Albena Denkova: "There were days when I cried from hunger."

[cocovica]

My version of bulgarian article about Albena:
http://www.krasobru.4fan.cz/albena-denkova-byly-dny-kdy-jsem-brecela-hlady (please, use google translate)

english summary:

- After her son was born last year, Albena put on 25 kg... she realized she is not able to skate anymore if she doesnt do something about it.. she was on a strict diet... just tasteless chicken with green salad and water everyday...but she managed it...started to practice and she is back to her "old" form now...
- Albena and Maxim are supposed to skate at exhibition on London OG to promote the Olympics 2014 in Sochi

 

[Olympia]

Thanks for the summary! It's great to know that we can look forward to seeing Albena skate in London. I'll be sure to tell my Bulgarian friends. They're very proud of her, even though they're not specifically skate fans.

 

[dorispulaski]

There's got to be a better way to lose weight than tasteless chicken over tasteless greens. Water is good though!!

There was an interesting interview on the TV with the Dr. Ludwig who did this study


http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/325848/28/Low-carb-diet-burns-the-most-calories-in-small-study-

You will be interested, perhaps, to know that what Dr. Ludwig said was likely the worst thing you could eat while on a diet (supposing you want to lose weight long term) is a white bagel with Lite Cream Cheese.

 

[Olympia]

There's got to be a better way to lose weight than tasteless chicken over tasteless greens. Water is good though!!

There was an interesting interview on the TV with the Dr. Ludwig who did this study


http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/325848/28/Low-carb-diet-burns-the-most-calories-in-small-study-

You will be interested, perhaps, to know that what Dr. Ludwig said was likely the worst thing you could eat while on a diet (supposing you want to lose weight long term) is a white bagel with Lite Cream Cheese.

I had just read about that study, Doris. I don't think a high-protein (higher fat) diet is great for the body longterm, though it would work within reason for a disciplines athlete like Albena (and be a lot easier to live through than dry white meat chicken and some leaves!). It can make for cholesterol buildup, and it can also put a strain on the kidneys. There are modifications to the diet that still work but depend less on red meat.

I certainly understand, though, why cream cheese (even light) with a white bagel would spell doom for weight loss! But Dr. Ludwig must lead a narrow life if he thinks that this is the absolute worst food to break a diet with. I sometimes read some of the descriptions of what's served in some fast food restaurants, and you could have a coronary just hearing the names of those dishes. Since I too lead a rather limited life, I just saw my first Big Gulp a few months ago. That's the soda that Seven-Elevens sell, where the largest one is about 800 calories all by itself? The "cup" is so big you could just about use it as a vase for long-stemmed roses.

 

[dorispulaski]

The issue, as I understood (or misunderstood) the interview, is that "lite" foods are worse for weight loss than regular foods, even with regular fats. They apparently trigger your metabolism to think it has to slow down; you are in starvation mode. Meanwhile the "white" foods digest so quickly, that they cause a huge hunger causing blood sugar spike.

So you are hugely hungry soon after eating a white bagel with lite cream cheese, plus you are slowing your metabolism down. Not a good combination for weight loss, for sure.

This actually makes some sense. Long before there were lite foods, starving people ate non-nutritive items trying to feel "full" - laundary starch, grass, etc. Our bodies apparently know how to detect this behavior, signal "Doris is starving and I am not fooled", and respond by going into a "more thrifty metabolism" state.

The study, BTW, recommended the low glycemic (basically no white stuff) diet over the low carb diet, for exactly the cautions that you cite Olympia, but it also recorded the fact that if weight loss were the only issue, low carb worked better.

If you eat a stick of butter, it will digest slowly, and you will not be ravenous so soon as you would if you ate the white bagel with light cream cheese. The same would be true of a number of much maligned fast food dishes. Neither the butter nor the fast food would be ideal for your body, but they might not be quite so catastrophic for weight loss as the white bagel with lite cream cheese.

Dr. Ludwig was also hugely critical of Lite Yoghurt with sugared fruit, and said you would be better off with whole milk yoghurt (without the sugar on the fruit).

When I was young I read about "The Policeman's Diet" which was a deliberately high fat, high protein, low calorie diet. Cops on it lost weight faster. So this is not new news.

For that matter, this stuff is what's behind the old story that if you eat Chinese-American food (with plenty of white rice) you will be hungry again soon after.

 

[blue dog]

I'm on a diet over the summer (hahaha), and I've learned that EATING actually has helped me lose weight. I'm not saying gorging on everything I see, but I eat breakfast, I have a mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, then dinner. I am constantly full. I also drink lots of water...

 

[Olympia]

I see the point about the bagels and the "lite" cheese now, Doris. Thanks! That part of the discussion wasn't in the summary I read, and it's very enlightening. I've also heard that artificially sweetened drinks tend to spark your appetite, so they're not the best idea for maintaining or losing weight. I guess our bodies aren't designed for laboratory foods.

