The Steaks Are High

Steak Keeps You Clever

This just in...going veggie shrinks your brain.

No, really. Scientists in Australia this week discovered that those following a meat-free diet are six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.

The reason? Vitamin B12 deficiency. The best sources for this powerhouse vitamin are meat (especially liver), as well as milk and fish.

Check out the article here.

It's Not A Fad: Why a Low Carb Diet is Actually Better For Your Health

I'm going to stop myself before I even begin to get rid of some of the instant recoil many feel at the term “low carb”. While the upsurge in the popularity of low carbing in the late 1990s could have been a great thing, it seems to have ended up giving a great way of eating a bad name.

Dr. Atkins Did Not Die From a Heart Attack

On April 8^th 2003, Dr. Atkins slipped and fell on ice outside his office in New York. He sustained major head injuries which put him into a coma, and never recovered. His medical records, released by mistake to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (a vegetarianism-promoting group associated with PETA), showed his weight at the time of his death to be 258lbs – technically obese for his height. Needless to say, the Committee and PETA were loving this. However, he weighed only 195lbs at the time of admission to the hospital, suggesting that the apparent increase in weight is due to the treatment he received at the hospital, and fluid retention following the failure of his major organs.

If You Stop Following a Diet, You Will Regain Weight

A common criticism of the low carb approach is that people gain all the weight back as soon as they go back to eating carbs. If you make major changes to the way you eat, and then go back to eating the way you did before, you will most likely gain all the weight back. This is true of any diet.  A diet shouldn't be something you “do” to shed weight – it's a change in lifestyle that needs to be sustainable (and sustained) long-term.

Low Carb Is Not a Fad Diet

One of the side-effects of the popularity surge was that people labeled Atkins and low-carb a fad. This implies that the enthusiasm about the diet was only temporary, a brief bacony madness. However, low carbing is one of the oldest weight loss methods around. Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina in the 1870s, and describes Count Vronsky avoiding starches and sweets in preparation for the horse race: “He had no need to be in strict training, as he had very quickly been brought down to the required weight of one hundred and sixty pounds, but still he had to avoid gaining weight, and he avoided starchy foods and desserts.”

Even Dr. Spock agrees, writing in Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care: 8th Edition (first published in 1946): “Rich desserts and the amount of plain, starchy foods (cereals, breads, potatoes) taken is what determines, in the case of most people, how much they gain or lose.”

In fact, for more than one hundred years, common dietary wisdom dictated that anyone looking to shed pounds should ditch the starches and the sweets.

If you want to go even further back in time, consider our current evolutionary status. The physical bodies we currently inhabit are tuned to a pre-agricultural diet. Think about how many thousands and thousands of years it takes for evolutionary adaptations to occur. Now consider that agriculture came about only a paltry 10,000 years ago. Refined grains were only introduced to our diet about 200 years ago. During 99% of our evolutionary history, we ate like hunters and gathers. I sincerely doubt we were hunting and gathering Twinkies. Or whole grains. Humans are designed to eat animal meat, animal fat, and a small amount of nuts, vegetables and berries when animals were scarce.

One frequent rebuttal to the caveman argument is that cavemen did not live long. Their life expectancy was less than half ours. But, looking at the stats sensibly, the rates of accidental death were much higher in these truly more dangerous times. To take one simple example, the likelihood of dying from a wound that would be easily treatable today was also much higher. Add this to the high infant mortality and you can see how the average gets quickly pulled down. Also consider that cavities and other “diseases of civilization” are unheard of in pre-agricultural socieites. Starvation was also a very real threat to life, and I don't think hunting mammoths was quite so risk-free as grocery shopping.

A Brief Look At the Science

“The fallacy that eating fat will make you fat is about as scientifically logical as saying that eating tomatoes will turn you red.” - Dr. Richard K. Bernstein in Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars

Let's be clear to begin with: the belief that saturated fat and cholesterol are deadly is just that, a belief, and a belief entirely separate from nutritional science. Check it out:

• Dietary trials of diet and heart disease began appearing in journals in the mid-1950s. Only two trials ever tested the benefits and risks of the low-fat diet recommended by the American Heart Association since 1961, also recommended by the USDA food pyramid. (By the way, if you want to know who funded the bread-heavy pyramid, look no further than the grain industry. The corn industry also paired up with the AHA in promoting margarine and vegetable oils...until the AHA had the audacity to discover they were associated with high cancer risk.) One study, from a 1963 Hungarian medical journal, found that cutting fat consumption to 1.5oz per day reduced heart disease rates. The other, a British study, concluded that it did not. The authors wrote, “A low-fat diet has no place in the treatment of myocardial infarction,” in The Lancet, 1965. [Data from Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes]

• Eating carbohydrates stimulates the secretion of insulin. Insulin causes glucose, the product of carbohydrate digestion, to be rapidly absorbed into body tissues for fuel consumption. Any glucose left over – and a huge majority of the carbs we eat aren't immediately used for fuel – is stored as fat. Sugar, not fat, makes you fat.

• When glucose levels in the body drop, insulin levels also plummet. Nothing is going to make you feel starving like a high carb meal followed by spiking and dropping insulin levels. Eating sugar makes you hungry. So you eat more. This is why people often finding themselves snacking incessantly on low-fat diets, that rice cake hitting the crunch spot, but leaving you hungry soon after.

• By avoiding carbohydrates, you also avoid this rollercoaster of spiking insulin levels. Insulin is the hormone that causes your body to make and store fat. Thus, by keeping insulin levels low, you stop storing fat and start burning it. Once you've adapted to a diet low in carbohydrates, you primarily use your fat stores for fuel instead of the ingested glucose, and thus your fat burns off rapidly.

• Why, after over 40 years of promoting a low-fat approach, are Americans getting fatter and fatter?

"A calorie is a calorie is a calorie."

No, it's not. If you honestly believe that 100 calories of orange juice will give you as much nutrition and sustenance as 100 calories of filet mignon, then I'll propose my favourite challenge. You drink 2,000 calories a day of orange juice for a year, and I'll eat 2,000 cals/day of steak and we'll see who is alive at the end of it.

Some low carb proponents have actually taken to calling it a “nutrient dense” dietary approach, which makes a lot of sense to me. You can't argue against the fact that you're getting more nutritional bang for your caloric buck from meat, fish, eggs, nuts, and vegetables than bread, pasta or potatoes.

The Disadvantages

I'm trying to present an honest as possible account of low-carbing here, and I'd be remiss if I didn't present some of the downsides.

• It is more expensive to eat this way. Buying quality sources of protein and fresh produce is much more costly than a box of pasta or a loaf of bread, no question. But doesn't that tell you something about the quality of fuel you're putting into your body? It's better, and better for you. Only you can decide how much your health and longevity are worth. I'm just sayin'.

