Wouldn't it be great if a bunch of people who had been successful with LowCarb would share the stuff they thought was MOST important?We have all learned the hard way about things that mess up "staying on" low-carb and away from sugar, things that help us, things that make it all easier, etc. Although the list could be endless, we would like to share the "most important" things that we think a "newbie" to LowCarb should know.
Stuff That Can Hurt You | Making It Easier | Don't ForgetStuff that can hurt you1. Sugar is a drug. Carbs are sugar. The more carbs you eat, the more you will crave carbs. It is no different than alcohol or heroin in this regard. If you don't want to be fighting cravings, feeling deprived, or otherwise miserable, AVOID eating off-plan (carb/sugar-dense foods). You may think, "Oh it's just a few bites of pie!", or, "How could a banana, healthy fruit, hurt me?" Sure, for those 60 seconds of eating, it won't kill you, but the effect it might have on your "carb cravings" -- not just soon, but up to 2-3 days later -- can be deadly to your successful lowcarbing. "Discipline starts at the 3-carb level," as I once wrote. Don't blow it in the first place, and you will probably not blow it in the second place either.
2. People who cook carb/sugar-food for families, while trying to lowcarb themselves, face an uphill battle. If your house is filled with junk, guess how much more likely that you'll eat some of it, compared to someone whose house is filled with healthy lowcarb food instead? We recommend you go through your house and get rid of the high-carb junk before starting on your plan. Give it to family, friends, a food bank. As for your household, if you absolutely must make them carby foods, instead of buying a basket of quick-junk, pick just a few that can be "side dishes" to your primary dinner (for example), and make those, rather than having a whole house filled with carby food. And improve their food, too: make it lowcarb tortillas, brown rice, and protein-enriched pasta, rather than the simple sugars. Give the kids fruit as snacks instead of mac&cheese. (If they are truly hungry, they will eat it!) Since most lowcarb food is "real" food and perisherable, there is also only so much space in the fridge, that matters too!
3. The most deadly thing to lowcarb is a lack of planning. You MUST HAVE FOOD. You can eat more food than anybody wants to on lowcarb, you should never be hungry. But if you haven't bothered to plan for food, and you don't have anything defrosted or fairly quick to eat, or a little variety and know-how for "spur of the moment" eating, you are a lot more likely to eat junk. (Or skip eating, which is also not good if you need certain nutrients in your day, or if it makes you hungrier so you're more likely to cave-in for carbs later.) You've got to make sure that you have something to eat which isn't going to take a whole big cooking spree. (We have included crockpot recipes, for lots of leftovers you can freeze/fridge and then microwave for a quick yummy meal or snack, and some 'spur of the moment' foods, for when you really have the munchies but don't want to cook a whole meal.)
4. One of the most common mistakes people new to lowcarb eating make, is trying to make the junkfood-style high-carb eating they are used to, somehow fit into the lowcarb way of eating. Here is a hint: most lowcarb food is REAL FOOD, except the more starchy-sugary veggies/fruits and ordinary milk. Skip the low-carb bars and drinks and all other forms of frankenfood. Don't get into candy in the store that says it's lowcarb. Just because Russell Stover makes it doesn't mean you have to eat it. Don't stuff a bunch of fairly-carby "lowcarb" foods (say, lowcarb tortillas) into your day so that you don't have any carb-count left over for REAL food like veggies. In other words: it isn't about the NUMBERS. It is about EATING WELL. Eating properly comes first; the lowcarb numbers will generally work themselves out, as long as you don't go nuts on a few of the carbier options. For the 8-10g ECC (and a whole lot more if counting all carbs!) in a single lowcarb tortilla, you could have a LOT of other food. An entire other meal! Or two! And nutritious food, too.
5. Many people are so indoctrinated with the "popular dieting" mythos that even though lowcarb is different, they accidentally insist on trying to do both at the same time, which will mess it up. For example, many people are so paranoid about 'saturated fat' that they are afraid to eat meat. There is no harm in saturated fat UNLESS you are eating high-carb as most of our culture does. Every science study done on LOW-carb and fats makes clear that you'll be fine--and this is important, because you must get enough protein, amino acids, and fats into your diet, and if you are avoiding fat, that won't happen. Also, many people feel that if they are eating plenty of calories, they'll get fat, so they end up with some super low-calorie plan. That is not what lowcarb is about. DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF. Part of dealing with the big shift in your food and cravings and so on, is getting enough food that (a) you are NOT HUNGRY, and (b) you get ENOUGH PROTEIN. Most people in our culture are seriously protein-deprived (which also means they are deprived of critical amino acids). It is very important that you get enough of these! We will talk about "how much is enough" later. For now, just know that you should EAT. Be satified, be FULL if you really want; stick to "real foods," keep your carbs low (so that your insulin is regulated and is not stuffing your fat cells, nor is it preventing your fat from being released), and you will be fine.
6. You know that saying, "Weird is relative?" Well, weird is MY relatives. "If only I could relate to the people I'm related to!" Our media has so indoctrinated our entire culture against lowcarb and 'real food' like meat, that merely mentioning you are on lowcarb can often spawn all kinds of resistance (and inaccurate lecturing) about it. Losing weight on lowcarb, having your blood readings improve on lowcarb, reducing insulin on lowcarb, you would think that these things would change minds, wouldn't you? It usually impresses doctors who see it happen (to their surprise), but it seldom seems to phase other people. You need to be able to either ignore that, stand up to it, or instead of saying, "I'm low-carb," just say, "I'm avoiding sugars and starches for awhile." (Which to some degree, amounts to the same thing.) Don't let people force food on you. Yes, one bite--or a small serving--MATTERS. Unless you want to kick up your blood sugar, instantly gain water-bloating weight, and likely inspire some degree of cravings in yourself in the next day or three, take responsibility for your own eating and don't let anybody peer-pressure you. Give lowcarb time and your positive results will speak for themselves!