The color of foods is a fascinating new aspect of food that has been explored lately. White foods, as you say, tend to have nothing useful in them. The exception is naturally white foods such as pears and onions and the like, which contain I think quercetin. Richly colored fruits and veggies each have some pigment-related compound that gives us some benefit: carotene in sweet potatoes, carrots, and cantaloupes, for example, lutein in dark green veggies, and lycopene in tomatoes. The dark red and blue pigments in berries, also. And dark chocolate is rich in antioxidants! Yippee! I've waited all my life to find out that chocolate (in its pure form, at least) is Good for You. Even the fat is a good fat! Can life get any better?

As for "lite" foods, I'd rather eat an ounce of good, sharp cheddar than half a pound of nonfat imitation cheese. The true cheese is satisfying in small amounts. The fake product doesn't do anything to assuage one's appetite.

 

[Tonichelle]

I'm on a diet over the summer (hahaha), and I've learned that EATING actually has helped me lose weight. I'm not saying gorging on everything I see, but I eat breakfast, I have a mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, then dinner. I am constantly full. I also drink lots of water...

yeah I'm in that club, too... i'm not very good at keeping it up though one of the dangers of working from home/on the go eating.

 

[deedee1]

Thanks to Olympia and Doris, a very interesting and fruitful lecture on synonyms in English words was given yesterday. Going onto the next lecture to learn about Nutritions and its technical terms in English for me now. Yay! :yay:

As for "lite" foods, I'd rather eat an ounce of good, sharp cheddar than half a pound of nonfat imitation cheese. The true cheese is satisfying in small amounts. The fake product doesn't do anything to assuage one's appetite.

This actually makes some sense. Long before there were lite foods, starving people ate non-nutritive items trying to feel "full" - laundary starch, grass, etc. Our bodies apparently know how to detect this behavior, signal "Doris is starving and I am not fooled", and respond by going into a "more thrifty metabolism" state.

It's true. Regardless of whether on diet or not, it's important to focus on its quality, not quantity, of foods for our bodies.

Whenever I go abroad, stay for a while and have to visit local supermarkets (most of the times to US, Canada and New Zealand for me due to the language), I get surprised and am amaged to find all the lineups of 'lite' foods with so many different degrees! If I go to dairy products corner to buy, say, a bottle of milk, there are like 10-15 with different definitions of 'lite' milk to choose from. In Japan, we probably have 3 different kinds of milk based on its fat; regular, low fat and no fat, only. Knowing that milk in general tastes weaker for Japanese people in these countries, I usually pick up 'full cream' milk and love it. :yes:

btw I enjoyed pieces of Neuhaus, Belgian chocolates last night. Sorry Olympia but I was in heaven, literally!

 

[deedee1]

- Albena and Maxim are supposed to skate at exhibition on London OG to promote the Olympics 2014 in Sochi

I loved this team (and was devastated they had to end their competitive career like that. I felt for the victim and her family so much, and for Albena and Maxim as well...very very sad accident).
I am SO glad to know they will skate again in shows! :yes:

 

[Olympia]

I loved this team (and was devastated they had to end their competitive career like that. I felt for the victim and her family so much, and for Albena and Maxim as well...very very sad accident).
I am SO glad to know they will skate again in shows! :yes:

I agree, Deedee! Albena and Maxim have been one of my favorite teams since that amazing baroque compulsory dance in I think 2003. I also have extra admiration for Albena because several of my dear friends are Bulgarian, and they are so proud of her and of this couple's world championships. It was heartbreaking to hear about the accident, and for awhile I couldn't even bear to think of their skating at all. It's good to know that they will be back on the ice.

On a nicer topic, I am happy for you that you had Neuhaus chocolate. It is indeed heavenly. And remember, chocolate is good for you! (In small amounts, and probably not in the form of truffles, alas.) I usually eat chocolate every day, but this week I tried to have less. I've had one piece all week. I want to see if I will feel any different. I don't know what I am expecting: to be able to multiply three-digit numbers in my head or climb eleven flights of stairs at a run....So far I feel the same, except maybe I'm sleepier at night. This weekend, I'm abandoning my one-truffle policy and diving into a whole chocolate bar!

 

[macy]

I'm on a very strict diet for having polycystic ovarian syndrome (a hormone imbalance that causes insulin resistance as one symptom), so it's basically a low-glycemic diet, just extremely healthy. the combinations of foods i eat at different times of the day really make a difference. for breakfast, i can have one grain (like whole wheat toast [watch out for HFCS]), one dairy (like 6 oz of LF or skim milk, 6 oz greek yogurt without added sugar), one fruit (watermelon, grapes, an apple, etc), and one protein (like two eggs, or 3/4 c LF cottage cheese, or 2 oz LF mozzarella). for lunch i can have unlimited veggies (greens [no iceburg], asparagus, broccoli, tomatoes, etc), and one protein (3 oz lean chicken breast, 3 oz 90/10 beef, 3 oz fish). for an afternoon snack it's a legume (beans) and more veggies. dinner is one protein, more veggies, one grain (1/2 cup brown rice or 2 oz whole wheat or protein-enriched noodles are good), one starchy veggie (carrots or sweet potato). a later snack is 10 peanuts or almonds or 1 Tbsp natural peanut butter. it's super strict but i'm never hungry, and i have to eat this way for my PCOS, it's not just an option for me. but i have dropped about 30 lbs doing it so far, so it works. i do allow myself about one meal a week of whatever i want. it sounds very boring but there are ways to play with it to make really yummy dishes. sweet potato fries are AMAZING, as is cajun shrimp pasta and chicken parmesan, without the breading.