• Following a low carb diet can be socially awkward. This is going to affect different people in different ways. If you're the kind of person who just doesn't give a damn what others think, you can skip this one. For anyone else, it can be difficult eating in a way that differs from most of your social circle. There are often ways around it – and just eating pizza toppings means you get the best bits anyway. In all seriousness, I find this to be the most annoying part of the diet, but I can usually find something to eat, or at worst, sneak in some almonds in my purse or pocket. Another thing to remember: people are often paying way less attention to your eating than you think they are. Those that do harp on at you are usually revealing their own insecurities.

• Ketosis sucks. The first two weeks of your low carb life will be MISERABLE. Make no mistake – this is why many people give up on day three. Your body needs this time to adjust to a different energy source, and in the meantime you may experience lethargy, headaches, other aches and soul-crushing sadness.

• Unless you don't get bored eating the same 5-10 things, you're going to need to learn some basic cooking skills. This, I feel, could also be an advantage, but I know some people finding cooking a pain.

And the Many Advantages

• You get to eat absolutely delicious food. Let's be honest – a lot of low-fat food tastes like cardboard. Or rubbery cardboard. Low carb gives you the real stuff: steaks and butter and salmon with hollandaise sauce and chicken wings with blue cheese dressing. Real mayonnaise. Bacon. Eggs. Did I mention butter? Cheese, cream, and cream cheese. Lobster. The recipes you can enjoy with this diet are incredible, and incredibly tasty.

• You don't have to feel hungry. Remember that up-down spiking-falling craziness of your insulin levels on a carby diet? Low carbing is renowned for appetite suppression, for people simply forgetting to eat. If you've battled with cravings and hunger while dieting, this will be a biggie for you. You don't have to constantly fight the urge to eat or need an iron will to resist the call of the vending machine. I wrote a post about how little self-control or will-power you need to stick to this diet here: The Power of Low Carb.

• For the most part, you're eating much more natural food. This is comforting to me, as a person somewhat suspicious of profit-maximizing food vendors. Eating fresh protein and vegetables avoids a surprising amount of the guesswork and controversy about food and additives.

• Your skin, hair and nails will never look better.

• You'll lose weight rapidly. So fast you won't believe your eyes, and will probably replace those scale batteries a couple of times before it sinks in that this is real.

• You'll have more energy and won't feel a slump about three hours after you eat.

• You'll grin as more and more studies come out showing low carb diets kick ass and low fat diets make people hungry and fat.

• You'll probably notice a reduction in symptoms you currently have. For me, it was joint pain and headaches.

• It's very, very easy to follow this diet. Studies have shown that low carb has greater short and long term compliance rates.

• There are more and more low carb substitutes for culturally favored foods. Tonight I ate spaghetti and meat sauce – using the 1g net carb, 20 calorie Tofu Shirataki noodles. For a pasta connoisseur, these may not fit the bill, but they do just fine in terms of texture and holding up some meat on soft white noodles. Other items you don't have to give up forever: pancakes with syrup, donuts, cheesecake, chocolate cake, frosting, barbecue sauce, pizza with the crust, and cookies.

• Increased sex drive.

In Conclusion

• Fat does not make you fat. Sugar does. And don't fool yourself - sugar is sugar, whether it comes from a white bag or a yellow banana. "No sugar added" does not mean no sugar.

• Low carb provides you with all the essential nutrients. Carbohydrates are the only food group you can completely do away with and survive.

• When you read misinformation about low carbing in the media, don't forget about the massive industries who stand to lose if this dietary approach becomes widely adopted.

• Do your research, and come to your own conclusions. Start with Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes for a wealth of studies and the latest in nutritional science.

• Eat well, and eat simply. This means foods your body has adapted to handle: meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts, and very occasional berries.
  

Does the Economy Make Us Fat?

I've blogged before about low carb being a more expensive way of life, at least when it comes to the grocery store bill, so I was excited to pick up this book on the economy of obesity.

Eric A. Finkelstein and Laurie Zuckerman's answer to the question "Does the Economy Make Us Fat?" can be determined by a quick glance at the cover of their book, The Fattening of America. The subtitle, below a burger bun packed with twenty dollar bills, reads: "How the Economy Makes Us Fat, If It Matters, and What to Do About It."

So how does the economy make us fat?

Finkelstein and Zuckerman's first chapter asks "Craze or Crisis?" and provides some detailed breakdown of the rising obesity rates in the United States. One of the great things about this book is the clarity of the number crunching. The authors break down obesity rates between adults and kids, by race, by income level, by gender, and even a comparative graph by country. (Saudi Arabia, by the way, is the only country to top the US in obesity prevalence. Third and fourth go to the United Kingdom and Australia.)

As far as kids go, the rate of overweight 6-11 year olds tripled from 4% to 19% in the past 30 years, as did the rate for 12-19 years old, jumping from 6% to over 17%. For adults, the picture is no prettier: the US has seen a 38% increase in obesity prevalence since the early 1990s. Americans are, as the authors put it, "indeed fat and getting fatter". Combining these numbers with the long list of medical complications from obesity, the obvious answer to "Craze or Crisis?" seems to be, well, both.

Chapters 2 and 3 take a look at the two biggest factors in causing this crazy crisis: in short, eating more and moving less. This is perhaps no big shocker to anyone who reads about weight loss, but the interesting part about Finkelstein and Zuckerman's treatment of the subject is that they take a look behind the scenes. Here, you won't find any admonishing for lack of will power and people just lazily sitting around stuffing themseves. Instead, they point to concrete economic factors that produce an "obesity inducing environment".

Graphs show unhealthy food (soda, sugar and sweets, fats and oils) getting relatively cheaper, while healthy foods like fresh fruit and vegetables and fish get more expensive. (I do take issue with fats and oils being categorically placed in the "unhealthy" category here, but more on that later.)

Other factors include the ready availability of warm-and-eat meals. The powerful example of french fries speaks volumes. Fries, if made from scratch, take about 40 mins to prepare, complete with peeling, slicing and messy, splattering oil. Frozen french fries? Ready to eat in under 14 minutes if baked. To an economist, then, it is entirely unsurprising that the average American now consumes almost 60lbs of frozen potato products per year, more than triple the amount in 1965. Yep, sixty pounds! I don't know about you, but I feel lumpier just reading that...

They continue in this tone, pointing to the increase of high-fructose in corn syrup in food as an obvious effect of these economically attractive properties: highly-subsidized, cheap, easy to transport, with a long shelf life and good resistance to freezer burn. A frightening echo of the potato stat: the average American consumes 60lbs of high-fructose corn syrup a year.

So we have high energy foods which are easier to prepare, high in calories, and very tasty. What makes more economic sense, 80 cents for 1,000 calories of potato chips, or $4 for 1,000 calories of fresh carrots - which you'll then have to peel and chop?  Some people choose the chips because they taste better, others choose them because they're simply cheaper.

We're also moving less as a result of increasingly sedentary jobs. Technological advances help the economy, but also leave workers burning less calories as they push a button or tap instructions into a computer. When it comes to leisure time, surprisingly, we have more free time, but we also have more lazy entertainment options: movies, hundreds of television channels, video games, computers.

