Appointment day!

Today I had an appopintment with Marissa. We talked about several things. Carbs, cave men, protein(again), exercise,  and how all of these interact.

Firts off   CARBS! Carbs are ok! They provide us energy however not as much energy as other foods. there are two types of sugars associated with carbs. Simple and complex sugars. You get the more of the simple sugars from things like processed breads and sweet things like cakes and cookies (mainly because simple sugar is one of the ingredients but, i digress) Complex sugars while present in most grain products are more prevelent in things like whole grains and less processed foods.

This is where the cave men come in. Back thousands of years ago when our ancestors were hunter gatherers/ nomads they would go through periods of feast and periods of famine. So their bodies adapted to this by storing away extra fat and energy to get them through the lean times. Our brains are actually still structured to still have our bodies do this. So when we are stressed and we are craving carbs our bodies read this as a famin or crisis type of feeling and our brains signal that we need this starch foodto allow us to save the energy.

The second reason we crave carbs when we are stressed/upset is because they trigger a chemical response in the brain that tells us we are comforted, loved, etc.

Next we talked about Protein! Protein is the best for the body because it burns slowly giving us energy the whole time. In fact post surgery you eat almost nothing but protein because 1. it dosn't expand in your stomach and 2. because of this slow continuous burn. It last much longer and gives us more energy. however they take and hour or two to start delivering us this wonderful energy.

Carbs and protein interact by providing us with that consistent stream of energy that we need to function. Simple carbs(sugars) break down first giving us about and hour of energy. Then the more complex carbs start to break down and give us 2-3 hours of energy. Then the protein begins to break down around hour 2 giving us several more hours of energy. Fat starts breaking down after the protein and gives us very little energy for a few hours. also you should balance your protein and carbs in a meal by having a roughly fist sized portion of each and then seeing how you feel before eating more.

Exercise. How that word can easily turn into a dirty evil word. However we talked about how it relates to food and why I have expririenced an increaed appetite when on an exercise regimine. It's because I wans't approaching it in the correct way. I was waiting until after I worked out to eat a meal when i should have been going about an hour or two after eating and having a small snack before hand to prevent my bodyfrom panicing it wasn't getting the nutrients it needed. I should also have been having some sot of protein afterward. to keep the same panic away.

Now that your bored out of your mind I'll wrap it up with that.

My next appointment is July 25th with Dr. B.

<3 Amanda