Your Best Health

By Mandy Seay, RD, LD

Do you want to lose weight, but avoid feeling starved or restricted? Do you want to know what amounts of servings you should have for your personal lifestyle? Do you need to know your carbohydrate amounts to control diabetes? Do you feel that you know what you should be eating, but just aren’t following the “plan?” Or do you just want to know how to lead a healthy lifestyle? If you said yes to any or all of these, then this book is for you.

Your Best Health is a new take on an old method that dietitians have been using with their private clients for years. For the first time, Mandy provides you with estimated carbohydrate and calorie amounts that are personalized to your lifestyle (calculator included). You’ll learn how to incorporate these into your life easily and eat more food than you ever thought you could. You’ll fuel your body, gain energy AND manage your weight.

Mandy Seay is a dietitian who specializes in weight loss and diabetes. She has found through her own weight loss struggles and professional practice that eating can be simple and enjoyable. Food marketing, conflicting information, eating myths and diet fads lead many people astray to the point of poor health, confusion and frustration. Mandy takes a straight-forward, science based approach to teaching those who are overweight and/or have health conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension how to eat with ease and flexibility. Finally, a realistic way to achieve, and maintain, your best health!

Your Best Health is not appropriate for children under the age of 18, people with kidney disease, endurance athletes, pregnant or lactating women. This ebook’s content is not a substitute for direct, personal, professional medical care and/or diagnosis.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mandy Seay, RD, LD
• Release date: Dec 10, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466052307

Mandy Seay, RD, LD

Mandy Seay is licensed and registered dietitian specializing in diabetes, weight loss, lipid control and preventive nutrition. She has a degree in both journalism and nutrition. Additionally, she is a returned Peace Corps volunteer. She lived and served in Ecuador from 2000-2002. Mandy currently works as a nutrition consultant and freelance writer in Austin, Texas.

Book preview

Your Best Health

By Mandy Seay

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011 Mandy Seay All rights reserved worldwide.

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. No part of this ebook may be copied, given away or sold. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means without written permission of the author.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Your Best Health

By Mandy Seay, RD, LD

Table of Contents

Section 1: Intro, Overview and The Secrets to Losing Weight and Being Healthy Long-Term

Section2: Macronutrients, Food Combining and Calories

Section 3: Categorizing the Foods You Eat. What’s What?

Section 4: Carbohydrate Counting Basics

Section 5: Meals, Eating Out and Case Studies

Section 6: The Benefits of Tracking

Appendix A: Calories and Carbohydrate Breakdown

Appendix B: Carbohydrate Food List

Appendix C: Non-Starchy Vegetables

Appendix D: Proteins

Appendix E: Fats

Appendix F: Snacks

Appendix G: Helpful Resources

Appendix H: Goal Sheet

About the Author

References

SECTION 1

(back to table of contents)

Introduction

Congratulations on taking the first step towards your new lifestyle! Whether you have diabetes, pre-diabetes, are obese, overweight or just want to improve your quality of life, you will surely benefit from learning how to count carbohydrates. The best kept secret about carbohydrate counting is that this is really how everyone should eat.

Each person will have a different carbohydrate range based on sex, age, weight, height and activity level.

Let’s start by removing the word diet. This eating plan is not a diet. How many diets have you been on? You started on Monday, then Wednesday went out to eat with friends and blew your diet. You then threw in the towel and binged for the rest of the week, telling yourself you’d start the diet again on Monday. By Monday, you’ve dug yourself deeper by eating 5 times the amount of calories you would have normally eaten, you’ve gained weight, you feel guilty, you are upset with yourself and on top of all of that negativity you have to start restricting what you eat.

Let’s say you get through the diet, whether it be a few weeks or a few months. You’ve lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time – you’re feeling proud of yourself and you’re satisfied with the results. At this point you think it’s time to stop the diet and go out to eat to reward yourself for all of your hard work. One night of celebrating won’t hurt, but then your old eating habits return and so does the weight…plus a few extra pounds. Now here you are, frustrated and upset with yourself.

Take a moment now and tell yourself, no more diets. Promise yourself that you will never go on a diet again. Assure yourself that you are going to nourish and fuel your body. You are no longer going to punish yourself, you’ll be good to yourself. Tell yourself that you’re going to be accountable and you’re going to create a new lifestyle for yourself.

With this book, you have access to the carbohydrate/calorie counter to help you better manage what you eat based on your lifestyle (this will be provided to you later on in the book). These numbers are estimates only and are not a substitute for direct, personal care. The most accurate way to find your perfect numbers is to see a dietitian personally. Log onto http://www.eatright.org to find a registered dietitian in your area.

What I am going to show you will help you create a new lifestyle for yourself. My favorite thing to tell people is - erase what you’ve heard about how you can’t eat this food or that food. Unless you find that your body is sensitive to a certain food, you can eat anything you want. It’s just going to be about portions. And if you have problems with portion control – well I’ve got a solution for that too!

This new lifestyle will be something that you will be able to maintain for the rest of your life. No more unrealistic restrictions or crazy one-food diets or cleanses. You won’t have to cut out bread, pasta, potatoes or rice. You can go out to eat wherever you like. You can attend parties and eat the foods provided. No more food fantasizing, no more binging – no more dieting! With this plan, you’ll gain education, energy and confidence while you lose weight.

With that being said, what you learn in this book will take some work on your part. But isn’t it true that anything worth having, is worth working for? If you don’t agree, then just take a look at the alternatives – expensive medications, countless doctors’ visits, hospitalization, amputation, blindness, nerve damage, dialysis, etc. This probably isn’t something you want to progress to.

While this will be a challenge, the good news is that you don’t have to buy or use anything fancy with this program to reach your health goals. Depending on what your lifestyle is like right now, you may or may not have to make major changes. Either way, take it slow and make small, realistic goals along the way. I’ve provided a goal sheet in Appendix H to help guide you to success.

This book is meant to be a guide to leading a healthy lifestyle, not a substitute for medical advice. If you have a medical condition and/or are taking medications, it is important that you see your doctor regularly and speak to them about your plans