"That Guy"

I've turned into That Guy.

I'm the guy who can't just order off the menu. No... I have to make the chef work to accommodate my dietary needs.

This was uncomfortable for me at first.

Now I'm more concerned about being well than I am with some dude being comfortable in his white jacket.

I'm the guy who had the kitchen make him a plate of steamed vegetables to go with his breakfast TWICE because my diet dictates that I eat meat and vegetables at every meal.

Even with a buffet full of food I made those people work to accommodate me.

Because this is my life we're talking about. They'll get over being inconvenienced. I couldn't get over being dead.

So Sunday night, we arrive at Cove Haven – a cute, admittedly run-down, gaudy little couples resort in the Poconos that has my affection if not my undying admiration. It has memories attached to it and I love going there with my honey.

After making good use of the Champagne Tower suite for a couple hours (wink-wink) we headed off to dinner.

Sunday night's meal offering: The Grand Buffet.

It's a cruel setup.

Not the kind of thing you want to encounter on a low-carb diet.

It was very intimidating.

The first thing you pass by is the desert table. Cheesecake, black forest cake, peanut butter pie, ice cream, whipped cream, you name it. Then you see the main buffet.

Making it from one end of the buffet to the other would earn you a First Down.

There were at least four kinds of pasta.

In fact, the pasta was a full quarter of the buffet.

Next to that you had fried squid, fried chicken tenders in a gloppy, carb-laden gravy and enough fried food to warrant having paramedics standing by.

In the midst of all this were the scant few things I could eat and keep with my diet. So here's what I had for dinner:

A couple pieces of chicken, a couple pieces of Tilapia, a piece of roast beef with horseradish and steamed vegetables.

Does it sound like I left hungry?

I had an awesome dinner.

I ate every bite I wanted to eat.

I watched my wife eat bread.

I watched her eat cheesecake.

I didn't care.

I'm getting well.

I won't lie and say I didn't want it because I did.

I just want to live more than I want pasta.

And when you reach that point, you'll be successful.

When you're ready to say NO to sugar, you'll be equipped to kick the carbs too.

It all starts with a decision and that decision will steer you away from the cheesecake.

That decision will add years to your life and it will add quality to those years.

It will also turn you into That Guy (or Girl) and so be it.

I inconvenienced a couple servers.

I made them take the bread off the table.

I made them make me broccoli for breakfast (OK – with breakfast).

And I'm so glad I did.

Because every time I left that dining room and I didn't eat any carbs and I didn't have anything sweet, I won. And I literally stopped and took the time to congratulate myself.

I may not be beautiful yet but when I look in the mirror now, I see a winner.

I see someone worthy of my pride.

I see someone who inspires me.

And I see the pounds disappearing.

More tomorrow...

It Can Be Done

So the Mrs. and I went away for a few days to the resort where we spent our honeymoon 20 years and one month ago. I did not cheat on my diet AT ALL.

It can be done.

I did it.

And I make no apologies for my self-congratulatory attitude. I fucking rule. It's just that simple.

So let's shift gears a little...

I think I need to let you in on a little more of my story.

I started my low carb diet on May 20 and it was a jarring experience.

The journey for me began with hypnotherapy.

Now, I don't want you reading that and instantly deciding that you can't do what I'm doing or have the same results because you have no one to hypnotize you.

You have free will.

You have a brain that can think rationally.

That being the case, you need to understand that I'm losing weight because I decided it was time. I did what I needed to do to get started. You may or may not need similar motivations.

My relationship with food was abusive and ending that relationship was a long time in coming.

I couldn't do that part by myself. Someone needed to come in and guide me.

You may have an easier time of things. I don't know - I don't know YOU. I just know me.

If you live within 100 miles of my hypnotist, I implore you to call her if you're really struggling to make changes.

For everybody else, the best first step is to get off the sugar. For some it's all the intervention they will ever need.

Because it's the sweets and the heavy carbs that your body converts to sugar that keep most people shackled to the wrong kinds of foods and keeps them fat.

I'm not overweight. I'm not obese. I'm fucking fat. It's a horrible adjective, but letting this happen to my body is a horrible thing.

I let this happen. I'm responsible for it. I ALMOST let myself die for my love of food.

Now I'm getting well and dropping a LOT of weight in a very short amount of time. I think that earns me some bragging rights.