Finkelstein and Zuckerman emphasize that small changes in diet and exercise patterns can, over time, lead to large increases in weight. They do outline some lifestyle changes that might induce weight gain. These include increased use of prescription medication with weight gain as a side effect, decreased sleep, pollution, increased use of air conditioners, as well as debunking ideas like the "fat bug" and the decrease in smoking. However, they conclude that "it's the economy, stupid." They find the most convincing explanation for the escalation in obesity rates the simple fact that technological and economic advancements have created an obesity-inducing environment.

One of the frustrating things I've found when explaining this part of the book is that most people go "Well, duh!" Ok, point taken - that there's way more cheap food around and we move a lot less isn't exactly headline news. I still found their explanation of the underlying factors extremely enlightening, bringing up factors that may seem obvious but I hadn't thought about before.

One such moment was when I read about the decreased costs of obesity to the individual. The argument here goes something like: an individual with health insurance is more likely to take risks with their health, just as drivers with car insurance take more risks on the road than those without. Sure, I may be overweight, but my health insurance will cover any side effects, so who cares? Also, the increase in drugs and treatments for obesity means that the symptoms of obesity are more treatable now than ever before. One shocking fact: obese individuals today have better cardiovascular disease risk factor profiles than normal-weight individuals had 30 years ago! Technology hasn't just made our jobs easier; we can also pop some pills or get clogged arteries cleaned out with relative ease, making the health costs of obesity appear lower.

The rest of the book continues to dissect various possible solutions, from the role of government and different public policy options for both adults and kids. The employer's dilemma is laid out with stark rationality: why should employers invest in their employee's health when the greatest likelihood is that another company, possibly a competitor, will reap the benefits?  Sure, we can argue that employee morale will increase, productivity will improve and sick days will decrease...but here's the kicker: employees in today's job market change positions on average every five years.  An employer who invests in  obesity prevention or treatment for an individual will likely not see a return on that investment.

The solution offered by these economists, is, unsurprisingly, an economic one: lower the cost of health-promoting activities, and increase the payoffs for maintaining a healthy weight. Do the opposite of where the economy is taking us, and make it cheaper and easier to be thin, not fat.

This last sentence sums up the take-home message of the book. We are described as utility maximizers - a fancy economic way of saying that given all the possible choices we could be making, we're choosing options that make us best off. The two biggest factors constraining most people's choices are time and money, and The Fattening of America clearly shows that a healthy lifestyle costs more in both time and money.

Can a book be depressing and refreshing? I think so. Depressing in terms of the grim economic picture, refreshing in the simplicity of the number-crunching. Fat people are depicted not as moral failures, but as rational people who make rational decisions in an economy that provides an abundance of cheap, fattening food and little motivation to exercise.

Although I disagree with the authors' categorical condemnation of fats as unhealthy, I found little to argue with in their recommendations for weight loss. They even admit that different weight loss strategies will work for different people, and I believe following their simple dietary strategies could help anyone concerned about their weight. In brief: cut out sugary drinks, buy fresh foods and fewer boxes and cans, eat out less, and stay away from snacks.
I'd strongly recommend this book for anyone interesting in an economic argument about the obesity crisis. Well-written and easy to read (I flew through it one Sunday morning in bed), you'll come away with a fresh and intriguing perspective on why grocery shelves and Americans look the way they do today.

Interview with the Carnivore

Jimmy Moore posted this week about a ludicrous "Interview with a Carnivore" posted by Allena Rose Tapia over at DietDective.com. Check out Jimmy's answers to her questions here: "Moderate Vegetarian" Goes To Extremes In Her Mock Interview With A Carnivore. I'd like to offer my own answers to Tapia's questions, since I think some of these questions are valid and deserve real answers:

Question: What's the one thing that keeps you from being vegetarian?

Answer: Credible research up to this point indicates that humans need a dietary source of amino and fatty acids. Some of these are only available from animal sources.

Question: What about the fact that alot of these tastes can be replicated by meat substitutes?

Answer: They absolutely cannot be replicated by meat substitutes! Are you kidding? You think a juicy steak and a Boca Burger taste anything near alike?
(Also, it's "a lot" not "alot".)

Question: I notice you have children. Do you worry about the environment you're leaving them?

Answer: I don't have children, but the argument about meat-eating being bad for the environment is based on faulty logic. Vegetarians like to tout the "one acre of land can produce 165 lbs of beef or 20,000 potatoes" line, but let's examine that briefly.

Firstly, while you do get more potatoes, potatoes are a vastly inferior source of nutrition to beef. If you doubt this, let's go head-to-head, and I'll eat only beef for a year while you eat only potatoes, and we'll see who's alive at Christmas.

Secondly, this argument rests on the faulty premise that every acre of land in the world is suitable for arable farming. This simply isn't the case - there are many areas where it is impossible to farm, but animals like sheep can graze freely. Until humans evolve a mechanism to derive nutrients from grass, perhaps we could continue to eat the ingenious devices which turn grass into nutritious protein - animals.

Question: Why aren't you worried about it?

Answer: I think there are more pressing concerns, like 8,500 people dying from AIDS every day and a largely ignored genocide ongoing in Darfur.

I am concerned about damage to the environment, however. To that end:
- I recycle whatever I can
- I use a canvas bag to go grocery shopping instead of using environmentally-damaging plastic bags
- I pay a carbon offset charge when I fly (for example, $70 for a round trip flight from Montreal-Orlando for two people)
- I don't smoke or litter
- I don't own or drive a car

Care to rack up your environmental damage next to mine just because you eat veggies instead of delicious meat?

Question: You're familiar with some of the methods by which meat animals are killed and tortured. How do you get past that when you bite into a burger?

Answer: I find the inhumane treatment of animals disgusting and unnecessary. I absolutely favor reforms so animals are raised and slaughtered in the most pain-free way possible. Temple Grandin has made some great progress with slaughterhouse improvements around the country. Buying free-range grass-fed beef, and free-range eggs are just a couple of ways to support more humane farming. Plus, happy cows taste better!

Question: How much do you worry about your health in connection to what you eat?

Answer: I pay very close attention to my health in connection to what I eat. I've noticed that eating a diet full of high-quality protein from meat, fish and eggs, and a few vegetables thrown in has made me healthier and happier than ever before. I also don't have the sallow complexion and the big dark circles you often see under vegetarians' eyes from iron deficiency.

Question: Would you be willing to reduce your meat-eating days to 3 per week, plus one fish day?

Answer: No way. Would you be willing to reduce your eating days to 4 per week?

Intermittent Fasting

I've been encouraged by a few people to blog the bad as well as the good...so here goes.

I'm completely annoyed. I've stuck to low carbing faithfully since October 19th, mostly doing the shake plan during the week, and just regular Atkins-style eating on the weekends. I've been going to the gym 4-5 times a week, doing a mix of cardio and weights.

Since gaining weight on my honeymoon and the following month, so far I've lost a grand total of...11lbs. And, honestly, most of that was the first whoosh of water weight. I lost 11lbs in a week and then nothing since then. This is dangerous territory for me. When I work out, eat well, and don't cheat, I expect to lose. When I don't lose, I get discouraged and start thinking things like, "Well, if I'm not losing weight anyway...hand over the Krispy Kremes!"