but there are a lot of things you should watch out for when buying food, such as the HFCS (wreaks havoc on your metabolism), other added sugars (there are different names that they are disguised under, i'm sure you can find them on google) and "lite" foods. they put more chemicals in them to make them taste like the original. low-carb diets are generally not as healthy as many people think, because the body needs carbs in the forms of grains and veggies, but obviously it depends which ones you eat that matters. studies have shown that people on low-carb diets have lower brain-functioning because of the lack of energy. be careful with salad dressings too, stay away from the lite and low-fat. it's better to either dip your fork in first, or get the salad on your fork then lightly dip in in a full-fat dressing. you will use way less and still get the flavor. 2 Tbsp is a good measurement. when buying yogurt stay away from the ones with added sugar. the best choice is to buy plain Greek yogurt and add your own fruit in.

when going to restaurants be sure to ask your server lots of questions on how the food is cooked/prepared. it can save you LOTS of extra calories. order veggies for a side, and have them put the salad dressing on the side are a couple good tips.

jeez i'm a health freak.

 

[Blades of Passion]

It's really sad that "being a health freak" amounts to eating plenty of food that both tastes good and is good for you. Unfortunately the vast majority of food being sold these days is not what you want to put into your body, especially in America, and society isn't very well educated about it. Big corporations have drastically harmed humanity by pushing all of these crap products out there and people have bought into it, not knowing any better. People then try to go into all of these "low fat" and "low carb" diets to try and put off the weight their bodies are gaining, but those diets are wrong (and the products labelled as such are usually not at all good for you either).

What it basically comes down to is you don't want to eat white rice, white potatoes, any kind of bread/flour that isn't fully organic (http://www.theloseweightdiet.com/blog/37/whole-wheat-bread/), sugar, too much salt, or anything that has bad chemically-modified ingredients (corn syrup, hydrogenated oil). If people just got rid of those things from their diets, and drank more water and/or good beverages (STAY AWAY FROM SODA AT ALL COSTS), they would automatically being doing so much better. It's unfortunate that nearly every advertised food product out there contains one of those bad ingredients. You have to ignore the marketing and specifically look at labels and not buy it if the ingredients are trash. You can eat carbs! You can eat fats! You can eat sweet foods! Just do it the correct way!

 

[Olympia]

Macy, that sounds like a tremendously healthful diet with lots of variety. It reminds me of how people often react to the Weight Watchers diet after years of dieting: they're terrified that "so much food" will make them gain even more weight. Of course, the reverse turns out to be true.

Blades, the one thing I might disagree with you about on your excellent list is white potatoes. Sweet potatoes are one of the world's best foods (and it's delicious besides), but the one area in which white potatoes excel is vitamin C. One poignant example of that occurred during the Irish potato famine. In the 1800s, many poor rural Irish families literally susbsisted on potatoes alone. When the potato blight ruined the crops and the Irish were starving, the British (they do not come out well during this part of their history as overlords) imported corn from North America. Corn has almost exactly the same nutritional profile as potatoes. But the Irish started to get scurvy, whose only cause is vitamin C deficiency. The lowly potato had protected them from scurvy previously.

So the occasional white potato, which is a natural food, won't hurt, and there are all kinds of interesting varieties--purple ones, even!-- though french fries aren't the best way to eat them.

Your warning about soda can't be overemphasized. Even artificially sweetened soda is a food that's best avoided. And it's such an easy food to cut out! Water, sparkling water, and a favorite of mine, green tea, are all refreshing and give you nothing but what God intended to go into our intricate and wonderfully balanced bodies.

 

[macy]

yes Olympia potatoes are good for you, but unfortunately with my condition I can't have them. Not even red potatoes, just sweet potatoes which I had to learn to like. And lucky for me, I've never liked soda so the only drinks I have are milk, water, and the occasional lemonade. If anyone wants to try them, my recipe for sweet potato fries:

heat oven to 425
get out one or two cookie sheets depending on how many fries you have, and put 1 1/2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil on each.
cut 1 large sweet potato into shoestrings (not too thin or they'll burn)
put the fries on the pans and roll them around in the oil so they are covered
season with sea salt and pepper to taste
put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes, then use tongs to flip the fries over, and stick them back in for another 10-15 minutes, depending on how burnt you want them.

i personally like them a little burnt, they're pretty good.

 

[Blades of Passion]

I use cinnamon as well for mine.