Low-carbing it

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Two months ago K. and I joined the craze of eating low-carb foods. He had noticed three people losing a lot of weight and out of curiosity asked them how they were accomplishing the weight loss. All three were on a low-carb diet. K. told me about it and since this was the first time in over twenty years that he wanted to diet, I said, let's do it.

I went online and searched for low-carb diet plans and let me tell you the internet highway is full of low-carb sites. What I decided after all the reading is that the "basic" low-carb diet is mainly bitter green veggies, turkey and water. You can not have anything white except cauliflower and no form of sugar. You eat all you want of turkey and green vegetables; they have 0 carbs. Pig skins are the allowed crunchy snack unless you want more veggies; they have 0 carbs. You can eat all you want of these three food groups as long as you drink 64 ounces of water daily plus another 8 ounces for every 25 pounds of weight you want to lose. So you stay on the toilet as all you consumed goes right out of you, ergo, their goes your weight!

For both of us, the hardest part was all that water. Normally, K. doesn't drink water. I drink water, I love water, but I couldn't drink that much water. I don't drink 64 ounces of any kind of liquid in one day. K. doesn't like vegetables; especially the green leafy kind, but he did try. I love all veggies so I handled that part very well. K. doesn't like turkey so we decided to eat different meats as most meats are 0 carbs. Now for the pig skins; they were a little dry but I washed them down with some of that water I had to drink. K. didn't go for them neither. He was running out of low-carb options. After a few days I was in hog's heaven with the pig skins. They became the one thing that helped me make it through the day. I really didn't get hungry; but my taste buds were getting very unhappy.

K. went back to drinking cokes and wanting dessert after supper. Eventually he started asking for mashed potatoes and gravy and told me to keep the vegetables off his plate. I stayed with the low-carb eating and began to feel sluggish. In the beginning I lost inches in my waist and felt great. I was telling everyone about the low-carb diet; making copies of the diet plan and handing them out. The initial weight loss was awesome. You can lose 10 lbs. or more the first two weeks. Then I began hearing things that were not great about the plan. I heard that people, like me, with high blood pressure should not be on this diet. Meat may be 0 carbs but it is high in fat and cholesterol. Everything except the vegetables that is allowed for low-carb eating, like meat, cheese, eggs, nuts, are high in fat and cholesterol. But the plan evens says that eating low carb can correct high cholesterol.

I was eating low-fat cheese in place of meat for some meals. I was using egg beaters in place of eggs. Also I would add nuts to my salad once in a while for the protein. And the pig skins, I was eating a lot of pig skins daily. Everything was high in fat and cholesterol. I noticed that my clothes were getting tight and I began to feel heavy. I had reached the point of not having the strength to do anything. I thought it was mental exhaustion. One morning I couldn't find any comfortable clothes to put on. I felt swollen. I had to go to the store and buy bigger clothes. I don't have weight scales at home so I weighed at the store. I had gained 8 pounds eating low-carb foods!!! I think it must have been all those pig skins because that is what I ate the most.

I am still eating low carb but I have made a lot of adjustments for my blood pressure and lifestyle. I am a sedentary person although I do exercise a little bit. I am back to counting calories and not eating all I want. I am reading labels again for fat and cholesterol. I have lost a few pounds already but I have a long way to go to get back to the weight I was two months ago. But I am heading in that direction.