Okay, clearly that is not a good solution here. The thing is, low carbing is the only thing I know how to do, and the only thing that has worked for me. I know I could see the scale move if I did something drastic like Kimkins, but I also know that wouldn't be a long term, sensible fix. I figure if I'm going to keep eating low carb (less than 20g per day), one of the things I could play around with is the timing of my eating, rather than the content.

Dr. Mike Eades' seductive introduction to Intermittent Fasting reads as follows:

"How would you like it if I told you there was a way to eat pretty much anything and everything you wanted to eat and still maintain your health? Or better yet, what if I told you that you could eat pretty much anything and everything you wanted and even improve your health? Would you be interested?"

Intermittent Fasting, as the name implies, involves fasting for a given period of time. Most people recommend a fast less than 48 hours long, since after 48 hours, you will start losing muscle mass. Some practitioners fast one day, eat the next, fast the next, and eat the next. Others do an up-day, down-day approach where they eat high calories one day, and low the next. Interestingly, across schedules, the average caloric intake doesn't change. Fasters make up for it by eating more in one sitting.

From what I have read, it is more common for intermittent fasters to try to get one meal in per day. How is this a fast? Well, check out my schedule for the last two days:

Thursday
Brunch 11:30am-1pm

Friday
Brunch 10:15am-11:45am

Saturday
Lunch: 12pm-2pm

So, from Thursday to Friday I fasted for 21 hours. From Friday to Saturday, my fast was 24 hours. Fasters talk of their eating time as an "eating window". You choose your fasting period, and your eating window. Schedules look like this:

15/3 = 15 hour fast, 3 hour eating window
22/2 = 22 hour fast, 2 hour eating window         ...and so on.

Old-timers recommend easing into a longer fast, starting with 15 hours and working up to a comfortable number. Many people who try intermittent fasting (IF) and hate it are usually trying too much at once and shocking their bodies.

You can read more about the Eades' experience on fasting here:

Fast way to better health

Protein Power versus intermittent fasting

Inflammation and intermittent fasting

There was also an interesting story on NPR about IF, which you can listen to here:

Retune the Body with a Partial Fast

Some benefits listed on the NPR site:
- Improving glucose regulation, which can protect against diabetes
- Lowering blood pressure
- Potentially beneficial effects on the brain, protecting against Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and stroke
- Reducing inflammation
- Reducing cancer risk

                        

Partial fasting may even extend lifespan, in the same way calorie restriction has been shown to do in monkey studies!

I am just beginning my research on this fascinating topic, but I'll post more links as I come across them. One thing that seems to fit intuitively to me is thinking about the way Paleolithic humans ate: probably not three square meals a day, with snacks in between. The theory is that they would eat a larger meal after a kill, and then rest and digest. Think lions devouring their dinner and then sleeping until they need to hunt again. If you believe, as I do, and many in the low carb community do, that our bodies are naturally adapted to a Paleolithic style diet (focusing on meat, a few vegetables, and very occasional berries), why wouldn't we be adapted to a Paleolithic style eating schedule, too?

I'm sure I'll be posting more info on this soon, but for now I'm just going to try it. Essentially, it shouldn't be too much harder than the shake fast...just without the shakes! So far I haven't felt particularly hungry or deprived, and man, does that meal taste amazing when you finally eat. 

Other tips:

• Make sure you aren't going too low on calories. Lengthen your eating window to get a sensible amount of food in for the day if necessary.
• Drink water or other non-caloric drinks (diet soda, black tea, black coffee, herbal teas) to keep hydrated during your fasting.
• Don't go crazy with hunger. If you feel hungry, have a shorter fast for that day. It's not about starving yourself. Listen to your body.
• You can intermittent fast intermittently. You'll get benefits from doing it even once or twice a week. The important thing is to let your body go for some time without any caloric intake - that means no cream in coffee, no protein shakes, no juice.

If anyone feels like trying this, let me know how it goes!

Shakin' It In Florida

I'm in Florida visiting my family for a few weeks, and so far enjoying mornings of beautiful sunshine and catching up on reading during the stormy afternoons.

One of the greatest diet-related aspects of this trip is that I finally have a partner in crime: my mum!

So far, using the shakes plan, she has lost 27.5lbs in just 58 days! This was no quick-n-easy water weight drop by going suddenly super low on carbs. She had been low carbing on Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet since January and reached a frustrating plateau before I told her about the Protein Sparing Modified Fast. She had already lost 25 lbs before starting this, which only makes her speedy weight loss even more impressive.

I have to say, she looks absolutely fantastic. One of the things she's most excited about is that she bought her first dress with a belt! She also has TONS of energy, and as far as I can see, close to zero carb cravings. (She's cooking up a batch of cinnamon rolls for the rest of the family as I type.)

It's been awesome doing this together since I got here: making shakes for each other, sharing lovely low-carb meals and weighing in together in the morning. I think having a diet partner really helps my own accountability, and just being around someone who is so successful on this plan is very inspiring.

We decided to come up with some handy tips for anyone following this, based on our experiences with the plan. I'm getting tons and tons of emails asking questions about the best ways to do it, and reporting amazing results, so keep 'em coming!

Accept that you'll feel like crap for the first few days
Like the good old Atkins flu, starting this plan WILL leave a lot of people feeling tired, groggy, lethargic, slightly nauseous or spacey and out of it. This can depend on the person, and some people just breeze through it straight away. However, especially if you've been eating a high-carb diet previously, you will probably not feel very well as your body makes the switchover to getting energy from protein instead of carbs. Hang in there - your energy will return, and you'll be feeling fine in less than a week.

Weigh every day!
This flies in the face of a lot of weight loss advice, but both my mum and I have found it extremely motivating to get on the scales each morning and see what we've lost. Since weight loss on this plan is so consistent and fast, weighing in is rarely a disappointment.

Journal it
Write down your weigh-in number every day so you can track your loss. There's a great program to do this online - FitDay - where you can get a graph of your weight as it tumbles down. By doing this, you'll also be able to get a more accurate picture of your average weight loss week-by-week.  It's very typical to lose 8-10lbs the first week, and then average around 2-3lbs per week after that, but this will help you keep focused.

Get back on
If something happens and you do end up eating off plan, get right back on. This is easy to say, but the encouraging part about this diet is that anything you gain will drop right off...if you get back on plan immediately. You may experience the yuckiness of a carb hangover the following day, which is further motivation to stay away from the sugar!

Sugar-free gum
Bear in mind that you're eating real, solid food once a day, so it helps to occasionally give yourself something to chew. Sugar-free gum can also be a dietsaver in meetings where people are passing around sandwich plates and baked goods: if you pop a piece in right at the beginning, your mouth will be full of flavor and the treat will seem less tempting.

