Life is full of Ups and Pounds

So my brother feels this diet is the best thing since man stepped on the moon.  Jorge Cruise?  Who the heck is this guy?  I had never heard of him until my two older brothers told me that his belly fat cure, did indeed, cure them of many years of accumulated belly fat. They also did say that his book was on the New York Times best seller list. 
 I did look on the Times best seller list and besides this book it's amazing just HOW many of the top selling books were all about dieting.
So what's the deal behind this lifestyle change?  It's all about carb swaps.  Swapping bad carbs for good carbs and cutting back, significantly, on sugar.

So some basics on this belly fat cure:

• Each day you adhere to a sugar/carb ratio.  15/6  That means no more than 15 grams of sugar a day and no more than 6 servings (total of 120 grams) of carbohydrates a day. 

 Sugar:

•  Keep in mind that that sugar is hidden in a number of items that you wouldn't think of.  Milk for instance has tons of natural sugars.  One cup may have 12 grams of sugar...almost an entire day's worth on the diet!
• Jorge recommends unsweetened almond milk.
• Many fruits and vegetables contain  a lot of sugar. Tomatoes and onions for instance.  This doesn't mean you can't eat them, just use limited quantities. 
• Also, Jorge says to STAY AWAY FROM artificial sweeteners that come in the familiar pink, yellow, or blue packets. 
• There are many web sites which "expose" the dangers of NutraSweet and Splenda. 
• Jorge recommends using natural sugar alcohols such as erthyritol and xylitol (more about those later).

Carbohydrates - my beloved foods   

One of the hardest parts of the South Beach diet was that I hated the idea of giving up potatoes, white bread, pasta and, well, you get the idea.  The belly fat cure is no different: swap the bad carbs for good carbs such as whole grain foods. Good carbs have been processed to a very small extent and generally have high fiber.

 

YUCK!

Does whole grain food have to taste like cardboard?  Well, if you talk to my wife the answer would be yes, but I have found that there's plenty of high fiber foods that taste great, including some pastas and breads.

Now after 3 months I have to say that I have now lost 30 pounds on Jorge Cruise's belly fat cure and this was by far the easiest change of life style in eating that I've been through.