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.