Because I'm not quitting. I will have this thing beat in about a year.

So let's talk about sugar some more. It's such a sweet topic.

The very first thing I learned in hypnosis was that anything sweet will set you back. And it's very, very true.

For those of you who have nothing standing in your way besides liking chocolate cake too much - you need to get over it and stop being fat.

Sorry if that offended you.

Actually, I hope it did.

I hope that sentence follows you to bed tonight. Why?

Because if you are capable of doing this without outside intervention and you're still allowing your body to DIE for your love of sweets, I can empathize, but I'll never sympathize.

You look horrible and your body is most assuredly dying. As was mine. I'm still not gorgeous but I'm getting there and so can you.

James Gandolfini was 51. Remember when 51 seemed old?

Not when you're 41 it doesn't. I intend to stick around for more than another decade, thanks.

How about you? Do you love cake more than life? When we die our sweet tooth gets buried with us - just an observation.

Tomorrow I'll tell you how I managed to get a great low-carb meal out of a buffet with a yard of pasta, fried everything and six kinds of bread.

Basically, I've turned into "that guy" and I won't apologize for that either. I'll explain later.

The Psychology of Sugar Science Part 2

Like I said, perception is everything.

Our brains rely on various stimuli to perform certain functions.

The taste of anything sweet tells the brain that it's time to start processing sugar.

The smell of meat on the grill tells our brain to prepare to process protein. It just assumes that if we smell food cooking, we're going to eat it.

This goes way back to the caveman days.

The average troglodyte didn't drive past two McDonald's, a Carl's Jr. and an Outback Steakhouse on his way home from work.

If he smelled food, it was because he killed it and was going to eat it.

All of these things are in our DNA.

The information stores that have accumulated over time are incredible.

Smells trigger a physical response.

This response can be gastral, endocrine, respiratory (you take deep breaths of air that smells good, right?) they can even be pulmonary or sexual - just ask any guy who ever smelled Chanel No. 5 on the nape of a pretty girl's neck.

Taste also triggers a physical response.

Did you know that different parts of the tongue register different flavors?

Did you also know that these parts are pretty tiny and that most of your tongue can't taste anything at all?

Why is our perception of sweet concentrated into such a tiny space?

Well, if you've ever had a second hunk of chocolate cake you should know the answer to that question.

Imagine what kind of insatiable drive we would have to eat and eat and eat if our entire tongue reacted to everything we tasted.

(I'm going to get into a little of my spiritual beliefs here and I hope you will take the information as my opinion and maintain your own)

I don't think that we're like this by accident. I truly believe that the one great force in this universe from which everything on this planet and in the cosmos springs designed us this way for a reason.

It knew that with our superior intelligence we would not approach things like other mammals do.

We would approach sleep differently.

We would approach shelter differently.

We would approach sex differently.

We would approach food differently.

And these bodies would react favorably to positives and unfavorably to negatives.

And these bodies would then drag our emotions along for the ride.

Ever notice how "comfort food" is some of the worst stuff you could possibly eat?

Mac and cheese.

Pizza.

Pasta.

All things sweet and made from flour.

Bread and butter.

And over time, if we aren't careful, we develop a RELATIONSHIP with the food.

Because we're all about relationships.

These bodies know how small they are in this universe so they look for things to not only identify with, but also BOND with.

So we bond with sugar because it's comforting. It makes us feel good for a moment at a time.

There are better things to bond with.

Try another person.

Try a hobby.

Try something that isn't going to turn around and kill you because the relationship is just one-sided.

Try something better. 

You are capable. You are powerful. Your free will is your most effective weapon.

More on that tomorrow...

The Psychology of Sugar Science Part 1

Scientifically speaking, the stuff I'm talking about shouldn't work, but it does.

I happened upon this article just a few minutes ago.

The things that companies do to lure you in and get you addicted to their garbage is DASTARDLY.

Ever read Fast Food Nation?

Most of what you taste in junk food originates in a lab in New Jersey.

New Jersey.

(not that I have anything against Jersey or anything... it's just.... yeah... come on now)

Read the book, by the way. Don't watch the movie. The movie is ridiculous.

Now, I've known for ages that companies have been enhancing the flavors of their products in VERY unnatural ways for a long time, but even I will admit that i didn't know corn flakes were one of them.

