GFE Podcast #77: How To Reduce Carbohydrates in Your Diet

Let’s chat about how to reduce carbohydrates in your diet.

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Reducing carbohydrates in your overall diet is a good idea because out of all the macronutrients, it is the one that causes the most problems.

In fact focusing on healthy carbohydrates and managing what you eat can improve your health dramatically, regulate your blood sugar, and help you lose weight.

So how can you reduce carbohydrates in your diet without going totally crazy?

Well here are a few tips to give you a helping hand.

1. Do It One Step At A Time

If you go cold turkey and cut out all forms of carbs it would probably send you into a bit of a frenzy. Have you ever cut out the sugar? Or maybe cut out coffee? Well cutting down the carbohydrates is much the same, you WILL have some kind of withdrawal if you just make the cut.

So it’s better to do it one step at a time and reduce your intake slowly. That way you can find some great alternatives and get into a better eating pattern and routine that you can stick to and enjoy.

2. Avoid Beverages High In Sugar

Beverages are the easiest way to overconsume carbohydrates in your diet.

So as a rule: DON’T drink your sugar!

This means avoiding fruit juice, soft drinks, cordials, sports drinks, and flavored mineral waters.

3. Eat Protein Rich Snacks

Although we often crave carbs, have you noticed that they don’t keep you full for very long? And have you noticed that you often crave more carbs?

Protein is naturally more satiating, meaning it fills you up more and keeps you fuller longer! So that’s a win-win for you if you are trying to reduce carbohydrates, right?

The key here is organization, by prepared and then you can’t go wrong.

So here are some ideas for protein rich snacks.

• 1/4 cup cottage cheese topped with some blueberries
• Hard boiled eggs
• A handful of nuts or seeds
• Eat a leftover meat patty or sliced chicken breast slices
• A tablespoon of nut butter like almond butter or peanut butter

4. Keep a list of carbohydrate replacements handy

Here are 10 great ideas to help get you started:

1. Replace rice with cauliflower rice
2. Replace pasta with konjac noodles
3. Replace bread with lettuce leaves and make a breadless burger
4. Triple your veggie intake, the fiber is awesome, has loads of benefits and fills you up
5. Replace crisps with popcorn and get more bang for your buck
6. Limit rice, pasta, and potatoes to no more than 1/2 cup at one sitting
7. Replace sugar filled flavored yogurt with homemade greek style berry yogurt
8. Eat lots of fresh salads
9. Eat eggs and veggies at breakfast instead of cereals and toast
10. If you’re craving sugar, eat a whole piece of fruit

That should give you some ideas on how to get started!

Although it’s no good just thinking about it because if you really want to reduce carbohydrates in your diet, you actually have to be prepared and DO IT

It’s not as hard as you think.

I remember the first time I served cauliflowr rice to my partner and he was pleasantly surprised that it tasted almost exactly like rice.

We still eat brown rice sometimes, but not all the time. The good thing is to have options and then you can reduce the overall carbohydrates you eat.

Jedha

Nutritionist & Health Coach