This Blog Has Moved!

You can now find this blog at its new address www.lowcarbin4life.blogspot.com

See you there!

Paul

Quickie Update & Tuesday's Menu

Here's a quick update on where I am:

I weighed in at 159 lbs this morning. What I'm noticing is that my weight fluctuates between 158 and 161 from day-to-day. I actually had a huge cheat day on Saturday...probably the biggest one I've had since I started eating low-carb...so I thought my weight would spike upwards for a few days afterwards...but for whatever reason, that didn't happen. I'm very happy about that...but I'm certainly not going to use that as an excuse to cheat more often! On average I cheat once every few months. Honestly I don't feel the need to cheat because the food I'm eating every day is so rich and satisfying. For example - here's yesterday's yummy menu:

B - 2 eggs fried in olive oil, 2 sausage patties

L - 6oz. cheese steak, low-carb ketchup, broccoli

D - 2 cheeseburger patties, pickles, mayo, casaer salad

In the interest of total disclosure - Saturday's cheat day involved butterfly fries at Bayfest, cake at my friend Jim's wedding, and chips and dip with my friends while we watched the NFL draft. Hey, if I'm cheating...I'm CHEATING!

A Yummy Sunday

I haven't logged what I've eaten very often since I hit my goal weight back in August - but here's what I had today:

B - macadamia nuts (not the best breakfast...but I was short on time before church!

L - chicken wings, bleu cheese dressing - Grilled broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, peppers & onions topped with provolone cheese

D - crab cake with lemon juice and spicy mustard - cheeseburger with garlic mayo, broccoli, mashed cauliflower

S - strawberries

We had dinner at Applebee's tonight and if you haven't been to an Applebee's in a while, you should give them another shot. They've definitely improved their cuisine over the last few years - and it seems that a lot of their menu is very low-carb friendly. They are also very liberal allowing substitutions. Broccoli instead of fries? No problem. Mashed Caulifower instead of potatoes? You bet! We'll definitely be back soon.

Do You Know Why Your Body Gets Fat? Does Your Doctor?

First off - Thanks to everyone who's e-mailed me here at my blog! Quickly, here are answers to some of the more commonly asked questions I get:

-I lost 55 pounds simply by cutting my carbohydrate intake
-It took 8 months
-I hit my weight loss goal back in August and I've been between 155 and 160 pounds since!
-No...I didn't excercise
-I went from a size 42/44 waist to a size 32/34 waist
-I went from a size XXL shirt to a size M shirt
-No...I don't miss bread, sugar, or starches...I'm too busy enjoying eating fat & protein!

The longer I continue to live a low-carb lifestyle, the more I learn about what is and isn't true regarding nutrition. It's remarkable how misguided the dietary advice most of us have received all our lives really is. The most amazing thing to me - and this comes directly from reading Gary Taubes' book Good Calories/Bad Calories - is that most of what we've been told about how to eat is contradictory to what most of the SCIENCE tells us.

For example, if we're having a discussion about why we get fat, don't you think it would make sense to talk about the hormone in our bodies that regulates the storage of fat? For some reason most of us have never been told that INSULIN regulates the storage of fat in the body. Knowing that, wouldn't you want to make sure you're avoiding foods that make your insulin levels go up? Well guess what makes insulin levels go through the roof - CARBOHYDRATES! Simply put...Carbohydrates regulate insulin levels...Insulin levels regulate the storage of body fat. Cut the carbs and you'll cut your body fat! Dietary fat doesn't make us fat. Carbohydrates and sugar make us fat!

Here's a recent interview with Gary Taubes from ABC's NightLine

Ask your doctor if he/she can tell you what triggers calories to be stored as fat in the body. If they can't tell you...why would you take dietary advice from them? Find a new doctor! If they DO know that Carbs trigger insulin which triggers the storage of body fat, then ask them why so many docs prescribe a high carb diet for people trying to lose weight! If nothing else, it'll be fun to watch your doctor squirm a little. :-)

Why Is Nobody Asking "Why"?

It was widely reported today that music legend (and my all-time favorite) Paul McCartney recently underwent a coronary angioplasty after complaining of "not feeling well". In case you don't know, a coronary angioplasty is a surgical procedure that opens up clogged arteries. It's well known that Sir Paul is a staunch vegan and has been vegetarian for many years. This begs the question...why were his arteries clogged? Maybe there's a history of heart disease in his family. Maybe the rock & roll lifestyle he lived in the 60s finally caught up to him. Or maybe the vegetarian way of eating - which is void of animal protein and animal fats - but doesn't limit sugar, processed food, or carbohydrates - actually contributes to heart disease!

More and more research is showing that diets high in carbohydrates (like Sir Paul's may have been) tend to result in low HDL (good cholesterol), small LDL particles (which is very bad) and high triglycerides - all very bad signs that increase the possiblilty for clogged arteries. What's the best way to RAISE your HDL? Eating animal fat! What's the best way to change your LDL particle size from the small dangerous kind to the big fluffy kind? Eating less carbohydrates! What's the best way to lower your triglycerides? Eating less carbohydrates!

Sir Paul is reportedly recovering nicely from his procedure - and even performed live on New Years Eve!

I'll Have A Sharp Italian!

I've got a brand new favorite place to get a low-carb indulgence! PRIMO HOAGIES is here in South Jersey, and I couldn't be happier about it! Of course I can't eat the bread as part of my low-carb lifestyle, but Primo offers all their sandwiches as low-carb WRAPS as well! This is fantastic news for low-carbers like me who love their hoagies! The actual wrap itself has 24 carbs...but subtract the whopping 14 grams of fiber and it's only got 10 net carbs!

My favorite sub has always been the Italian - and to my taste buds, Primo has the best one! I order the "Sharp Italian" wrap pretty much every time I'm in there. I keep telling myself I'll try some of their other wraps but it's hard to NOT order something that you already know you love! Anyway, the Sharp Italian consists of the finest Thumann's Italian meats - prosciutto, sweet capacola & genoa salami - plus sharp provolone cheese - and lettuce, tomato, and maybe the best onions I've ever tasted! Obviously, eating processed meats all the time wouldn't be healthy for ANYONE regardless of what kind diet they follow - but for a once in a while treat, you can't beat the taste of a Primo wrap! I frequent the Primo Hoagies on Fire Rd. in EHT, but you can see a full list of all their locations RIGHT HERE!

Mmmmmmm......Saturated Fat !

One of the criticisms I hear the most when I tell people I follow a low-carb diet is, "all that saturated fat is going to kill you"...or some variation on that theme. It's interesting, more and more studies are being released that show that not only is saturated fat NOT bad for your heart health (in tandem with a reduction in carbohydrates), but it's actually GOOD for your heart health. It doesn't seem to make sense though right? How can eating saturated fats IMPROVE your cholesterol numbers? Haven't we been told for the better part of 30 years that saturated fat causes heart disease?

Check the latest research coming out of Harvard University that shows that people who ate the most saturated fat had the LEAST amount of plaque in their arteries. See the latest research from Stanford University that shows that women on the "fatty" Atkins diet had lower cholesterol and blood pressure readings than those following a low-fat, low-calorie diet.

For years now, Americans have been lowering their saturated fat intake (at the recomendation of the American Heart Association)...and obesity rates and heart disease rates continue to climb! It appears that the reality on saturated fat is that it RAISES HDL cholesterol (the good kind). In some cases, with some kinds of saturated fat, it can also raise you LDL cholesterol (the bad kind)...but not as much as it raises your HDL. In other words, eating saturated fat is a net gain for your heart health.

Here's an interest article from Men's Health magazine that goes into much more detail!