Shake doctoring
If you're not too thrilled with straight protein shakes, people have come up with a number of ways to doctor them up. Bear in mind that the original Thin So Fast plan as described by Dr. Mike Eades added all sorts of stuff to the protein shakes to make them palatable (this book was published back when protein powder tasted dreadful). Some variations to try:

- After you have your morning coffee, pour the rest of the pot into a pitcher and leave it in the fridge. Mix the cold coffee with protein powder for a delicious and energizing shake.

- Add a teaspoon of vanilla essence, or the sugar free syrup of your choice for different flavors.

- Mix the powder with diet soda - but be careful of the fizz! This makes for a float or creamsicle type drink, depending on the soda you use.

- Add cream! Some people like to add a couple of spoons of cream to the coffee version, and our latest treat is to squirt some whipped cream onto a chocolate shake and sprinkle a little unsweetened cocoa powder on top.

Treat yourself
Nope, not to sweet treats - to good quality tea and coffee. We are a Starbucks-loving house, especially the bold blends like Komodo Dragon and Arabian Mocha Sunani. I'm also a big fan of different teas: both Stash and Republic of Tea make some amazing flavors. (The Republic of Tea Ginger Peach flavor is lovely, and great if your stomach feels slightly off.) Drinking high quality tea and coffee fills your mouth with gorgeous tastes without adding hardly a carb or calorie, and the caffeine will rev you up too. 

Beware the side salad
One common fall down is ordering salads from fast food outlets or restaurants. Atkins and South Beach and Protein Power and even this fast encourage eating vegetables with your protein, so having a side salad often seems like a fairly safe option. Now, if you're at home, and sticking to the greens (romaine, iceberg, spinach, cucumbers, asparagus, broccoli, avocado) you'll be safe. Where people get into trouble is ordering something like Boston Market's chopped salad which weighs in at 12g carbs before adding dressing. Quizno's Black & Bleu salad might look like a low carb dream, sprinkled with beef and blue cheese, but clocks in at 27.9g carbs! Steamed vegetables are often a safer choice, or you can always stick with trusty old caesar, hold the croutons.

Double up on shakes
A lot of people have found they've been skipping shakes, either due to time, forgetfulness or lack of access to shake making materials. A simple solution is to drink double shakes. Say you're on four scoops of protein powder a day: just make a shake with two scoops in the morning, and two at night to ensure you get your protein requirements met for the day.

Enjoy your meals
This is obviously not very hard when you're eating once a day! But I think it helps to put in the effort to make delicious meals. I will post some sample menus in the days to come, and there are always the recipes here for more ideas. A huge part of sticking to any diet is finding it psychologically satisfying, and making yummy food and treating yourself to nice drinks and interesting shake variations will undoubtedly help you stay on plan and keep losing.

Get support
You can join the very small but very friendly group following this plan over at the Meat & Eggers Forum. Here's the thread link: Arckins Plan Challenge so stop on by and say hello. Or try doing it with a friend, partner or family member so you can help and motivate each other.

Good luck, and here's to your very great loss!

Protein Sparing Modified Fast = Fast Weight Loss!

An awesome guy, who goes by the handle "arc" over at the Meat & Eggers For Life forum alerted me to an old book by Dr. Micheal Eades, Thin So Fast . Published in 1990, this book is the precursor to the brilliant Protein Power series by the Eades, and provides information on a Protein Sparing Modified Fast (PSMF) plan. The basics of the plan:

- Four protein shakes throughout the day
- Dinner made up of 6-8 ounces of meat and a large salad OR 2 cups of low carb veggies

The idea seems to be to allow rapid fat loss without removing muscle - as a typical low calorie/fasting plan would. As I mentioned in my last post, this is a great way of losing water weight after having a bunch of carbs.

In the original shake recipe, Dr. Mike called for:
1 envelope of powdered skim milk (enough to make one quart)
4 tablespoons high quality protein powder (no added sugar)
1 tsp of salt substitute
1 tsp of fructose

However, as you can see, this is a TON of carbs. I tried drinking just one of these shakes and got a major sugar buzz, headache, all the effects of being "carbed". arc did some more research and came up with this email exchange:

"Dr. Mike,
I recently found your “Thin So Fast” book and have been really enjoying reading it. I have been thinking about going the PSMF route to get rid of the last few stubborn pounds and your method looks interesting. I did have a couple of questions, though.

Why the skim milk? Why not just protein powder? Is it for the calcium?

Using your method only provides 65 g of protein. According to PPLP, someone my size need around 120. Is it a problem for someone to up the protein powder amount to cover that?

I know the book is out of print and is probably superseded by PPLP, but it is still something that is relevant today, as the PSMF diets are popular with bodybuilders. Your way looks more doable than eating just chicken breasts and salad. Any thoughts to updating the book with new research (it is a little saturated fat phobic and almost *gasp* praises trans-fats)? It has one of the best treatments of maintenance of any “diet” book I have ever read.

Thanks.

Hi Ryan–
 
Thin So Fast was superceded first by Protein Power then the PPLP.
 
I used skim milk because, hard as this might be to believe now, at that time there were no protein powders available other than a few used solely by body builders. The powders available were made to be mixed with other food to hide the wretched taste. I used skim milk powder simply to have something tasty to use as a base to which were added the disgusting tasting protein powders available at the time. Were I doing a PSMF now I would simply use one of the good protein powders available almost everywhere.
 
The increased protein intake as recommended by PPLP is fine. In fact, it’s better. A number of studies have come out since Thin So Fast showing an increased weight loss with increased protein intake.
 
I was probably a little saturated fat phobic and took a less hard line on trans fats as compared to my views now. But, I’ve had a couple of brain transplants since the Thin So Fast days.
 
I haven’t contemplated updating the book. Each book is more or less an update of all the ones before. I’m glad you enjoyed the section on maintenance; I really enjoyed writing it. It was my favorite section of the book…that and the part about the Eado-Eado tribe.
 
Cheers–
 
MRE

Thanks, Dr. Mike.

I have been trying out the PSMF from “Thin So Fast” and having good results. It is good to know that I don’t need the skim milk as I really don’t care for the taste. It also added a lot of carbs. Were the carbs necessary or just a necessary evil to mask the taste of the protein powder?

Just a necessary evil.
 
Good luck.
 
MRE"

STEP ONE - Calculate your protein requirement
The average person needs .6 grams of protein per pound of lean tissue. To work out how much lean tissue you have, check out this handy online calculator:

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html

So, for example, I have 123 lbs of lean body mass. 123 x .6 = 73.8, for a protein requirement of 74g  per day.

You will get between 40-50g of protein with a 6-8oz piece of meat or fish for dinner.

The rest of your protein requirement will be covered by the shakes. For me, that leaves 34g of protein in shakes. You can go over this amount, since your body will convert some of that protein to cover your glucose needs without carbs, but this gives you a minimum guideline.

STEP 2 - Supplement while fasting
Be warned - this plan will make you pee! Dr. Mike is very clear about the potential here to screw up your electrolyte balance, so take extra salt and potassium to counterbalance the water loss.

