Just to let you all know I am on the mend. I did lose my love handles and even thou I had to resort to eating some carbs to get to feeling better I am still trying to maintain more protein and good fats in my over-all daily diet. I never gave up fruits such as banana and tangerines, as my medication requires them. But I am not using sugar and what bread (small amount) I eat is whole wheat. I gave up on the desserts and the other high carb ingredients that are not healthy. But I feel much better and I agree with @Denise Happyfeet, that my body said what it needed to get better. I did not mean that the diet caused my sickness, but it could have depleted my stores of fat that normally our bodies use in times of illness to reserve strength and fight the "bug." Without that extra I ran low on fighting energy thus took longer to recover. I was eating lots of vegetables and had added more meat to my diet as well as, using cheese and cottage cheese, and eggs and other healthy substitutes. I also joined the low carb forum, (Sandy62). Friends told me that the illness was my body adjusting to the low carb way of eating and that most people just rode through it and were fine. I think it may have been a bit of both and now I am being a bit more careful about how and what I am eating. thanks for all the suggestions and opinions on this subject.
I try to eat a varied diet. I don't know good carbs from bad carbs and don't care to know. We eat meat, vegetables, fruits, grains, of as many kinds as we can. We do not eat man made products that people try to pass off as food. We do try to limit sweets but we are prone to overindulge at times. Actually my wife is more likely to overdo the sweets while I'm more apt to succumb to things like cheeses or chips and dip. Neither of us has a serious weight problem. At 74 years old, 5'11" and average 165 pounds I think my diet has been working well.
I tend to agree Sheldon.. I think a varied diet is best.. I know the bad carbs are Rice, Potatoes, and pasta. Good carbs are Veggies and whole grains.. BUT I was raised in a meat and potatoes house.. I do however tend to limit the red meat we eat, choosing mostly chicken, fish and some lean pork cuts. BUT.. there are times when nothing works or satisfies more than a nice steak... right? So at those times, we do have it if we want it. I still eat "bad" carbs... but I limit the amounts to 1/2 to only 1 cup at a meal.. and when possible substitute some of the whole grain varieties and avoid the "white" starches when possible. I have found that mashed rutabaga is a good substitute for mashed potatoes. I believe our British friends call them mashed swede. Sweet potatoes are also a good substitute.
We eat potatoes quite a bit but not as often as we were brought up. Rice and pasta we don't eat often and that's usually brown rice and whole wheat pasta. We eat anything we want but try to eat smaller servings. I did say try...doesn't always work.
That's the problem.. when something tastes really good it's hard to not go back for more. Hubby and I have been going to Weight Watchers which is all about portion control.. SO now I don't cook any amounts over the measured portions we are allowed. If there's nothing left in the pot you cannot go back for seconds.
The hardest part is walking past the chocolate candy. Now they have all that Easter candy on sale. But I am doing better and trying to eat low carbs but not quite as low as before. I can by pass the sweets you know those cookies and cakes and etc... but have to fight to get past the potato chip isle. Takes all the fun out of shopping when my salt cravings says "hey grab that" and my brain says "NO." lol
I tried Nutrisystem and, combined with walking a couple of miles each morning, it worked very well. I lost more than forty pounds in a month. Then I woke up one morning with stomach pains, and they quickly became almost the most severe pains I've ever felt. Every couple of minutes, the pains would come. What I learned was that when you lose too much weight too quickly, you put yourself at risk for gallbladder attacks, particularly men. So I ended up having my gallbladder removed, and all that I wanted to eat for a while after that was soup.