Hello, my name is Bérengère, I am 43 years old, I have 2 children and 2 years ago I was a real sweet tooth!
During my 2nde pregnancy, I had gestational diabetes but I was quick to forget this story...
When I was in my forties, I decided to really take care of myself and I decided to challenge myself to reduce sugar and to eat with a low Glycemic Index.
Here's how I did it:
1. Get the facts to understand
I started by educating myself because understanding is essential to success.
I had no idea what I was about to discover... It' s not only the sugar in desserts that needs to be reduced, you also need to know how to choose the right flours and starches.
You also need to know the overall GI of foods to know which ones to take. There are many, I assure you! You can easily spot them with experience
2. Review the contents of your cupboards and the way you cook
I changed the contents of my cupboards in terms of carbohydrates:
- Flours: I prefer wholemeal, barley, legume, oilseed, buckwheat flours...
- Starches: legumes, whole grains, quinoa...
- Sweeteners: birch sugar, coconut sugar, acacia honey, agave syrup, stevia.
I also stocked up on oilseeds, seeds, good oils...
I started to cook a little more without spending hours on it. Yes, I had to make my own pie or pizza dough, my own cakes... to make sure they were low GI.
3. Get organized
To succeed more easily, gettingorganized was essential for me: making a weekly meal plan, using frozen or canned food to save time...
4. Indulge yourself with delicious savoury dishes
I have prepared dishes that are really rich in flavours (spices, seeds, aromatic herbs), vegetables and sufficiently fatty (fat is low GI).
In fact, you shouldn't be too afraid of fat. Of course, you should choose the good stuff (healthy oils, fatty fish, oilseeds, avocado, olives, seeds...).
This overturns beliefs! Indeed, eating enough fat (without exaggeration and mainly good fat) will allow you to be satisfied (you will eat less in quantity) and it will prevent you from craving cakes or other sweets at the end of the meal. Your brain will have received the information that it has received enough calories.
Moreover, good fat is really necessary for our body (even "bad" fat in limited quantities). For example, it will be used to build cell membranes, hormones... and the famous Omega-3 will protect you from many diseases.
5. Plan to have about 2 cakes a week to treat yourself
I have learned to bake low GI cakes to avoid frustration. I have done many tests and the important thing to remember is that you can cut the sugar in your old recipes in half and use alternative sweeteners in small quantities.
And once in a while, enjoy the baked goods from Oh Yes! when you don't have the courage to cook