The amount of potassium Dr. Mike advises is 2400 mg.  Adding 1/4 tsp of salt substitute (I'm using No Salt) to each shake should cover that. If you get light-headed, that's an indication you need more salt in you!

Also, removing the skim milk powder from the original recipe takes out a whack of calcium. Recommended calcium intake is 1500mg per day, along with 750mg magnesium so the calcium will be absorbed. Between the shakes and my regular supplement, I'm only getting 850mg of calcium, so I need to add in calcium.

STEP 3 - Drink, fast, and be thin so fast!
According to Dr. Mike, when someone undergoes a true fast, around four days into the fast hunger disappears, real fat burning kicks in and the faster experiences a feeling of wellness and peace. This is often tied to religious fasting.

Unfortunately for the body, however, while the mind is chilling out in peaceful starvation land, there is also a massive loss of lean tissue.

The Protein Sparing Modified Fast circumvents that problem, designed to mimic the effects of a real fast but without muscle loss. With the dinner at night, the plan looks a lot more like the recently trendy Intermittent Fasting (IF) programs.

***Standard warning/disclaimer: Consult your doctor and all that jazz before starting any radical new weight loss program. Also, and this is important - if you are on medications for any heart problem, be careful about taking potassium supplements!

My results so far:

- I have lost 8 lbs in two days! (Bear in mind that much of this was water weight from recent carb intake, but I've never lost even the water bloat that quickly.)

- I was able to do a full weights workout this morning (chest/arms/back/abs/legs). This might be a bit too much when just starting out, since I felt a bit light-headed/woozy. More salt! Less leg press!

- I have felt hungry during the day, but not crazy starving. The shakes hold the hunger due to the protein. I expected to eat more at dinner but was full surprisingly quickly.

- My body temperature feels higher. A raging, fat-burning fire? No-long-bloated-fingers crossed!

Anyway, if you'd like to join the experiment, you can head on over to this thread at the Meat & Eggers Forum, or feel free to post your experiences with it here.

Many, many thanks to Dr. Micheal Eades for the original plan, and arc for unearthing and modifying it.

 
 

Better than...Kissing?

Chocolate seems to be all over the news lately, so I thought I'd share some of the latest (and to a chocolate fiend like me, the greatest) studies. The benefits of chocolate, I've found, are many: massive amounts of antioxidants, lowering your blood pressure, guarding against blood clots, and even more pleasurable than kissing!

The April issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine brought us an analysis of four studies of black tea, green tea and dark chocolate. Researchers chose from over 3,000 papers, favoring the most randomized and controlled studies. After using statistical technigues to combine the data, their analysis found four of five studies showing that chocolate reduces blood pressure after eating.

None of the tea drinking studies found any significant benefit.

Chocolate, however, is where it's at: eating three squares of dark chocolate was almost as effective as taking common antihypertensive drugs.

The good things found in dark chocolate are chemical substances called polyphenols, which are known to help control blood pressure. Milk proteins will prevent the absorption of polyphenols, so milk chocolate is not effective in helping blood pressure.

Find the full text of the study here: Effect of Cocoa and Tea Intake on Blood Pressure: A Meta-analysis (Site requires registration)

Another paper from the Pennington Nutritional Series outlines the advantages of cocoa powder as a powerful antioxidant. In Cocoa Polyphenols, the authors Heli Roy and Shanna Lundy break down the antioxidant capacity of various foods.

The method they used to quantify the antioxidant capacity of food is Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC). Basically, the technique measures how well a sample food disarms free radicals, and how long it takes. ORAC values are expressed as mmole TE/g (micromoles Trolox equivalent per gram of substance – Trolox being a water-soluble derivative of tocopherol, the standard control for antioxidant activity). And if all of that was Greek to you, let the numbers speak louder than words:

Strawberry 1,600

Blueberry 2,200

Prunes 5,700

Milk chocolate 6,800

Dark chocolate 13,000

In other words, dark chocolate wins again!

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health also found that dark chocolate guards against blood clots. This was a pretty funny story: 139 people were excluded from a larger study on aspirin. Why? Participants were told to refrain from eating certain foods known to affect platelet activity - including chocolate – and these chocoholics just couldn't stay away!

Professor Diane Becker said: "What these chocolate 'offenders' taught us is that the chemical in cocoa beans has a biochemical effect similar to aspirin in reducing platelet clumping, which can be fatal if a clot forms and blocks a blood vessel, causing a heart attack."

And lastly, Dr David Lewis, formerly of the University of Sussex, and now of the Mind Lab, found that "chocolate beats kissing hands down when it comes to providing a long-lasting body and brain buzz. A buzz that, in many cases, lasted four times as long as the most passionate kiss."

This study monitored the heart rates and brain activity of couples in their 20s, as they melted 60% dark chocolate in their mouths, and as they kissed.

Dr Lewis said: "These results really surprised and intrigued us. While we fully expected chocolate- especially dark chocolate - to increase heart rates due to the fact it contains some highly stimulating substances, both the length of this increase together with the powerful effects it had on the mind were something none of us had anticipated."

As the chocolate started melting, all regions of the brain received a boost far more intense and longer lasting than the excitement seen with kissing.

So, I hear you wondering, what's a low carber to do? Well, the interesting part about all these studies for me were the conclusions which emphasized that both milk and sugar undo the benefits of consuming dark chocolate. Low carb chocolate treats are the way to go!

• Try eating a couple of squares of Lindt 85% chocolate – at 1.25g of carbs per square, these will not set you back far in your carb count, and are delicious too.

• If sugar alcohols agree with you (and be warned, they disagree with many tummies), you can try some of the low-carb chocolate bars around. I've been taste-testing a few available in Montreal (just doing my part, ya know), so I'll be posting the results soon.

• Use cocoa powder for your sweet treats! There's the Ten Minute Chocolate Cake recipe, or low carb hot chocolate made with unsweetened cocoa powder and Splenda.

• Make some bark, a perennial favorite for low-carbers dying for some crunch. Melt a couple of unsweetened chocolate squares, pour in two tablespoons of sugar free syrup (or substitute Splenda), add a couple tablespoons of coconut oil, and then stir in the unsalted nuts of your choice: pecans, walnuts, pistachios or almonds all work well. Spread the mixture on some wax paper or foil, and pop in the freezer for 15-20 mins, until hardened.

Lastly, sit back and enjoy – you're doing your body good. And even though it apparently doesn't do much for blood pressure, I still enjoy a cup of tea with my chocolate.

The Secret

               

So I promised to post my thoughts on “The Secret”. This is a phenomenon sweeping books from the stores and library shelves, and causing fiery discussions on the forums. First of all, I downloaded the DVD version, so the book may be better.

I thought they had a lot of great things to say about the power of positive visualization. They explained the "Law of Attraction" in a way that was accessible and easy for lots of people to understand. As one of the contributors, Bob Doyle, put it:

“What you focus on with thought and feeling is what you attract into your experience, whether or not it's something you want.”

Basically, if you observe only what is, you attract more of it. When you visualize, then you materialize. This is the power of visualization, of using thoughts to shape your life. They draw on the Buddha:

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.”

