UK - I eat incredibly well throughout the week, lots of stews, eggs, salads and mung bean pasta bought from Holland & Barrett. Mix it with a low carb pesto (Sainsbury's own brand or ASDA Extra Special are good go-to options).

You can make a salad plenty indulgent - yesterday I slow cooked pork belly (with sherry, ginger and garlic) for 10 hours, then cut it up and mixed it into a salad. You can do the same with pork shoulder, a rotisserie chicken etc etc.

Pret is all well and good - occasionally I'll grab one of their chicken salads, but it's not quite enough to fill me up. One of their lower-carb side soups certainly helps.

I've recently discovered Tossed, a salad fast food concept, which I urge everyone to try. I eat the Avocado Kale Caesar, (hold the croutons) - their website posts some high carb counts, but for whatever reason my BG can handle it pretty well. Bear in mind that their salads are totally customisable. And they have bacon!

Nandos - you can eat the chicken livers or the Caesar salad. Or just the plain old chicken.

If I had to be one-stop-shopping in a supermarket, it's not ideal, but I'd pick up a punnet of berries, salt & pepper nut mix (Tesco), a relatively low carb cottage cheese ( always plain, & usually the no frills option is lower carb) and maybe something unglazed (or the least glazed thing) from the rotisserie counter. The supermarket lunch option is very much the last resort for me though.

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Sounds good! Do you have any stew recipes? I’m getting bored of stir fry/salad!

I'm prediabetic newly diagnosed and have cut the carbs and sweet stuff. However, I am already missing carbs mainly I think cos the weather is so cold. Although I have cut the carbs, I have had some but in much reduced quantities and little or no white carbs. Today was so cold I made homemade soup of butternut squash, carrot, sweet potato, red pepper and onion in a chicken stock, blitzed, herbs added plus a tablespoon of single cream.

Now I have no idea how much carbs that entailed or how my blood sugar reacted as I'm still waiting for my tester to arrive, but it tasted good and I did not have any bread roll with it.

It's one of my favourite soups and I'm sure someone will be along to tell me it's a carb no no. However, in terms of quantities, I used one stock, about a 3inch wedge of butternut squash, half a large carrot, half a red pepper an half an onion. The entire amount served 2 of us.

I've been going a bit nose-to-tail lately, which seems to alienate a lot of people. These aren't stews exactly, but oven-slow-cooked 2.5hr dishes.

Lamb Neck with Sherry

Morrisons do crazy cheap cuts of meat if you go for the things nobody else does - lamb neck rings are a case in point. For whatever reason, the cheaper the cut of meat, the more connective tissue there tends to be, and the more delicious it is when slow-cooked.

Brown 4 lamb neck rings in a skillet with a bit of oil and butter, removing when seared all over. Add some coarsely chopped onions, garlic and celery to the pan with the existing juices - when softened after 3-4 minutes, add some chopped thyme and rosemary to the pan and a VERY generous splash of Fino sherry or white wine, then zest a lemon on top, and maybe squeeze half of it in for good measure - then chuck it in the oven in a loaf tin or small casserole dish at 170C for 2.5 hours. If you're worried there's not enough liquid in the pan, add a little bit of water or lamb stock.

Serve with half a toasted protein roll. This is one of those dishes that tastes so rich and fulfulling, that you hardly notice the relative lack of meat.

Pork Cheeks in Red Wine

Pork cheeks are incredibly delicious and tender when slow cooked, and have to be tried before you all start grossing out at once. Morrisons again is the only supermarket you can find these - butchers shops tend to sell the heads wholesale.

Sear the pork cheeks in a pan on medium high for 3-4 mins until brown all over - I often add some balsamic or sherry vinegar near the end to really embed some flavour into them, but try not to set the kitchen on fire. Remove from the pan, season with salt, pepper and maybe some smoked paprika and saute some chopped onions, celery, carrot and rosemary in the juices for around 5 minutes - then add a cup of red wine and a cup of (canned) plum tomatoes, bringing to a simmer. Then return the pork cheeks to the pan and cook for 5 minutes more. Throw in the oven on 150C for 2.5 hours - I always use a loaf tin for this, but this time cover it with foil - when ready serve again with a toasted protein roll, because nobody said I wasn't repetitive.

I also do variations on Beef Bourguignon and Coq au Vin, which are a lot easier to bung into a slow cooker and leave for 10-12hrs. I tend to buy a lot of stewing beef from Lidl - they do very cheap Aberdeen Angus stuff, which I get in at least once a week.