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I’ve been reading Reader’s Digest since I was 8 years old, and I never dreamed it would one day change my life.

4/21/2012

10 Comments

 
Meet the Old Conni:
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In February 2011 I discovered author and medical research journalist Gary Taubes through an interview article in the Reader's Digest. The magazine is often my bedtime reading, and I nearly skipped the article (whatever, more diet advice saying to eat less and exercise more). But I did read it, and when the full impact of what he was saying hit me, I exclaimed out loud, "Oh my God! This explains EVERYTHING!" It explained why my years of low calorie dieting and faithful exercise had never been able to keep my weight down. It gave me hope for the first time that I could help my overweight son lose weight while eating food he loves, like burgers (no bun) and steaks and sausage.

I went out the next day and bought Gary Taubes book called Why We Get Fat, and What To Do About It. I recommend you do the same, and read it cover to cover. My husband, my son and I all started the diet immediately, while I read this fascinating and eye-opening book. I also spent a lot of time doing research on the internet, learning what works and doesn’t work for other people doing this diet. 

The #1 thing that helped us all succeed on this diet was that everyone in the family was on board. We didn’t have to keep bread or cereal in the house for someone who wasn’t doing the diet, and if the stuff is gone, it makes it easier not to cave in to temptation, especially in the early days. Speaking of which, this questionnaire asked whether the cravings went away, and he didn’t have the option of giving the answer that applied to us – for all of us, the carb cravings disappeared after one week. We all ate pasta and bread often, it was our favorite food. The cravings for that food went away, it was very weird. When those cravings for pasta or bread or cereal come back now, it’s an excellent signal that I ate too many carbs, and to think about how that might have happened so I can avoid doing it again. 

My teenage son lost 30 pounds, and has kept it off for six months now. 

My husband was only about 10 pounds overweight, but high cholesterol runs in his family, and his numbers were terrible. After four months on our low carb/high fat diet, his triglycerides went from 128 to 64, and all his other numbers also improved. Right now he actually weighs less than he did thirty years ago. His sister also did the diet, and after three months her cholesterol numbers improved so much that her doctor took her off Lipitor.

Reading about low carb diets on the internet can be bewildering. Some claim you can eat potatoes and all the fruit you want; others claim you should also eat low fat (please don’t do that, it is unnecessary and you’re doomed to a much harder time of it). There are many different diet camps including paleo and primal and archevore. The bottom line is that we are all different, and you’re going to need to experiment to find out how many carbs you can eat and keep losing weight, or maintain the weight you have. 

I have a few simple points that I have culled from reading and researching for the past year, and I think anyone who starts from here is going to have the fastest success with this way of eating.

1. No sugar, no fructose corn syrup. Avoid artificial sweeteners. Check out Stevia (with NO additives, just pure Stevia) and check out xylitol, and use in moderation. Not cups of it, just teaspoons of it.

2. No grains of any kind, in any form. That includes corn and oatmeal, as well as wheat, rye and barley. Later on, some people can add back oatmeal.

3. No vegetable oils. Cook with butter, ghee, coconut oil and animal fat. (Research the effects of too much omega 6 in our diet.)

4. Eat low carb, moderate protein, high fat. Eat butter, virgin coconut oil, organic lard (do not use any that is hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated). Do not be afraid of fat, it will make you full longer, and your heart and arteries will love it. I promise.

5. Eat when you are hungry, and stop when you are full. Do not eat again until you are hungry again. If you do this right, you will find you go much longer between meals. Don’t worry about calories, let your body tell you when you aren't hungry.

6. Try not to snack. If you need to snack, a handful of raw nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans, macadamia nuts) is great.

7. Drink lots and lots of water. 

8. Get most of your carbs from vegetables and berries, not from things like "low carb tortilla shells". Read the labels on everything, including salad dressings. 

9. If you're a chocoholic like me, buy 85% dark chocolate bars, and have a couple of squares every day as a treat. If you start craving more chocolate, add more fat to your diet, and you may find that those cravings disappear.

10. Don't get discouraged if you mess up. Just start again the next day.

I am SO grateful to Gary Taubes for his life-changing work... and also to the Reader's Digest for printing the article with his interview. It kind of cracks me up, I’ve been reading Reader’s Digest since I was 8 years old, and I never dreamed it would one day change my life. Gary’s work took it from there. 