And Winston Churchill:

“You create your own universe as you go along.”

They collect more fantastic quotes from leading thinkers across the centuries, and presented them with lovely pretty graphics and dramatic music. I think it's worth a watch for curiosity's sake. But bear in mind – the Law of the Attraction, powerful as it can be, is not original to “The Secret”.

I also found the majority of the things they talked about very materialistic. They spoke of the universe being a catalog, and all you have to do is place your order – just name the amount of cash. The examples were all about mansions, earning $100K a year, driving your brand new car, getting a new bike. The one about finding a partner turned me off too, which seemed to me to objectify the women as just more fancy status symbols to be envisioned and then dropped in the guy's lap. There were brief mentions of God/spirituality, but I think they were trying to make it appeal to a wider audience, so they didn't get too specific about that.

My honest thought at the end of it was that they did an okay job of packaging other people's wisdom. The wisdom is good. The quotes are awesome. I liked the old-timey scrolls and the cool, swooshy whispers. The illustrations they use to describe "what you can get" were to me, overly material-focused, but I can accept that this approach would appeal to people who are into that stuff.

My biggest problem with it was this "blame-the-victim" mentality that could easily arise from some of the suggested techniques.

My first flinch came at "Why do you think 1 or 2% of the world's population owns 96% of the world's wealth? It's because they know the Secret." Er, not really, but way to endorse the suffering of millions.

Or how about, "The one who speaks most of illness, has it." They told the story of Cathy Goodman, who cured her breast cancer simply by believing she was healthy. Mind over matter. I'm amazed that this has worked in some cases, and truly thankful for those people. I know from medical studies that thinking positively has a massive effect on recovery rates, and should definitely be encouraged among patients. But this seemed a bit extreme, writing off the poor and sick as deserving of their poverty and sickness. One of the commentators, Dr. Joe Vitale even went so far as to say that your car accident didn't just happen to you – you attracted it!

Alright, so maybe we can set aside the irritatingly smug and disturbingly uncaring attitudes toward other people, and focus on the good stuff we can glean from the good stuff “The Secret” has collected.

• Focus on the positive, not the negative. Instead of being anti-war, be pro-peace. Instead of saying “I have to get out of debt,” and focusing on the debt, focus on the positive steps of increasing income. I think this can be valuably applied to weight loss. I found it intensely depressing to formulate my thoughts as: “I HAVE to stop being so fat! God, I'm so overweight, I need to get rid of these rolls, these gross squishy bits.” Instead, focusing on the great feeling of slipping on jeans that fit, a flat tummy smooth above your waistband, enjoying climbing stairs and hills without getting out of breath – that gets you there faster, and with way less misery!

• “Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

  This would have helped me a lot when I felt like I had a mountain of weight to lose. Thinking about all the weeks, the months it would take to lose that weight led me to be quickly discouraged when I wasn't losing quickly enough at first. Whatever plan you pick to lose weight, it helps to have faith it will work as you take those first difficult steps.

• Complaining doesn't help. I don't think that this means we're never allowed a vent, a rant, or a shoulder to cry on after a bad day. I do think it's helpful to become more aware of thought patterns, speech patterns, to notice when we are complaining and try to reformulate things in a happier light. Complaining about weight, or the strictness of a diet, will only enforce the feelings of fat and heighten the feelings of being restricted.

I'm trying to incorporate some of the positive visualization into my own thinking. Basically, I don't think it can hurt. Thoughts are powerful things, and I think it's exciting to be able to use them for good, to explore the extent of the power. I don't think that means we get to dismiss all the people in less-than-desirable situations as having attracted it to themselves, but as a self-improvement project, this makes a lot of sense.

Has anyone else read or watched this? Have the techniques worked for you? 

“Follow your bliss.”~Joseph Campbell

Answering Dana Carpender's Questions

After the low carb conference call, I got an interesting email from Dana Carpender. You may remember her reasons why Atkins didn't catch on during the low carb boom, and the mini-controversy they caused here. What she's looking for now are personal answers from successful and not-so-successful low carbers. Check out the questions she sent me:

If you have successfully stayed on a low carbohydrate diet and kept your weight off for 2 years or more, to what do you attribute your success? To support from friends? Family? Online support?  To having learned to cook a wide variety of low carbohydrate meals?  Planning ahead? Feeling a lot better?  A change is how you look at food and eating? What do you consider to be the two or three most crucial components in your low carb success?

If you have lost weight on a low carb diet, but struggled with it and gained most or all of your weight back, what were your biggest stumbling blocks? Lack of support, or downright sabotage? Naysaying from your doctor? Boredom with the food? Emotional carb cravings? Discouragement with a plateau? Budget and time constraints? Impulsive eating when junk appears in front of you? What do you feel have been your biggest stumbling blocks?

If you've read my dieting history, you'll know I started off low carbing on South Beach, gained all of my weight back plus some, and then switched over to Atkins to lose it all again – and keep it off for nearly a year now! Anyway, I tout my loss not to toot my own horn (that hardly ever happens now with no carbs!) but to explore some of Dana's excellent questions. I think the answers to these questions help us answer the bigger question raised by the low carb conference call: why didn't low carb take off in 2003 when it had its best chance so far?

OK, so let's start with the bad stuff. Why'd I go to all the trouble of losing weight and then manage to put it all back on?

1. Time Constraints
   When I was trying to restart South Beach and get back into the swing of weight loss, I was taking five graduate level seminars and piled under mountains of reading and papers. After spending the previous semester in Mexico, I was rushing to graduate and under a lot of pressure to push my GPA into Honors territory. Spending so much time on schoolwork, plus taking two buses or a bus and a subway getting there and back, left me little time or energy to shop for healthy food and cook regular meals.

2. Stress, Stress and More Stress
   I felt stressed by school, but above all, stressed by my skyrocketing weight. I would try to zip up pants in the morning and cry when not one pair would fit me. My boyfriend would cringe as I went to get dressed in the morning, ready for my despair at bulging out in all the wrong places. Instead of motivating me to do something about it, I felt hopeless and trapped, because...

3. The Diet Wasn't Working
   First – a disclaimer: I think the South Beach Diet is a great diet, and works very well for many people. Dr. Agatston was the one who introduced me to low carbing and for that I am ever grateful. However, for me, at that time and in that situation, I couldn't hack it. The low fat element of South Beach left me constantly hungry and constantly thinking about food and what I could snack on next. I was either miserable because I was hungry or miserable because I'd eaten too much. The scale didn't budge.

4. Knee-Shaped Stubbornness
   I've had three surgeries on my right knee, and one on my left. Aside from some sexy scars, I'm left with arthritis, pain, limited motion and sporadic swelling. I also come from a family where my uncle proudly tells the story of making his kid do jumping jacks to prove he had appendicitis before they made the trip to the hospital (he did...and ouch). Stoicism was highly valued, and any outward expression of pain was not only frowned upon but snorted at and derisively dismissed. So, given this history, I signed up for a personal training session at the gym, neglected to mention my knee problems, got a whole set of weight training exercises that made my quads shudder and my kneecaps slip and slide. Dumb? Yep. How many times did I go back? Let's just say it was in the single digits.