Corn flakes are a decent source of grain, but they're also carb central and on a low carb diet you'd best steer clear. If you need a better reason, try this:

"Even if something doesn't taste "sweet," it can still be packed with chemicals that your body will immediately turn into sugar. And taking that junk out makes everything taste [horrible] to us, because our taste buds have been numbed with salt and sugar our entire lives. One journalist described the taste of sugar- and salt-free Kellogg's cornflakes as like trying to eat his own fillings -- and that's cornflakes, the kind of food that seems like it has barely any sugar to begin with."

Now, if you didn't read the entire article yet, please do. I'm going to pick out a few tidbits but you really should read it all.

"While nobody ever binges on boiled carrots and Brussels sprouts, potato chips are described as the perfect addictive food -- essentially the nutritional equivalent of a speedball. Why? Because they were deliberately designed that way.

When you first pop a chip into your mouth, the coating of salt and fat light up the brain's pleasure centers like a Christmas tree. The starch in the potato causes the same glucose spike as sugar, but is absorbed into the bloodstream much more quickly. That spike then immediately dips, making you want another potato chip. You can just keep eating them, and because there's no real substance to them, your stomach never gets full."

Well now, isn't THAT interesting! 

They know what they're doing.

They know it's making us sick. 

They know that all they're doing is pumping more SUGAR into us by filling us up with carbs. 

They know they're causing Diabetes, a dozen different heart conditions and obesity.

when do we stop telling these companies that it's OK to kill us? 

When do we tell them to STOP killing our children?

It begins with a choice: a choice to put aside the fatty, greasy sludge that's killing us and start eating REAL FOOD. 

And the first step is a good detox program. 

Why do I harp on this so much? 

Because "Eighty percent of food sold in America has processed sugar, and processed sugar has 56 different names."

It's a losing battle without the proper defensive strategy. Ditch the sugar and you ditch 80% of what is holding you back from a successful low carb diet. It's that simple. 

More tomorrow...

The REAL Enemy in Sugar

Did you know that there is as much sugar in a lemon as there is in an orange? There's as much sugar in a lime as there is in about half of a pineapple.

Now, I advocate and encourage using lime and lemon to flavor teas, seltzers and even water to keep a little variety in a low carb diet plan, but I would never EVER tell you to use pineapple juice.

Why not? This is pretty cool. I just discovered this recently.

Think about how you react to the taste of a lemon.

If you peeled a lemon like it was an orange, separated the sections and just ate a section of lemon, the reaction would be strong and it would be immediate.

And that reaction is NOT, "Wow! This tastes great!" You would need about a tablespoon of sugar to go with that lemon to make it tolerable.

And yet there's plenty of sugar in it.

Loads.

Enough to spike your blood sugar f you're diabetic.

Enough to sweeten about 4 ounces of Coke.

Pay attention to this because understanding this is key to maintaining a low carb diet.

But a lemon usually won't spike your blood sugar (should you be bold enough to eat one whole).

Why not? Sugar is sugar, right?

Well... yes and no.

Your body will always convert sugar into starch, but, depending on how you introduce it, the process is a little different.

If your palate detects something sweet, your body prepares to process the sugar.

Remember what I said about diet soda? This is why it's so important to stay away from that stuff.

However, if all it tastes is this unpleasant, sharp acidy flavor, it DELAYS the process and you will flush a HUGE percentage of that sugar before it has a chance to make it into your bloodstream.

Your body chemistry adjusts to either allow it to pass into the intestine and get absorbed into the bloodstream (sweet) or break it down in your stomach (acidy).

Perception is everything.

That's why you get hungry after a diet soda, but that's also why the sugar in a lemon is generally safe.

Now, add sugar and water to that lemon juice and now you're bombarding your body from two different angles.

Now, your body is going to recognize both the table sugar AND the natural sugar in the fruit.

Now you're screwed.

So what is the real enemy? It's not the sugar. It's the sweetness. Less sweet, less absorption.

All the more reason why you should just steer clear of it all together.

More tomorrow...

Want to get your mind off sugary snacks? Read something!

How Sweet it Isn't

Can you imagine stopping at 7-11 or Cumberland Farms or Turkey Hill or Wawa or [insert convenience store chain name here] every single day to buy the biggest, baddest Mountain Dew you can find?

That was me. And I was doing it TWICE a day. 