I wish the best to anyone reading this, and I hope you great success if you are starting on your new life, too.
Meet Conni Today:
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What was the biggest challenge to adopting a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet?
Social pressures, like turning down desserts at social gatherings, and people saying, "Oh, you're still doing that diet?" in a less-than-encouraging tone. Also the loss of convenience, it sure was easy to pour cereal in a bowl. Planning ahead and having easy food choices available helps a lot. 

What advice (if any) would you give to someone interested in trying a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet? Were there any obstacles that you overcame that could help future dieters?
I have a whole lot of advice! Here goes: I don't believe that the "induction" phase is necessary, where you cut your carbs really low at the beginning and then increase them. I advise you to start at about 15 carbs per meal, and work up or down from there. For one thing, starting with moderately low carbs instead of almost no carbs will help decrease the negative effects during transition. 

Don't be afraid to eat fat, in fact, the higher the percentage of fat in your diet (as long as you're keeping your carbs low!), the more successful you will probably be. Eat when you are hungry, and stop when you are not hungry. You won't feel stuffed like you do when you eat bread. Avoid vegetable oils like they are poison - read up about excess omega 6 in our diets. Going low carb automatically helps decrease omega 6, but read about it anyway. Besides other health problems, too much omega 6 seems to be able to sabotage weight loss. Cook with butter, ghee, coconut oil, animal fat. Read every label. While you're figuring out what you can eat, Google "how many carbs are in ______". Number one rule of thumb starting out: if it tastes sweet, even if you didn't expect it to taste sweet, immediately stop eating it and get something else. 

Avoid artificial sweeteners. Splenda is not your friend. Learn to substitute the pleasure of eating fat for the pleasure of eating sweet, which will happen if you stick with it. Stevia without additives is a decent sweetener, but use it in moderation, like a packet in your coffee or tea. Xylitol seems to be another good possibility, but it causes some people stomach upset. Buy one of those vacuum food savers, buy lots of meat in bulk when it's on sale, then seal and freeze them. In those sealed packages, a thick steak will thaw in a bowl of water in about an hour. If you goof up and eat too many carbs and gain a few pounds in a couple of days, don't panic, it's just water weight. Eat low carb again and it will come off. One response that helps when people offer you dessert is to say, "No thank you, I have cut sugar out of my diet." Be prepared: when you have weight loss success eating FAT, you're going to get excited and try to tell people about it. Most of them will not be interested. Be true to yourself, do not cave to social pressures and eat the bread, or share the dessert. Instead, enjoy your meat slathered in butter while they eat their salads with no dressing.


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Tried a paleo or low carb diet and want to contribute to a better understanding of this way of eating? Join the registry today!
10 Comments
Susan
4/21/2012 11:16:56 pm

Fantastic!! Congratulations to you and your family!!

I agree completely with your observations. The hard parts of low carb are social pressures and the additional time and energy required for food preparation. I also appreciate your ideas on artificial sweetners and O6 oils. These are practices I have yet to implement.

I understand about family not wanting to hear about low carb. There are many people out here in the "virtual family" of low carb who are VERY interested in what you have to say!!

Susan

Reply
Conni
4/22/2012 12:04:51 am

Hi Susan, and thank you! I have had more luck than some getting my extended family on board. You should have seen their faces when my family walked in after they hadn't seen us in a few months. I had lost about 30 pounds, my son also 30, and my husband is at his ideal weight. You can be sure the questions started flying! There are some hard-core converts among them, living the low carb lifestyle, and I'm thrilled that they are on a healthier road.

It is much, much more difficult to get friends to understand that even though we're eating meat and fat it really is a safe and healthy diet, and also that we're not going hungry to get to this weight. It hurts my heart to see the suffering that so many people in this country are going through, and all avoidable. I am so encouraged that the message is getting stronger and stronger, filtering into the mainstream.

I belong to a Yahoo Group called LowCarbHighFat, anyone interested should check it out. And if anyone reading this just wants to talk low carb, your frustrations or questions or advice, have at it! I think Larry would be happy if this board was more active!

Best, Conni

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Alexandra M
4/22/2012 04:08:07 am

Congratulations, Conni! You look terrific. The same sort of thing happened to me when I read Gary Taubes' article in the NY Times in 2002 - suddenly everything made sense!