Making It EasierIt's said "everything is hard before it is easy." Most things take awhile to get the hang of. Most changes are a real 'adaptation' in psychology as well as habit. In other words, this is a head game as well as a body plan. Lowcarb being about "real food" rather than fast-food, boxed, canned, jar'd, or otherwise processed food, it is not usually as "fast and easy" and it usually takes more *planning ahead*. In short: eating well is a little harder than eating easy-junk. That's life. If you want to be healthier and thinner, you can work it out. There are a few tips that long-term lowcarbers have learned that can greatly simplify staying on plan.
1. Prepare and/or cook in bulk. The reality is that lowcarb involves a lot more meal prep and cooking than any other kind of eating. Like the old days, when people actually sat down and had a meal together, it isn't a drive-through solution most the time. But most people work, and don't have TIME to do cooking for every meal of the day. Not to mention, sometimes they just need something to eat, without that involved. So: make your own 'fast-food' by creating enough food every time you DO cook, to last you for at least one more serving--or, as many as possible! Make a full crockpot of food and refrigerate or freeze (or both!) what's extra. Bake a whole turkey, and fridge/freeze the extra. Cut up extra veggies, and put in a plastic bag in the fridge, for instant-veggies you can add to a dish later. Make lots of scrambled eggs and sausage and toss the rest in the fridge, you can microwave some later. In short, make all the time that you DO have for cooking count times-three! You will find that when you have plenty of leftovers, not only do you not have to cook as much, but you and your family often have 'more options' for what to eat on the spot.
2. Create several "staple foods" that you know how to make 'in your sleep' and have basic ingredients for, and work out variants for those foods so there is some variety, yet the 'basics' don't change. For example, you can make a 'scramble', or a 'frittata', or an 'omelette', all with the same ingredients, starting with 'eggs' and a simple frying pan. You can greatly change any of them by using, say:
* basil, chopped spinach, diced roma tomato, crumbled feta cheese
* hot chili oil, sliced sausage, some sliced hot peppers
* butter-sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic with melty swiss cheese
* pesto with diced scallions
-- you get the idea. It is one meal, it is fairly easy to make for breakfast, yet you can greatly change the taste/result just by your detail ingredients and how you put it together. If you get sick of something, quit eating it. But usually when that happens, it is because a person didn't have enough variety in that food. Find some "basic" foods you like, and work them into a whole option-list of variants. That way, when you don't have anything 'novel' around, when your fridge is getting low on a lot of stuff, or you need something really quick that you are so comfortable making you know you can do it in just a few minutes, you have a range of options, all based on having only a few basic food-stuffs you should make your priority.
3. Use every time-saving tip you can including that crock pot! There are lots of fabulous crockpot meals that take 5-10 minutes to prep and sometimes another 5-10 minutes, 5-12 hours later, to serve. Even working moms can do this -- you can often make a meal of real food in less time than it takes to wait through a busy drive-through line. Getting used to doing so, and using the tips above, will prove this. Since it's real-food, hot food, and often makes leftovers too, your crockpot is your friend.
4. Encourage your household members to eat lowcarb with you, or at least, to eat food that just "happens to be lowcarb". Does your husband like to barbecue? Set him to it! You can eat every kind of meat, yummy meat-veggie kabobs, etc. It's a big help if the other primary person(s) in your house will support your way of eating. For kids, many of them like at least some veggies. Grilled baby carrots that are kinda soft yet yummy from the grill or frying pan, especially in butter or with ranch or blue cheese dressing, even most kids love, and while those are a bit carby, you can have just a few. Broccoli hot stir-fried in peanut oil, garlic and ginger, so it's a little crunchy in places, tastes much better to many than plain-ol-raw broccoli, try it out on the family. You can chop or even puree cauliflower, and add a variety of spices and butter and even cheese to make 'side dishes' that are great tasting to anybody and even you can eat. Make a point to have food for others that is something you can also eat at least a little bit of, and you will have a much easier time staying on plan, plus the people around you will not think your food is so 'different'.
Don't ForgetThere's a few minor points in between all this that you should bear in mind.
1. Take your supplements. When you drop all that water-bloating that carbs cause, your body sheds so much water so fast and it temporarily will deplete potassium, magnesium, etc. You should be taking a good 'daily' vitamin, and for the first two weeks of your lowcarb plan, a calcium-magnesium-potassium supplement. If you don't do this, you can get muscle cramps from the sudden drop in mineral levels in your body. You can resolve them promptly by taking your supplements!
2. Move around a little. You don't have to take up a major exercise plan, but getting as much activity into your day as possible is important. For people who may be severely obese or handicapped, so not very mobile, use isometric exercises -- just tense a muscle as tight as you can, hold it for a count of ten (or whatever you can), and release, rest a bit, and do it again. For everybody else, do what you can to increase your body's "fluency" with motion. Park farther from the stores, get things yourself instead of asking the kids to bring it, take ADVANTAGE of a degree of lighter-weight and limberness that within a few weeks, lowcarb should give you!
Onward! Go to WHERE TO GET HELPHappy Lowcarbing,
PJ Age 42. She lost 140 lbs, as well as "lost" her asthma, allergies, acid reflux, acne, brain-fog, exhaustion, and helplessness thanks to Lowcarb eating! She has a blog called The Divine Low Carb.Other contributors go here
