Shed Holiday Weight with Some Easy Low-carb Swaps

January is here and the craze to detox, diet and get back to shape seems to be on everyone’s mind. Unless you’re one of the lucky 10% who do not put on weight no matter what you eat, like me, you have gained some happy, healthy, holiday pounds and your pants are just a little snug. As a dietitian I get my share of “Please give me a diet/detox that’s easy to follow”, and I try to oblige with practical tips keeping in mind that different diets work differently for each person. My college kid and I have been on a low-carb, paleo kind of plan for the last week and both of us have lost weight, feel great and clothes are sure fitting better. The low-carb plan works for most people and especially after you have been on a high carb holiday binge, going low-carb sends your body in a burn fat mode and weight loss is that much easier. Cutting out refined carbs is a detox and pairing a low carb plan with some detox tea, dandelion tea and milk thistle with cleanse your liver and help burn fat more efficiently.  Sharing with you some easy practical low-carb tips that have personally helped me and will probably work for anyone.

Easy Carb Swaps:

Cauliflower rice for regular rice: Rice is one of those foods, that is so hard to give up especially on a low-carb diet; but with the growing popularity of cauliflower rice, you can cut out the carbs and eat your rice too. Cauliflower rice, which is nothing, but grated cauliflower can be found in grocery stores like Giant, Safeway, Trader Joe’s, Whole foods, Aldi, in the fresh and frozen section. The best value I have seen for cauliflower rice is at Costco where they sell (4 )16-ounce pouches for $7.99. If you want to rice your own cauliflower, just grate a raw cauliflower or pulse it in a food processor till you get the consistency you want. Cauliflower rice can be made into pilafs, casseroles, with veggies, meat and any recipe that calls for rice. If you’re not too crazy about just cauliflower rice, add half and half cauliflower rice and half cooked basmati rice and your pilafs will taste good, with lots of texture and be lower carb than just rice. I have a few recipes that I experimented with, using cauliflower rice, and you can find the recipes here.

Cauliflower crusts in place of regular crust: The cauliflower crust pizza has become a gluten free option for those who cannot tolerate gluten. Good news! It could also be a good alternative for the low-carb, keto folks who can top the grain free crust with meat, veggies, cheese and enjoy a satisfying pizza.

Zoodles for noodles: All you need is a little gadget like this, and you can make squiggly veggie noodles which can be a terrific swap for noodles. Or if you can’t be bothered with zoodle prep most grocery stores sell readymade zoodles made with zucchini, squash etc. nicely packages and ready to cook. Zoodles need very little cooking and after sautéing for few minutes are ready to serve with your favorite pasta sauce and or mixed with meats.  Zoodles are getting so popular these days, with the health-conscious customers, that big-name chains like Noodles and Company etc. are serving their dishes with zoodle as an alternate, if the customer so wishes.

Crepes, tortillas : For those of us who like to mop up a curry with a tortilla or make a soft taco with all the stuffing, just swap out regular crepes and tortillas with low-carb ones. Paleo/keto crepes are easy to make with coconut flour, almond flour and eggs. I have tried them at home and low-carb crepes are very yummy. Costco sells a nice ready to make low-carb pancake and crepe mix and Amazon offers a couple of mixes too. If you would prefer ready-made, just pick up low-carb tortillas at Trader Joe’s or other grocery stores. I like the ones at Trader Joe’s which have 3 net grams of carb per tortilla and 6 gms of fiber. I mop up my spicy curries with a low-carb tortilla.

Milk swap: While milk is an essential food group it is not carb friendly. Fortunately for the low-carbers, there are plenty of low-carb milks on the market that provide calcium, vitamin D and protein minus the carbs. Read labels but in general, unsweetened almond milk, unsweetened coconut milk, pea protein milk and hemp milk are low in carbs. If you make your own almond and coconut milk, they will be low-carb but hey, there are plenty of low-carb milks sold in grocery stores and switching to them is just a taste you will learn to acquire. My favorite low-carb milks are from Trader Joe’s. They have a coconut and almond milk, loaded with calcium, vitamin, protein and only 1 gm of carb, which I use in my coffee, tea, shakes and smoothies.  Reading labels is important though. Any milk that is 3 gms of carb or less per serving is a great low-carb milk.

Crunch on low-carb chips: Low-carb chips?? Seriously?? Yes, there are low-carb chips that you can bake with veggies or the whisp cheese crisps sold at Costco or health food stores. You can also just cut up a few low-carb tortillas and bake or air fry for a few minutes and make your own easy low-carb chips. Dip them; dunk them in salsa, baba ghanoush or guacamole for a crunchy low-carb treat. Amazon has a good variety of low carb chips too.

Low-carb snacks: Veggies especially crudités, celery, cucumber, jicama, snap peas, peppers make yummy healthy snacks and can be paired with dips or just eaten plain. Nuts, cheese cubes, string cheese, beef jerky, boiled eggs, salads and protein shakes are all healthy low-carb treats that you can snack on when hunger pangs kick in.

Low-carb soda swap: No, I don’t mean diet coke etc. although those are a rare indulgence for me. If you’re craving fizzy drinks, try kombucha, water kefir: healthy probiotic friendly drinks that will heal your gut and give you some major fizz. Juice some fresh lemon and lime, add some stevia ( the only artificial sweetener I trust) add some Selzer or just plain water to make light lemonade or make these natural light syrups and add them to sparkling soda and make you own low-carb soda.

Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate: Drinking water is essential to weight loss and especially on a low-carb plan, water helps eliminate bloat and aids the elimination of fat cells. All natural vitamin water with water and herbs/fruit are great hydrating liquids that make drinking water a pleasure. Cran water is also an excellent way to rid the body of extra fluids while hydrating the body and keeping kidneys healthy.

A typical low-carb day may look like this: High protein low-carb shake or an omelet for breakfast, a big salad and grilled chicken for lunch, steamed veggies and baked fish or fish tacos with low-carb tortillas for dinner and low-carb snacks in-between.

My first blog post for the year and I want to wish all my readers a happy, healthy 2020. It may not be a perfect year but live it, love it and embrace it as your best year yet. 2019 was one heck of a roller coaster and I am grateful for all of it, the good, the bad and the ugly all of which made me a stronger, wiser and a more self-reliant person who wants to give and live everyday like it could be my last in 2020. If change is in my future, I will embrace it and just go with the flow being thankful and treasuring the little things in life that I have, loving what I have in life which is a heck of a lot. So anyways, here’s to more blog posts in 2020 and thank you, my readers for stopping by. Peace and Love xo

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