Eat Your Veggies!

I remember being a kid and my mom telling me to eat my veggies (along with all of those potatoes, gravy, and Iowa sweet corn).  Was she just saying this for my health?  Maybe.  Because when you're 10 years old, you don't really have to worry that carbs = fat.  But now that I'm over 40, I do have to worry.  A co-worker once told me that once I turned 40, I would have to watch my weight.  At the time, I was about 32 years old, had just gone through a divorce, and weighed in at a whopping 128 pounds, wore a size four, and never imagined that weight gain could actually happen to me.

But it did, and that's why I'm here, I guess, writing about veggies.  Veggies.  My son told me today that I had been snacking on carrots and fresh broccoli a lot the past few days.  That is true.  My best friend is on a juice fast (a diet of only juice and fruit...mostly juice) and I realized that after the winter and after eating too many tortillas and too many quick maruchan lunches, it's time to give up the starches and start caring what I put into this body.

How many calories are in a tortilla anyway?  Or maruchans?  Or cookies?  Because heaven knows we can never just sit down and eat one of any of them. According to howmanycalories in.com, a flour tortilla has 110 calories and 15.2 grams of carbs.  Ramen noodles have 14.1 calories but 36.8 grams of carbs.  A homemade chocolate chip cookie has 12 calories but 36.2 grams of carbs. (Ugh!) Most store bought cookies have between 7 and 10 calories each and about 17 grams of carbs, but do you ever eat just one?  I know I don't.

And as far as calories are concerned, I know you have to eat about 1800 a day or less if you want to lose weight, but I don't understand carbohydrates.  I know I should be concerned about them, but why? What do all of these numbers mean? 

This is the answer.  There are two kinds of carbohydrates-- the nice ones and the evil, nasty ones.  The nasty ones bulge your waist and give you diabetes when you get to be about 55. They are the BAD CARBS.

It was humorpam from the caloriecount at about.com who let me in on this detail, answering my question.  She said that I should care about good carbs or bad carbs.  Bad carbs include processed foods and white everything. (Pasta, bread, ice cream, and on and on...), and good carbs are whole grains, nuts, fruits and veggies.  VEGGIES!

So I WILL eat my veggies, Mom.  And I will stay away from maruchans and tortillas and cookies. Thanks humorpam.

If you want whole grain cookies, which I made just yesterday as I was cooking dinner, check out Bob's Red Mill Oatmeal for the recipe on the bag.  Now, will someone please tell me where I can get a recipe for some tasty whole grain tortillas?