I hate to exercise

by | Jan 28, 2013 | Exercise, Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Here is a post over at lowcarber forum where I have commented on about exercise

 

From BlueDress:

So… I hate to exercise. I hate to feel hot. I hate having sweat pouring down my face BUT I want to feel fit & healthy. I want the whole package and I’m going to give it a solid go. I’m going at my pace. The goal is to improve my fitness without injury. I’m working with a bad back and weak, left leg that I inherited after a long episode with sciatica. Inever want to go back to that so safety is my first priority. 

 

My comment:

Hi BlueDress,

Yes I know exactly where you’re coming from. That’s the part about exercise I never really liked, feeling hot, sweaty and uncomfortable. But the great thing about doing exercise is that it gradually gets easier as you’re finding out and does we get fitter the exercise we do becomes easier therefore less hot and less sweaty.

Years ago when I used to do weight training when I first started, almost by the end of the first exercise I felt like I was melting yet towards my affair with that type of exercise I went low carb and within a very short period I was doing the same type of exercises with much heavier weights and a much faster pace and many times wouldn’t even break out into a sweat.

So you just keep going doing what you’re doing, knowing that’s it doing you good and the only pace that matters is yours.

Well done you!

Mark

Are avocados good for me?

by | Jan 25, 2013 | Food Choices, Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Here is another of my comments on a post about avocados at Jimmy Moore’s

 

Jimmy Moore wrote:

Are avocados good for me?: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/heal…cle7524624 ~ Do we REALLY have to ask this question about a real food like avocados? Unfortunately in this fat-phobic culture we live in these days, yes we do and it’s indicative of the mountain of work that’s still in front of us to convince people that dietary fat (especially from whole food sources) is NOT the problem. I credit the registered dietitian for answering this question well except for her dig at butter and promotion of “whole grain toast” towards the end. Is there a mandate that fat be demonized and grains heralded in the RD manual or what?

 

My comment:

I absolutely love avocados. Many years ago I was staying in a small chalet in the garden of a friend’s house. The gardener has planted something like 35 years beforehand and all around the chalet there were 12 different varieties of avocado, each one fruiting to maturity at a different time of the year so you virtually have avocados all year round.

Everyday for breakfast along with cottage cheese we used to have an avocado salad that was simply the pulp of 2 fresh avocados cut into small cubes, mixed in with finely chopped onion and dressed with a little lemon juice, salt and pepper. The secret was to leave it for about 20 minutes so all the flavors exchange before you eat it. It was absolutely delicious in fact thinking about it now makes me want to go and make something just like that.

Incidentally the owner of that garden lived well into his 90s and strangely enough he had avocados virtually every day.

Definitely a food for thought.

Mark

I’m back?!?!

by | Jan 25, 2013 | Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Here is a post at lowcarber.org where I have commented on about low carb diet

 

Blackstone said:

After a long and counterproductive leave of absence, I am back! Day 2 to be precise. I just finished a large break fast of 3 scrambled eggs w, cheese, sour cream and salsa. I was feeling very hungry this morning. Probably because I am so bloated and use to eating carbs until they’re coming out my ears. Last time I weighed myself I was at a devastating 240. That is 3 pounds higher than my highest ever point. I am not going to weigh myself for a few days. Just too hard. I am just glad I made it through day 1. Had a nightmare that I was chowing down on pasta w/alfredo sauce and thought “oh well, I start tomorrow” which I have been saying for about 4 months now. I was so relieved to wake up this morning to realized it was just a dream. 

I’m trying to be truthful with myself. I have a hard time switching gears from making this a life style vs. a diet. I’ve seen time and time again people jump on and off this diet…only to come crawling back after they went astray and gained back all their weight and then some. I really am not able to say “I’ll just have one piece of bread, a handful of chips, etc” I am truly addicted to these things. I can’t feel deprived because that doesn’t work for me. What does work for me is to research and find tons of wonderful food that my body can deal with. 

I’m so uncomfortable with my size…none of my clothes fit and I don’t even attempt to make an effort anymore. The sweats have got to go! And sick of the carb/sugar hangover that has been lingering over my head for far too long. So here’s to yet another go…another start..another chance! Cheers!!

 

My response:

It seems for most of us our low carb journey is a longer very narrow path that is also easy to slide off of.

I found the best way for me to avoid temptation is not to bring it into the house. As I’m going around the store, I’m looking at things that are oh so tempting and saying to myself “No I won’t buy that, it won’t be good for me” and I’ll save 195 or whatever the price happens to be.  It seems in the store that when temptation has a price it seems much easier to resist.

