First Time Blogger

I'm new to this blog business but not to low the carb diet. This is probably a little longer than a blog post should be. I'll be briefer in the future.

I guess the gist of this entry is: don’t follow a diet plan that is not realistically sustainable. I know… it’s not a diet; it’s a way of eating for life. I have had to tell this to all of my relatives.

In 1995 I tried the Atkins diet. I was a traveling "road" musician at the time and had horrible eating habits. We would play our gig for the night, go out and eat a dinner-sized meal at 2:30 in the morning and then go to bed. I ate lots of rich hotel food and my weight in fast food! Although I have always eaten whole grain, skim milk, etc., all of the other goodies packed on the pounds.

Standing in front of crowds every night, I had to do something about my weight! In 1994 I decided to give the Atkins diet plan a shot. I went from 205 to 180 in 6 months. In fact, my whole band tried it. Fast forward to 1987. My 25 lbs is back on with an additional 20 lbs more. However, the Atkins diet was the best diet I had ever tried - to that point.

I married in 1987 and since then my wife and I have tried every diet known to man, i.e, South Beach, Mediterranean Diet, Jenny Craig, etc. We have eaten funky dried food, have had food shipped to the house in freezer containers – you name it. At the end of the day, the only real loss was to our bank account!

In December of 2010, my wife showed me an article by scientific writer/reporter Gary Taubes. I read it, bought his book (Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It) and 10 months later, I have lost 35 lbs. My wife lost 20+; I’m not sure exactly because she won't tell me what she weighs. I do know she has gone from pushing hard to a size 16 to, as she puts it, to a comfortable 12.

The Taubes book (see web site links below) isn’t a diet book but a treatise on the subject of why and how carbohydrates affect your body. Plus, it contains a historical review of carbohydrate and nutritional tunnel vision by the medical community and the effects of carbs on various civilizations. It is an easy to read, fascinating, look at the subject. Until reading this book, I only had a vague sense of carbs, nutrition, etc. Now I feel empowered, knowing what physiological action takes place when I eat or don’t eat a certain thing! It also contains actionable information.

This is our take on eating & the D word.
• Be realistic
• Successful weight loss involves an effective yet sustainable eating plan
• You can't kid yourself yourself into weight loss
• Accept any continuing loss as success - you didn't put it on in a day
• There must be some joy in your eating - eating good food gives us joy
• No one diet affects everyone the same way

After trial and error, we have adopted a low carb plan that works for us.
There are certain realities that one must acknowledge about their lifestyle. These are a few of ours:

1. We love wine.
At no time have we cut wine from our evening meal, even the first week. For the first few weeks we followed a quasi Atkins regime: eggs, bacon, black berries for breakfast, beef, cheese, pork chops, yadda-yadda for lunch and dinner. The first 4 weeks, we kept our carbs around 20 per day. Even now, we hover around 25-30 per day. We've found it hard to keep losing if we pass the 30 carbs a day mark.
2. We have a sweet tooth.
We have satisfied that desire with Russel Stover's low carb candy: chocolate turtles, chocolate toffee and more. Their candy is made with low absorption, sugar alcohols – it’s REALLY good. For some, candy sends them into a binge dive. For us, not so much.

3. I like to snack.
As far as snacking goes, the amount of fat in our diet keeps us sated. If I feel hungry, I snack on occasional pepperoni, pork rinds or hard salami. My wife snacks, if needed, on the Atkins peanut butter bars - 2 carbs. Unfortunately, because of late working hours, we sometimes don’t eat until 8-9 PM. That’s fine if you live in France, but you burn carbs at night and late eating doesn’t really help. Most times, we try not to eat past 7:00.

4. We love pasta.
I buy and cook Dream Fields pasta. It handles and tastes like normal pasta except it is made with a slow absorption process ingredient that cuts carbs drastically. It enables you to eat a little pasta every once in a while. We eat pasta about 3 times a month. One serving for each is about 3/4 cup dry. One thing, if you re-heat it, the low carbs feature is canceled. A little taste every once-in-a-while beats none eh?

5. We hate drinking water.
If you divide you weight in half and drink an ounce of water to every pound, that’s about how much you should drink daily. This is my hardest part of daily living. I find it better to drink half of my intake before noon. I add a little lemon or lime juice. I think the bottled is better. We live in Indiana and our city water is gross. But, water is the deal, not coffee, diet drinks, etc., but we do drink both. Water consumption must be in sufficient quantities as to flush the ketones out of your system. Water seems to be one of the biggest factors in losing weight. When I don’t drink enough, it shows up on the scales. About that - I weigh every morning, my wife weighs about every two weeks - whatever works for you. I also like using ketone marker sticks the first thing in the morning.

A health observation.
I have high blood pressure. My doctor has cut back my BP medication by two thirds since I started losing weight. My pulse is now at 72 and my LD and HDL have improved by about 10% since December. I recently took a physical for a renewal of my life insurance policy and they lowered my previous rate - I’m 65!

I must say I'm glad to find a site that has all this information in one place. Bravo!