The "Fake Food" Trap

As part of my weight loss journey, Julie Kibe has stressed the importance of not consuming what she calls "fake food."

It's not difficult to gauge what this entails.

If you are low-carb dieting and are congratulating yourself on your superior sense of restraint and yet don't seem to be losing weight as fast as you could or feel you should, let me ask you a few questions.

1. How many meals per week do you prepare from scratch? The simple fact of the matter is that if you know what's going into what you're eating, chances are you will have a better gauge of how much protein-to-carb content there is in your food.

2. How often do you eat at restaurants? The best way to combat issues with fake food is to select an entree that you can use to identify the protein source. A strip steak is usually a good bet. Chopped steak? It all depends on how much actual beef is in it. Roasted chicken is usually a better bet than chicken breast filet. Ask if it's fresh or pre-packaged and pre-portioned. The latter means fillers and preservatives. It should look like it came off a chicken, not a conveyor.

3. Seriously, do you even KNOW what you're putting in your mouth half the time? Most people are aware that prepared ground beef or pork products like meat loaf, meat balls, pre-formed sausages (not in natural casing), etc. all incorporate soy as a filler. The soy mimics the texture of the meat so well that it is virtually undetectable.

Now, some programs (like mine) discourage reading labels. However, if you haven't been hypnotized and programmed to eat certain foods a certain way it might not be a bad idea to know what's in your food before you eat it.

And, sorry Julie, I still read labels.

The reason for this is simple: my diet calls for meat and vegetables. Period. Not meat, soy fillers, high percentages of bread, cheese and preservatives like you find in most italian-style formed meat products like meatloaf and meatballs. And while I've been told not to read labels, I've also been told not to eat soy or "fake food."

So how do I follow both of these rules?

The answer is simple: I can't. No one can.

That's where it becomes necessary to err on the side of greatest benefit as opposed to that of greatest convenience.

I would rather be informed and thin than be blissfully unaware and fat. It's just that simple.

So, until someone can show me an effective way to keep both rules, I have to break one of them in order to adhere to the other.

So I choose to know what I'm eating.

Now for a few ways you can do things right and keep the pounds disappearing.

(and just so you can be convinced that I know what I'm doing, I've lost seven inches off my waist in under five months, I've gone down two full casual shirt sizes, THREE dress shirt sizes, and everything from my feet to my fingers to my face is shrinking AND IT ISN'T STOPPING... I estimate my weight loss at this point to be somewhere between 85 and 110 pounds, give or take)

1. Eat carbs correctly. Wait, what? Eat carbs? Well, yes. Just understand that there is a right way and a wrong way to incorporate them. Bread and starch that is incorporated into a protein will pass much easier than say... battered fish. Fish good, batter bad. And don't think you can just remove the batter and be done with it That slick, gluten-laced, carb-saturated layer that remains will do every bit as much damage as the batter itself. Don't give it a chance to get absorbed. Hide it (in SMALL AMOUNTS) in your protein - not WITH it, IN it. This leads nicely into my next point...

2. It's called LOW carb, not NO carb. It isn't always a bad idea to incorporate a little breadcrumb into meatloaf or meatballs. In fact, Julie recommends doing so in small amounts. Don't think you can't have steak sauce or ketchup or mayo. Just use them responsibly. Ditto with the dairy. Yes, there are carbs in milk. There is also calcium and vitamin D and other things your body needs so use it responsibly as well. Put a little cheese in your chili, but just a LITTLE. If they forget to leave the cheese off your burger at Dead Robin, give yourself a treat and watch the fat for the rest of the day.

3. Enjoy yourself. If you obsess too much over what you can't have you could trick yourself into a plateau or even start gaining. Be happy with your diet. Enjoy what you eat. Pumpkin everything will return next year right on schedule. Do you want to enjoy it then? Then do what you have to now and do it with the right attitude.

And, by the way, you can have pumpkin right now. You just can't sweeten it. You know what works as a great substitute, too? Butternut squash. It's going to be my side of choice at Thanksgiving this year. Hold the brown sugar and add a little butter and salt. It's sweet and delicious and it won't keep you fat OR send you diving off the wagon if you've successfully kicked the sugar.

Menu ideas and recipes for the holidays are coming soon so keep your eyes peeled (along with your turnips, eggplants and squashes).