See, I was working two jobs, both of which involved more sitting on my ass than anything but I was putting in a LOT of hours. 

Like, 12, 14 or 16 hours every day including Saturday. 

To say that I was burning the candle at both ends would be an understatement. 

Basically I was using sugar and caffeine to keep going. Sometimes I would make an energy boilermaker by dropping a 5-Hour Energy (extra strength) into my Mountain Dew. 

Sometimes I would mix Dew with Redbull.

I'm going to go off on a tangent for a second and tell you a thing or two about Red Bull. 

I used to teach Driver's Ed so I was a round a LOT of teenagers. 

I met at least five boys who got kidney stones before the age of 17 and all of them were avid Red Bull drinkers. 

Does Red Bull cause kidney stones? There's no clinical evidence but the anecdotal evidence speaks for itself.

And it tastes dog nasty until you add some vodka. Even then it doesn't taste that great.

So there I was living a practically zombified existence and never EVER feeling totally awake. I gained 50 pounds as a Driver's Ed instructor because all I was doing was sitting, for sometimes 10 hours a day. 

Sometimes more. 

But dammit if I didn't stop to grab that Mountain Dew. 

So my body reacted to this, thankfully not with Diabetes. 

I still don't know how I've dodged that bullet.

But even though I shook that habit ages ago the sugar addiction was still alive and well. 

Ever stop at the convenience store just to get a piece of cake? 

Ever roll through the drive-thru and only order dessert? 

Ever made a donut run because you just couldn't shake the craving?

Once your body gets used to being pumped full of sugar and carbs, those are the ONLY things that will satisfy it. 

And we understand that sugar and carbs are synonymous, right?

It's an addiction, plain and simple. 

And that's why you need to detox. 

This is not entirely our fault. We're bombarded with this crap all the time. 

And without getting off the junk first, no diet will work well for us. 

All diets work, don't get me wrong....

But if the cravings outweigh the desire to stay on the diet, you're screwed.

I was 365 pounds when I started on my low carb diet. 

Without getting off the sugar I would NEVER have stayed on it. 

That's the key. 

Ditch the sugar, you ditch a CRAPLOAD of carbs. 

Ditch the sugar and you stop craving carbs. 

You will get the right amounts of carbs from your veggies.

Your body doesn't NEED more than that. 

But unless you commit to breaking your sugar habit, your chances of success are really slim. 

More on that later...

Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing

You know what I'm looking forward to more than almost anything when I can finally eat what I want again?

I want a coke.

A real, sugary, ice cold delicious Coca Cola Classic.

Why? Because unsweetened tea, coffee and plain water are boring.

"So why not just have a Diet Coke? There are no calories."

Well, no, there aren't.

But your body thinks there are.

And when your body doesn't get what it thinks it's going to it starts demanding it.

Think about it: have you ever had a diet soda and then became inexplicably RAVENOUSLY hungry a little while later?

There's a reason for that.

When your body expects to receive certain nutrients and doesn't get them it starts to DEMAND them.

Whenever you taste something sweet, your body prepares to process sugar. When it doesn't get any, it has your brain tell you you're hungry so you'll eat something, preferably carbohydrates or sugar, so it can finish what YOU started.

So Diet Coke doesn't have any calories, but it all but forces you to consume some to make up for what it lacks.

This is why sugar detoxing is so important and why I'm so adamant about getting past these kinds of cravings as part of a successful low carb diet.

Diet sodas are HORRIBLE for you. They're WAY worse than regular sodas. At least a real soda delivers what it promises.

Your body may stay thirsty from all the sodium, but it won't demand food to validate the sweetness.

So, am I telling you to drink soda? Hardly.

I'm just saying that this is how your body works. You can't fool it. The solution isn't drinking soda. It's figuring out how to eliminate the sugar.

And that is why you need to try The 21 Day Sugar Detox.

It will get you off the sugary sodas and pave the way for a successful low carb diet.

I'll have more to say about the whole soda thing next time... and believe me: I have NOTHING good to say about it.

Here's a little preview: there was a time in my life when I drank TWO THIRTY-TWO OUNCE MOUNTAIN DEWS every. single. day.

And I still don't have diabetes. Weird. Good, but weird...

BOOOORING! Spicing Up Low Carb Meals

No doubt about it - if you're doing the low carb thing you're going to get bored, especially if you're eating on a budget. You can only eat so much chicken and hamburger before it starts getting old.

