Since I was raised in an Italian household, I made friends with carbohydrates pretty early on. I learned to love pasta and sweet treats as if there was some sort of shortage coming soon.
But as I got older, I soon found out that carbs and I were not exactly the besties I had envisioned. In fact, I started to see carbs as the enemy.
I convinced myself that pastas and decadent treats were “off limits” and tried to jump on the salad bandwagon as much as possible.
Where did that genius idea lead me?
Straight towards the hangries. I was tired, my moods fluctuated like a teenage girl hitting puberty (see ya later patience!) and I could barely think straight because my eyes felt so damn heavy some days.
I knew fairly quickly that things had to change. So I dove headfirst into the world of carbs and I’m here to share everything I’ve learned. It turns out, carbs are not the enemy and your carb cravings can be eliminated (or drastically reduced). I’ll show you exactly how to do this in today’s article.
We Need Carbs Homie
Okay, so maybe we don’t need the comforting grandma pasta all the time, but we do need carbs everyday to survive.
McKinley Health Center tells us that we need these bad boys because:
- They are our primary source of fuel
- Their role in how our central nervous system, kidneys, brain and muscles functions is crucial
- They help our intestines and assist with waste removal
Can you see just how important carbs are for us? Without them, we’d have no energy, our brains and central nervous system couldn’t function properly and we’d have a bunch of waste chillin’ inside of us (um…so gross).
Most people (including me) are surprised to learn that carbs are also considered a macronutrient. This means our bodies need them in large quantities just to maintain proper bodily functioning as I just mentioned a few sentences ago. Now, before you go running off to an all-you-can-eat pizza and pasta buffet, there’s more to the story so stay with me here.
Carb Cravings Explained (Finally!!)
Eating too many carbs, especially the wrong kind, will cause you to gain weight. There’s no sugar coating this one.
See, carbs give us energy, but, we only need so much of this. Once we’ve hit our energy capacity, our bodies are like Okay! I’ll save the rest of this pasta for later and it literally does. Except, it stores this in the form of fat.
Now, when we were out in the wild and unsure of where our next meal came from, this stored energy was great. It was like having trail mix already inside of us. But in today’s inactive society (remember our ancestors were walking much further than our 10,000 step FitBit goal), we’re not using enough energy to deplete these stores, so, instead, the energy sits there in the form of fat and doesn’t get used.
The other problem with carbs is that they cause us to crave more carbs. Think about it: if carbs give us energy and your body gets a burst of energy from them, wouldn’t it make sense to want more of that good stuff? It’s like drinking coffee in the morning.
Once that fragrant smell hits your nose and you down your first cup, you’re more likely to say “Man, that was so unbelievably good! I could really go for another cup.” And if you’ve ever reached for a second coffee or a second donut for that matter, your brain has made the connection that whatever you just did was so awesome that you need more of it.
This is how carbs getcha: Your body is looking to repeat those feel good bursts of energy so it convinces you to go back for more. Unfortunately, it’s the same reaction and hits the same receptors as taking things like drugs or drinking alcohol. It’s literally creating an internal carb addiction without us even knowing.
The good news is by focusing on eating the right carbs, at the right time, you can end this vicious cycle once and for all. And, after awhile, this will become second nature to the point that you’ll feel like crap after eating a bad carb and you’ll lose those pesky cravings altogether.
The Right Carbs at the Right Time
Not all carbs are created equal. Some are good while others are inherently evil and like to stick around on our hips, thighs and stomachs.
I want you to limit your intake of the latter as much as possible. Don’t cut them out completely just yet since the more you tell yourself you can’t have something, the more you’ll want it. So my advice is to take it easy (and I mean reeeaaal easy) on the bad carbs.
Here is a list of the carbs to avoid:
- White flour bread
- Pastries, cookies, cakes
- Soft drinks
- White flour pasta
- Most cereals on the market (Sorry Captain Crunch, I still love ya)
- Ice cream
- Sugary syrups (hello coffee! I’m looking at you *winky face*)
- Jams/Jellies
- Table sugar
- Chocolate (we’ll get into some safe varieties in a later article)
Now, my guess is that you probably already knew about most of the items on that list. I mean, at first glance, there are some pretty unhealthy ones there.
I want to point out this list because these are the worst offenders when it comes to carbs. They will literally cause you to gain weight, crave more carbs, have fluctuating moods and energy levels and will damage your health. 100% guaranteed. These carbs have to be limited if getting healthy and weight loss is your goal.
I want you to begin swapping out your favorite, processed carbs with these instead:
- Whole wheat pasta/bread
- Quinoa (don’t be intimidated. It cooks just like pasta and has a neutral flavor that can be sweetened or spiced to make it savory)
- Oatmeal
- Brown rice
- Rye bread
- Pumpernickel
- Sprouted bread (Check out the frozen section of your supermarket and become friends with your toaster. It’s like having fresh bread all. the. time.)
- Wild rice
- Couscous
- Whole wheat tortillas
First step: from this point forward, I want you to swap any sandwich bread you eat with wheat, rye, or pumpernickel.
Second step: I also want you to get in the habit of eating a serving of oatmeal a day. I learned this trick thanks to celebrity personal trainer Jackie Warner and her book This is Why You’re Fat (and How to Get Thin Forever). You don’t have to eat the oatmeal for breakfast and you can enjoy it as a snack.
Oatmeal—similar to the other good carbs on this list—is a slow digesting carb meaning it takes our bodies longer to process it. Because of this, you’re going to feel full for much longer.
Oatmeal is also packed with fiber which helps regulate your digestive tract and helps curb cravings.
Make these two changes (swap your sandwich bread and enjoy a serving of oatmeal a day) and you’ll start to notice a difference in your energy levels right away.
The other thing that I want to talk about is the fact that it’s not just the type of carbs that matter. It’s also about eating the right carbs at the right time.
Because carbs give us energy, you’ll want to enjoy them in the first half of your day (i.e breakfast, lunch, afternoon or morning snacks only). This means that you should avoid eating carbs for dinner. Remember, I don’t want to tell you “no” because then you’ll want them more.
See, carbs for dinner, although it’s something that most of us have grown up doing, is probably the worst idea we could have come up with as a society.
Carbs give us energy. So why would we want to get all jacked up on energy right before bed? It makes no sense.
Eating carbs at dinner time hurts us in two ways:
- First, it messes with our sleep. Instead of winding down, we’re wired.
- Secondly, it makes us crave carbs, especially of the sweet variety
Have you ever wondered why you crave those sweet treats after supper? It’s most likely due to the carb-heavy meal you just enjoyed. Carbs make you crave more carbs. It’s that simple.
Stick to a protein and veggie dinner and steer clear of the carbs if you can. I know this is going to take some time to make it a habit, but I want you to stick with it. It’s tough to imagine a dinner without carbs, but, it makes the most sense.
Now that you know a little more about carbs, I hope you’ll start making some healthy swaps starting today. Once you do, your health and waistline will thank you 🙂
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