Of course, when my husband and I showed up at our usual vacation spot a year later and considerably thinner than the year before, everyone wanted to know how we did it. When I said "Steak, eggs, and butter," I thought they were going to call an ambulance right away.

Keep up the good work. Spreading the word is hard, but I'm glad people like you are making the effort!

Alexandra

PS - another good website for support:
http://www.dietdoctor.com/

And I agree, this blog needs a lot more traffic. I've been telling people about it. Maybe it needs a troll or two to heat things up. ;-)

Reply
Conni
4/22/2012 10:36:48 am

Alexandra, thank you so much for the pointer to the dietdoctor.com website. It deals with so many questions I've had, like why certain cultures can eat rice and stay thin, and the credentials of the people writing comments are pretty impressive!

I checked out the website thinking I would have a quick look around and didn't come up for air until two hours later. Wonderful, thanks again!

Conni

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Jenny Y
4/22/2012 04:54:19 am

Me too!!!! I also read the Readers Digest article and it changed my life, my husband's too! I was thin ( but counting Weight Watchers points daily) and starving! What hooked me was I didn't have to feel continuously hungry. In one meal my life changed. Good for you, Conni!!!

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Mike P
5/26/2012 08:46:50 am

Thanks for the great blog, your story is a great one. However, I dont understand the part about extra work and time on meal preparation. I have found the opposite. I read Taubes six weeks ago and have since lost twenty pounds eating hamburgers (I ask for a knife and fork, and I dont eat the bun.) Its fast, easy, convenient and cheap. I also find that making bacon and eggs is real fast and easy.
Also, what is your comlaint with splenda? I use it with no problems.

Reply
Conni
6/9/2012 01:47:57 am

Mike, congratulations on your weight loss. I didn't actually say that meal prep took any longer, I just said that there is a loss of convenience. When you're at home, and you have the right food in the house, meal prep is a breeze. However, the foods we eat tend to be fresh foods rather than boxed or canned, which means a shorter shelf life and more frequent shopping. Restaurants can present a special challenge, it can be difficult to figure out what to eat. Not every restaurant has good options for a low carber.

I'll also say that although you may be having a blast eating hamburgers every single day, I doubt that's going to still be fun after ten straight years of it. This is not a short-term diet, but a lifestyle change, and the more variety you can add to your diet, the better chance you have of sticking with it for the long term.

Splenda does cause some people problems, but the larger issue is the long term health risks. Rats are used to test foods because they process much like humans do. In a test on rats, large amounts of Splenda consumption caused shrunken thymus glands, enlarged livers, and kidney disorders. It's possible that smaller amounts of consumption over a longer period of time could present similar problems. I see no reason to risk it.

Conni

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sathya link
6/26/2012 06:38:10 pm

Such a useful tips provided here actually. All the tips were authentically written. Wanna follow it for sure.

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Anna
11/20/2013 04:18:13 am

It's great that weight lost is happening and you feel great, but it's important to note that cooking with butter, coconut oil, lard etc... Is very damagining to the heart even it may not be showing on your outside body. In North America we are lacking omega 3 and 6's! Please do some more research or talk to a registered dietician(I'm completing my fourth year) more about what fats/oils to include in your diet for a healthier you inside and out.

Reply
Conni
12/20/2014 12:01:58 am

Hi Anna, I just now saw your comment, and I'm sorry to tell you that your school is educating you to believe something that is terribly wrong. Dieticians and nutritionists everywhere are being taught bad information (that fats are harmful) and then are turning around and giving this bad information to people who trust them, to the extreme detriment of their health. It is a travesty that has been going on for decades. The FDA's food triangle is wrong, even now, with its emphasis on whole grains.

We are not lacking in Omega 6, people who eat the standard American diet are consuming far too much of it. I know you won't believe me, but I encourage you to do your own research, outside of the school books, read low carb websites and understand that the science is only now beginning to catch up to the reality. Coconut oil is heart healthy. Olive oil is heart healthy. Unhydrogenated lard is heart healthy. Butter is heart healthy.

A diet that improves cholesterol, clears the skin, reduces weight and improves or eliminates diabetes cannot possibly then be bad for the heart. It is logically unsound.

Good luck to you.

Conni

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