And THAT is when people start to fail.

Now, please bear in mind that I'm not talking about Atkins or any other organized diet plan. I have a secret weapon that has helped me TREMENDOUSLY on this journey, but even if I told you wat it is you probably wouldn't have access to it.

This is why I'm teaching you how to do this the old fashioned way and letting you in on things I'm discovering on the way.

What some people don't understand about low carb eating is that there are fewer taboos than they realize.

Yes, you can have a little mayo in small amounts. Yes to ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, you name it. Yes these things have some carbs but understand these two things:

• You're not going to eat a tablespoon of mayo, especially if you're not slathering it on bread. Ditto any other condiment.

• It's called LOW carb, not NO carb.

It is UNHEALTHY to eliminate any specific nutrient from your diet. The thing about carbs is that your body doesn't need them all the time and it certainly doesn't need them in the quantities that people consume them. Not by a longshot.

In my last post, I told you about The 21 Day Sugar Detox. During this period, you should only be eating what Diane says to eat. This will prepare you for a long stretch of low carb eating. If you haven't done this program, do it. It's the closest thing I've found to what I did starting out and it paved the way.

If you're already over that hurdle, now it's time to make sure that your low carb meals are interesting and non repetitive.

First off, if you're planning on eating chicken every day you will eventually stop losing no matter how disciplined you are. Your metabolism needs new challenges if it's going to keep using those fat stores effectively.

Second, if everything tastes the same after a while the boredom WILL win out.  This is why you need some good recipes and meal plans. These five books will help you tremendously when it comes to planning low carb meals. They will help you plan a variety of meals and many of them are extremely budget-conscious: chicken, pork, beef, etc. They even show you haw you can safely integrate some grains while maintaining your low carb eating regimen. Just one word on that: I would definitely wait on re-introducing bread until you are within about 20 pounds of your goal. That leaves you with four books to work with right now and that, you will see, is PLENTY.

Thanks for reading and good luck. See you next time!

Increasing Your Odds of Success on a Low Carb Diet Part 1: Sugar Detox

The thought of "sugar withdrawal" may seem like nothing more than an excuse for people with a sweet tooth (or who simply refuse to give up sugar) to indulge in sweets-eating. But nutritionists and scientists are discovering that when the body is accustomed to high levels of sugar consumption, it can respond to sugar deprivation with the same kind withdrawal symptoms experienced by a drug abuser. The symptoms of sugar withdrawal can, in fact, be very painful and debilitating.

If you're conscious of your sugar intake, and are attempting to limit the amount of sugar in your diet, or eliminate it altogether, be aware of the possibility of experiencing sugar withdrawal symptoms. Understanding the symptoms, and preparing to deal with sugar withdrawal, can help you permanently reduce your sugar intake.

Taper off your sugar intake over several weeks. One of the most common problems that many sugar addicts make is attempting to eliminate sugar from their diet all at once. This method often results in failure in just a few days.

• A body that is accustomed to receiving sugar on a daily basis cannot quickly adjust to the elimination of sugar, which has served as an energy source.
• Be aware that if you attempt to quit eating sugar all at once, you'll likely experience profound and severe withdrawal symptoms. The withdrawal symptoms may manifest themselves in severe and intense cravings for sugary foods, or they may include more serious conditions such as headaches or nausea.
• By gradually reducing your sugar intake over several weeks, you can greatly reduce the severity of these sorts of sugar withdrawal symptoms.

(source: http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Through-Sugar-Withdrawal)

The good news is that there is help. This program is one of the most comprehensive and practical ones out there and it will have you off sugar in just three weeks (which is of utmost importance if you intend to low carb). After getting over that hurdle, the idea of limiting your diet to just meat and vegetables should become easier. You will start to lose fat AND gain muscle. Best of all, you will start feeling better IMMEDIATELY. 

Yes, it's difficult. There's no way past that. But take it from someone who mere weeks ago couldn't even get up off his couch: it's totally worth it, difficulty and all. 

Click here to learn more. Read the entire page. See if what Diane has to say makes sense. You will soon be on your way to the best health of your life and you will be setting yourself up for success on your low carb diet!

What is a low carb diet? It's a diet that whose foundation is meats and vegetables with low amounts of grains, sugars and other sources of carbohydrates.