Healthy Diet at Home

(This is part 6 of a multi-part series on How to Tweak a Low Carb Diet . It discusses my weight loss journey so far. If you didn’t read part 1, you can do so by clicking on the how-to link. Part 1 also includes links to the rest of this series.) At one time or another, most dieters get caught up in the desire of wanting to lose weight fast. That actually worked to my advantage because Lyle McDonald originally created his Rapid Fat Loss Plan (a whole foods PSMF Diet) to deal with crash diets safely. While McDonald’s focus is on bodybuilding, muscle retention, and metabolism, maintaining muscle mass during dieting is to everyone’s benefit – quick weight loss or not. The Kimkins fiasco brought the protein content of a low carb diet into the limelight. Dr. Eades’ did have recommendations for low carbers to shoot for. He talked about large, medium, and small servings of protein (five, four or three ounces) at each meal depending upon how much you currently weigh, getting 35 grams of carbohy

Lately, I’ve had a few readers ask me, “What is Atkins 72?” Since I use that term quite often, I thought maybe more of you might have the same question. Most people think of the book, Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution , whenever they talk about a low-carb diet. But that became quite confusing over the years because every new edition Dr. Atkins put out carried the same name, even though the diet had changed. The basic principles of the Atkins program stayed fairly consistent, but the Rules of Induction, food quantities and types, how you add carbohydrates back into your diet, and even the way you count carbohydrates changed – depending on which edition you were following. That made it difficult to help someone who didn’t understand how to do the Atkins Diet correctly, or to give advice when someone was stumbling or had stalled. To make it easier, the low-carb community began using the year the edition was published attached to Dr. Atkins’ name in order to distinguish one plan from anothe

Is a Low-Carb Diet Sustainable? (Photo by Alpha ) As most of you know, I’m extremely partial to the 1972 and the 1992 versions of The Atkins Diet. The ’72 version was based on Dr. Atkins own experiences following a low-carb diet and a few initial clinical observations. The original ’92 version (the first edition) was based on the feedback that he actually got from his patients. Many of them were cheating by adding a few vegetables to Induction along with the salad, which they eventually admitted to. Since Dr. Atkins patients still lost weight easily eating that way, Dr. Atkins decided it was okay to add 2/3 of a cup of cooked vegetables to his Induction Plan. Because of that addition, he lengthened Induction from one week to two. The second edition printed around 1999 was exactly the same as the first one except for a one-line comment he made about how he couldn’t find anything unreasonable about deducting soluble fiber grams from the total carbohydrate count – the type found in the ps

(This is part 3 of a multi-part series on How to Tweak a Low Carb Diet . It discusses my weight loss journey so far. If you didn’t read part 1, you can do so by clicking on the how-to link. There, you will also find links to the entire series.) In 2007, I was not gluten free, dairy free, or corn free. I didn’t know about the Celiac Disease or other food sensitivities back then, so I was working with what I did know. Looking back now, I can see why a very low carb or no carb diet did not work for me. Untreated Celiac Disease and food sensitivities keep your intestinal tract inflamed. An inflamed digestive system interferes with the way the body absorbs dietary fats and other nutrients. In addition, corn allergies and sensitivities can be especially problematic for low carb dieters because most of the meats, poultry, and fish at the supermarket are contaminated with corn. Plus, many fresh vegetables (including organic varieties) are waxed or gassed. Around this time, there was a rise in

you want raw beef son? -raw beef. -you want beef son? huh?! cow walks up to you and bite it in the ass and slap it. that's not it at all. keep it raw! now i know you might be thinking that raw beef is scary and intimidating, and i'm with you before i actually started having it in korea, i was petrified. but since i've had it, i have fallen in love with it. i've had it like 20 times one of my favorite types of beef to get, and i've never gotten sick from it. you have to try raw beef. it is safe and it is so delicious. here it comes~~ yay~ awwww yeah~ ooooohh, that's a really pretty presentation! now there are different ways you can be served yughoe a lot of places will serve it with like a raw egg yolk on top and it has been tossed in a sesame oil and soy sauce. and it might have some pears underneath it. but this place we're at is pretty swaggidy. you should get it at like a shop that you are grilling at and they're just kinda like chopping it up and giv

My experience with low carb dieting began in the 70s when I ran into Dr. Atkins’ original diet book at the library. At the time, it made a lot of sense. I could relate to everything he shared – and when I tested it, the plan worked better than anything I’d tried. I was 19, weighed in at a hefty 160 pounds on a 5-foot frame, and with virtually no metabolic resistance, that one golden shot earned me maintenance within only 6 weeks. I realized the other day, that’s exactly where I’m sitting again today. I’m back to where I started from in 1975. A whole lot older, hopefully wiser, but despite finding out how to deal with my health issues, I’m still at the same starting line. Yes, I managed to shed a whopping 80 pounds in 2007; and another 30 pounds last year – but that was above where I first began my low carb journey. I’ve regained a good 10 pounds of that last 30 though. So what gives? WHY is weight loss so hard to maintain? Atkins 72: What was the Original Atkins Diet Like? I can tell y

I’ve been watching the Nutritional Ketosis movement for several weeks now, and I came to a serious “AHA moment” yesterday. I attempted a real Ketogenic diet several years ago – the type they put kids with seizures on – but I didn’t have much luck with it. In fact, I quickly gained about 10 to 15 pounds within the first week or two, so I haven’t been that interested in doing it myself, but I’ve been curious about it in case it worked well for others. A high-fat, low-carb diet isn’t new. Barry Groves has been recommending that type of weight-loss program for years! But what the low-carb community zeroed in on when presented with that type of diet was only the high fat. That’s where most people placed their focus because that’s what they wanted to eat. It didn’t matter that Dr. Atkins boldly claimed his diet was not a high-fat diet. Fat is what’s restricted on a standard low-calorie diet and doesn’t raise blood glucose levels, so that’s what makes low carbing attractive to many folks. For

There is a lot of confusion these days about metabolism. It seems to be a scapegoat that people like to blame when weight loss doesn’t happen easily. If they’re following a low carb diet and struggling to succeed, then they believe that all of those years of eating carbohydrates must have destroyed their metabolism and made them fat. On the other side of the argument are those who oppose low carb dieting. These people claim that carbohydrate restriction will permanently alter your metabolism, but what’s the truth? Will eating carbohydrates or following a low carb diet ruin your metabolism – or not? What is Metabolism? Low carb dieters generally do not like to hear about the energy equation. Dr. Atkins told us that we no longer need to worry about calories, so most people believe the energy equation isn’t applicable to them. Calories don’t matter, they say. Dr. Eades has tried to set the record straight, but far too many people still do not want to go outside and drag the equation bac

(This is Part 1 of a two-part series. It was originally posted at my Sharing the Magic of Low-Carb Living blog. I'm moving it here because the information is important, and I have other plans for that blog now.) Over the course of my low-carb journey, I have tried several different types of low-carb diets. Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution, Atkins 72, the Kimkins Diet, Protein Power, and a round of hHCG are just a few. Each time I made a change or tweak, I would carefully evaluate my progress to see if what I was doing was working, or if I needed to toss it aside. In the Spring of 2009, I started participating in a 100-Day Very Low-Carb Challenge. The reason I entered into that challenge was because a traditional low-carb diet had stopped working for me. Since the whole idea of a low-carb diet is to find your own personal carbohydrate sensitivity, I thought the basis for the challenge made perfect sense. If you aren't losing weight, then you're eating too many carbohydrates. Perio