Who am I? I am bagged, boxed, heat pressured into snack cakes, the center of many meals and even used as flavoring in beer products\u2026 Give up? \u2026 I\u2019m rice. Whether you use the instant microwave kind, throw it into a rice cooker, or a good old fashion pot, odds are, you have had several servings of it in the past week alone. Or if you are anything like I use to be it, you eat it several times a day.
\nAsk anyone that ever lived with me in college and they\u2019d tell you there were three simple rules to co-existing with me: 1) Do not talk to me if I haven\u2019t eaten. It would be like talking to a BRICK wall\u2026sometimes that wall was grumpy, but usually it was totally dazed and confused; 2) Do not talk to me if I am tired, see rule #1 and; 3) if you can\u2019t avoid one and\/or two, then above all else, do not turn off my rice cooker for fear of death…either mine, or theirs.<\/p>\n

I had three majors (four if you counted Journalism), ran track, and had up to three jobs at once, besides doing theater shows and having a regular life\u2026 I was insane to say the least. The only way I managed to cook for myself in the 10-15 minutes between rushing off to another class, track meet, job, etc was having the majority of my meals precooked.<\/p>\n

The routine was set: Wake up, put a cup of rice on to cook before jumping into the shower, get dressed, make breakfast (egg, veggies, and rice), and then make lunch (veggies, whatever meat was available with rice, fruit, nuts), and run to class. If there was enough time in between classes to run home to have dinner, then there was more rice with whatever else was laying around, and another pot of rice put on to cook before heading off to track practice. In the average day I\u2019d probably consumed at least two to three cups of white rice. As a runner I was encouraged to carb load, especially before track meets. I was told that this lovely little grain was my best friend. I never once thought twice about the amount I was consuming\u2026 I never thought I might be abusing my friend. I mean it\u2019s better than burgers and fries every day right? Wrong. My blood sugar levels were off, which made my doctor fear I had hypoglycemia or was becoming Pre-Diabetic. I didn’t know what the first one meant but, I knew all about the Sugar Ds.<\/p>\n

Diabetes? Come on! Don\u2019t you have to be a sugar addict or over weight? (Yes, I was uninformed). I didn\u2019t eat cake, brownies, sugar rolls, chocolate or most junk food I associated with a sweet tooth that could give me the sugar Ds. I was \u201chealthy\u201d. I ate fruits, nuts, lean meats and veggies, drank juice instead of soda, I worked out, danced 4xs a week, played a sport. How could I possibly be at risk for Diabetes? It wasn\u2019t until my first doctor put me on the dreaded “A” diet that I realized how wrong I was.<\/p>\n

Two weeks of NO carbs, no juice, no to most fruits, no oodles of noodles\u2026no salt and vinegar chips\u2026no beloved popcorn, no, no and no to so very many things, to the point where I was basically eating meat and cheese for two weeks (and even then there were limitations). I thought I was gonna die\u2026 or at least turn into a side of beef, or have a heart attack from the amount of grease that I was consuming. In those moments I realized just how much my life depended on this tiny little grain\u2026 among other things. My initial thought was, \u201cOh no I have to give this all up\u2026FOREVER.\u201d However, during my introductory meeting with my first nutritionist, let\u2019s call her Laura, my fears were eased. It wasn\u2019t that I couldn\u2019t have rice, she said, it was that I needed to switch some things around…improve my relationship with rice. Her rules were simple\u2026kinda of like my rules to my roommates.<\/p>\n

#1 I MUST switch from White to Brown Rice
\n#2 I wasn\u2019t allowed to have more then a quarter cup at each meal.
\n#3 There needed to be 3xs as many veggies on my plate than meat or carbs.
\n#4 Consider finding alternatives to my starchy staple for most meals\u2026 ouch!
\n#5 I must eat 6 times a day… (that’s a whole different blog)<\/p>\n

Being forced to recognize just how many items I consumed were high on the Glycemic Index, allowed me to turn my view of food around. I discovered Bulgur, Quinoa, low carb alternative pastas, vegetarian dishes, carb optional meals, but most importantly, I realized the power house that is Brown Rice.<\/p>\n