A day in the life....

Everyone seems to think they understand what "low-carb" means.  I've heard all of the myths, some of which are pretty laughable. People think I live on red meat and cheese all day (and I do actually eat way too much of both) but there's more to it than that.  

Clearly, every body is different.  My meal plan came from my doctor after a thorough physical (including an EKG and bloodwork!), so other people may need a different balance.  My goal each day is to eat more than 80 grams of protein, less than 20 grams of net carbs (total carbs minus dietary fiber), as many fiber grams as possible (20 is the goal, but that's difficult with limited carbs), and at least a gallon of water.

I also take a handful of vitamins and fiber supplements every morning.

A normal day's food for me:

Breakfast:  

EAS Protein Shake  110 calories, 17g protein, 3g carbs, 1g fiber 

OR a sausage, egg, and cheese burrito on low-carb tortilla  300 calories, 31g protein, 3g carbs, 9g fiber.

Lunch:

2 oz Cheese,  150 calories, 14g protein, 0g carbs, 0g fiber

2 oz lunch meat, 200 calories, 14g protein, 0g carbs, 0g fiber

1 Low Carb tortilla, 80 calories, 5g protein, 3g carbs, 9g fiber

OR lunch fajitas at a restaurant (I take my own tortillas)

OR chef salad

Dinner:

4 oz sirloin steak, 300 calories, 28g protein, 0g carbs, 0g fiber

1/2 c broccoli, 25 calories, 3g protein, 5g carbs, 0g fiber

I also eat a lot of  bacon, eggs, cheese sticks, peanuts, peanut butter (low-sugar)... and I figured out how to make tortilla "chips" out of cheddar and cream cheese and lasagna "noodles" out of eggs, cream cheese, and mozzarella cheese...  the general theme is no bread, pasta, or potatoes.  Corn and carrots are also high in sugar content, so I avoid them.  And I can only have one fruit serving per day. You start to figure a lot of things out when you get tired of lunch meat and cheese cubes!  My favorite creative low carb recipes are on my pinterest board here: http://pinterest.com/osumae/mary-s-low-carb/.

The common myths that I run into are:

1. Don't you need carbs for energy?  No, you need glucose for energy -- the body can get glucose from sources other than carbs.

2. How does your brain function without carbs? I'm not a doctor, so I don't know -- but my memory and cognitive skills seem to be improving as I lose weight, so it must be okay.

3. You're going to give yourself a heart attack.  Maybe, but I was going to do that on the fast-food diet, too. Just because I eat a lot of protein doesn't mean I don't pay attention to fat content.  You have to use some common sense on a low-carb diet. Deep friend bacon three times a day probably won't help you lose weight. :-)

4. You'll gain it all back when you stop.  You're right - if I went back to the fast food diet, I'd get the same result.  But I'm learning how to moderate my food -- and I can add some things back when I just want to maintain instead of lose.  Sure ,we'd all love to find a way to lose the weight and then keep it off by eating all of our favorite things -- but that isn't possible and it's the first thing you have to accept if you want to be healthy long-term.