5. The House That Junk Built
   Our apartment at the time was also crammed with junk food. If I ever had a weak moment, or hour, or day, the cupboards were stocked with chips, chocolate, candy, and deliciously spoonable peanut butter.

Alright – enough of the bad stuff! How did I lose 40lbs and get healthy?

1. Making Time To Cook
   When I started low carbing, I didn't have the luxury of working from home, which meant less time available to shop and cook. I started by making an effort to cook breakfast, and as much as I enfuriated my housemates by forgetting a pan of bacon while I was getting dressed, most mornings I got myself sorted with an omelette or a meaty treat. In the evenings, I'd fry up some chicken. As I explored new recipes, I expanded my menu options drastically and suddenly found a lot more variety in my diet.

2. Finding The Forums!
   The first forum I logged onto was the Active Low-Carber Forum, which I found originally by Googling recipe substitutes. I was amazed at how many other people were doing it, and how fantastic and helpful they were. I found out new recipes, discovered the joy of coconut oil and the best way to hard-boil an egg, and, most importantly, connected with an incredible group of people with whom I still talk today.

3. Family Rules
   A huge, huge part of my success can be laid squarely at the feet of my parents and my in-laws-to-be. None of them profess to understand the diet much, and a majority of the four have even expressed the sentiment that my eating is perfectly ridiculous. Their misgivings notwithstanding, they not only let me do it my way but support me meal after meal, whether cooking things without flour and sugar or making sure I have menu options at whatever restaurant we choose. Time after time I have been touched by their consideration when it comes to that most social gathering: meal time. I feel very, very lucky to have people around me who make it very easy to stick with low carbing, and am grateful every day for their loving support.

4. Results!
   As I upped the fat component of my diet and my fat started literally falling off, I was thrilled and intrigued. I actually began to look forward to jumping on the scale in the morning and checking how much I'd lost. Now, it was my clothes getting saggy and baggy instead of my hips, and soon my dreaded morning session of “What will I be able to zip up?” was a gleeful “Look what's falling off me now!” The fast results you get with low carb are incredibly motivating. One of my friends at the Meat & Eggers For Life Forum says she feels like she knows this super special secret as the pounds magically melt away, and I know exactly how she feels.

5. The Feel Good Factor
   OK, so no one's denying how good, no, how great it feels to see scale numbers diminish and pants sizes shrink along with your tummy, but low carb feels good in other ways too. You don't feel hungry. Your nails and hair grow faster and stronger. My skin cleared up. I had way more energy. My head felt clearer, and my brain felt free – free of cravings, and freer from worries about food. It was so simple: eat when you feel hungry, and when you do eat, go for some yummy meat and hey, dip it mayo while you're at it. Some people talk about the “high” buzz they get from deep ketosis, but I equate this to a story my dad told me when his doctor gave him some pills to help wake him up, while he was suffering from serious sleep deprivation due to sleep apnea. He took the medication back to the doctor, asking “Are you sure this is ok to take and drive? I feel so weird when I'm on them...almost like I'm high.” The doctor smiled and said, “You're not high. You just forgot what it feels like to be truly awake. This is what not being tired feels like!” I think the low carb buzz is more akin to this: you're not high, you just forgot what it feels like to eat healthy, fresh foods. This is what not filling your body with craving-inducing carbs feels like!

6. My Knight In Shining Armor
   My fiancé, Simon, has been my rock throughout my weight loss journey. From being absolutely as loving whatever I weighed, to being my subtle low carb advocate when socializing, he's helped me as much as he possibly could, and more than I ever expected anyone would. He comes home with ribeyes instead of roses, picks protein-heavy restaurants, loads the fridge with diet sodas, and never bats an eye at my time spent lifting up heavy objects and putting them back down, or running for thirty minutes and staying in one place. His wholehearted support means the world to me and I find him listening to me babble about the latest study or greatest new recipe one of the sweetest things. (And also feel guilty for not feigning equal interest when he gets excited about external style sheets and website traffic lotteries.)

7. A Change In Perspective
   This is a fairly recent addition to my dieting arsenal, but possibly one of the most powerful tools in living a slimmer life. I had a conversation with my sister in which we both berated our “fat” genes. “We just can't eat three meals a day like normal people,” she said, “whenever I do that, I start packing on padding on my thighs and my clothes stop fitting.” Her solution? Insane amounts of exercise and calorie control. My solution was clearly low carbing, but I still felt a bit “woe is me” and railed at the unfairness of it – after all, why couldn't I just eat like a “normal” person and stay slim? Using a combination of exercises from Martha Beck's The Four Day Win, and other cognitive therapy techniques, I decided to get over myself. I'd found a delicious way of eating that kept the weight off without, for the most part, leaving me feeling deprived and never letting me go hungry. What I needed were the mental tools to make this a lifelong approach, rather than a weight loss fix. I'm still working on this and will be posting about it in the future, but training my brain to enjoy low carb to the max is incredibly important to avoid burnout.

8. Carnivorous Tastebuds
   Just to state the obvious (in case you missed the page banner or the post with the gorgeously succulent turkey leg) – I LOVE meat. I love the taste, the juiciness, the ripping it apart with your teeth. I love trying different spices on different meats and finding winning combinations. Put a rotisserie chicken in front of me and you'll have a happy and greasy-fingered girl. When I low carb, I feel like I'm just eating the best bit of the meal – the meat! Who needs the sides? I'm truly convinced that my palate is naturally well-suited to cutting out the carbs.

9. Reading The Research
   After piquing my interest with my own body experiment, losing fat as I increased the fat content in my diet, I decided I wanted to learn more. I started off small, lurking around in information threads in the forums and not saying much because everyone seemed to know much more than I did. Then I started seeing similar answers to the same old “problems” with Atkins, and soon the responses were also on the tip of my tongue. Not only could I participate in discussions, but I also had more and more studies ready as ammo when people were critical of my eating. I began checking out informative blogs for a daily dose of info. By doing the research, I became more and more confident that this truly was the healthiest way for me to eat, the most nutrient-dense use of calories, and a smart way to avoid whatever nasty chemicals big food companies are pumping into their packaged, processed junk.

10. I Got Moving
    I've talked here about my kinder, gentler approach to exercise, which I think does a world of good for my knees and my psyche. I'm going to the gym more regularly than ever, avoiding exercises that twist or strain my prone-to-dislocating knees (my high school nickname in England was Dislo-Kate), and enjoying myself while I'm there. I'm still not doing anything crazy, but thirty minutes of cardio twice a week, upper and lower body weights and some swimming is helping me get rid of these last stubborn pounds. To be clear, I got this far without really exercising at all, but I know that to continue losing and to be the shape I'd like, I need some workouts.

So there you have it – double the reasons for success as the excuses for failure. Anyone else have any reasons they succeeded with low carbing? Any ideas why people find it difficult to stick to?