Does anyone else have any good tips for avoiding temptation?

Cheers,

Mark

Back at it need help?!

by | Jan 24, 2013 | Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Another post about low carb diet at forum.lowcarber.org where I have commented on

 

Krista said:

Hello all!
So I was convinced that it was so unhealthy to do low carb about a yeat ago that I decided to conform and switch it up to about a 100g a day carbs, that was a mistake because I ended up gaining 30 lbs in no time… So now I have to start all over again. I never really followed a certain diet, but I guess it was pretty close to atkins, My goal is to lose 30lbs, but is it possible that I cant to do LC again? That it wont work for me any more? Because I have have not lost any weight, i actually gained a coulpe lbs in my first 2 weeks, and I havent felt the flu like symptons that I had the first time around….
Thanks!

 

My response:

Hi Krista! Yes a warm welcome to you as well.

It is entirely possible that you can do low carb again and succeed. However the fact that you’ve gained a couple of pounds over the last couple of weeks does make me think that perhaps  you haven’t found the best low carb system for you.

I would suggest that you follow the Atkins low carb protocols but to the letter, don’t be tempted to start to play around with them until you’ve proven that they work for you as they have done for so many thousands and thousands of other people.

As Lindsay061 has said, keep in touch; find your recipes, but most of all get excited about the new you that you’ll see in the mirror in just a few months’ time. Get excited about the days full of energy, being able to do the things that you so long to do but maybe put off for a reason or another. Get excited about the comments people are going to make on how good you look and how happy you seem having got your life and body in order. But most of all get excited because you deserve this. Find yourself a great reason; a great WHY you want to be fit and healthy and that too will help carry you through to get the body that you want.

Hope that helps,

Mark

The Best Diet to Avoid Diabetes

by | Jan 24, 2013 | Diabetes, Diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Below is another one of my comments on a post at Jimmy Moore’s about diabetes 

 

Jimmy Moore wrote:

The Best Diet to Avoid Diabetes: http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/index.p…om_content ~ People say to just ignore media comparisons of the best diets for this and that. But THIS is precisely why the annual U.S. News & World Report diet rankings are so detrimental. The echo effect that takes place because of diets like DASH (cutting most salt from your diet) is enormous. The problem is those rankings are predicated on the low-fat, high-carb dogma that has gotten us MORE obesity, diabetes and heart disease than we’ve ever had before. Don’t fall for the foolish information that is repeated ad nauseam by the willing accomplices in the health media.

 

My opinion:

I’m not diabetic but I think I probably would be if I follow this diet. To my mind it seems that this diet is far more likely to cause diabetes than it is to help someone suffering with diabetes to bring their condition under control.

Mark

How often do you test for ketosis?

by | Jan 24, 2013 | Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Here is another post at forum.lowcarber.org that I have commented on about ketosis

 

Mintaka said:

I am excited. I got a reading of 80 mg/dL, which is one box shy of the deepest purple!

History: My first try at Atkins was in late 2011/2012. I lost 15 lbs and then for one reason or another went back to carbohydrates and gained the weight back. I never got into ketosis, and only registered mild ketosis.

This is my second try at Atkins and during induction I only lost about 4 lbs, which indicated I was metabolically resistant to losing weight. I only got into mild ketosis on Induction this time too. 

What changed it all was the Fat Fast! I have been doing the Fat Fast (Fat Fest!) for 10 days, and have been going into purple ketosis. I hope it translates into weight loss!

How often do members test for ketosis?

 

My reply:

Hi Mintaka,

You know I’m excited for you as well. You just keep doing what you need to do in order to stay motivated and if you’re keeping the carbs low then the rest will generally look after itself.

I noticed you mention a lot of times in your posts that you are weighing yourself and that you’ve lost 4 lbs in 10 days, well done for that!

I also noticed that you have been stucked at the same weight for weeks and weeks on end in the past. One thing I would therefore suggest is that you don’t just rely on measuring your weight but you also measure your body using a tape measure as we can’t forget that whilst you may be losing fat you might be actually be gaining muscle but of course the scales just don’t know the difference.

In order to measure yourself properly, as a bare minimum you should measure around your neck, around your bust, around your waist, around your hips and around both thighs. You only need to do that once every seven days in that way you can see exactly where the weight or the fat rather is going from and as those inches slowly go down, you’ll have even more to rejoice over and be motivated by.

Hope that helps,

Mark