How Are You Losing All That Weight?

I am asked nearly every week by someone who hasn't seen me in a while what I am doing to lose so much weight. Usually the well-meaning person has a genuine interest in me, but it's apparent that most people want to know how I lost the weight so they can use the same plan for themselves. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as the saying goes.

Without fail, when I mention the words "low carb" I see a dark cloud flit across their faces before they smile somewhat bitterly and say, "oh wow, that's great, keep it up," and change the subject. No doubt if I had said there was a new pill or new diet they would have stuck around to hear all about it. Not so for low-carb eating these days. Sometimes I get a comment like, "yeah I tried that, got sick of eggs and lunchmeat and gave it up in a week."

So many have tried low carb dieting and failed. In my experience, many first-time low-carbers buy the book and start out to "do Atkins." They go straight to the diet chapter and neglect to read the theory, history, and science behind the plan. They stop reading after they learn about induction, and they get started right away on bacon, cheese, and eggs -- for three meals a day. I know this happens because, well, er, I did it this way. Twice. Each time losing about 30 pounds in a month and then regaining about 40 in quick order. If there are subsequent attempts (usually on one of the other major plans, South Beach or Protein Power), these too usually fail because the approach is made as a diet and not as a way of living.

Coming up on one year of low carb living, I can say that I have never in my life eaten so well, so often, while feeling great and losing weight. When I was eating huge meals of carbohydrates, I was lucky to get one or two servings of vegetables a day. Typical breakfast was a bagel and cream cheese. Typical lunch was burger and fries, with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle. Typical dinner was three cheese enchiladas, 1 cup of refried beans, 2 cups of Mexican rice, a couple tablespoons of sour cream, and some guacamole with about three servings of tostada chips. Hundreds of carbs and nary a green vegetable in sight (I can't bring myself to count the pickle and lettuce from McDonald's as green vegetables).

Now let's look at today's meals.

Breakfast of three eggs cooked in real butter, topped with 2 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese and cracked black pepper. Five strips of bacon, one sausage patty. 1/2 cup of tomato and New Mexico green chile salsa.

For lunch, it was a large chicken ceasar salad from Olive Garden. About 4 ounces of chicken and 4 cups of romaine lettuce. I also had a cup of the house salad, a stuffed mushroom, and two spoonfuls of artichoke dip and celery.

Dinner was 5 ounces of chicken breast, battered in egg and parmesan cheese and fried golden brown, 1 cup collard greens garnished with bacon and red wine vinegar, and 1 cup of mashed cauliflower with butter, topped with cheddar cheese.

With my coffee this morning I had 3 TB of heavy whipping cream. For snacks during the day I had a south beach meal replacement bar, 2 handfuls of roasted almonds, and two string cheese. I had a dessert of homemade sugar-free cheesecake topped with whipped cream after dinner.

Total carbohydrates for the day were well under 40 grams. Green veggies? Yep, got em. Fiber? Oh yes, plenty. Hunger? Not a growl or a peep from my tummy. Because of low carb eating today, I get to rest tonight in total comfort with no heartburn or sugar crashes. Tomorrow will find me one day closer to my goal weight, and one more day where I don't have to overeat or binge on sugar and starch. What a wonderful way to live.