Why Do Low Carb Diets Work?

Mini Pepper and Spinach Open-Faced Omelette   

I recently watched a video on low carb diet research and the uncovering of how the diet actually work.  This wasn't my first foray into a low carb diet, but it is my first acknowledgement that it's a lifestyle choice and needs to be in order to maintain one's weight.  

In my singlehood, I had a roommate who did the Atkins Diet and lost an astounding 60 lbs.  He inspired me to try the diet as well.  I did lose weight, I remember around 20 lbs. but I never did hit the weight I currently am at.  After that point, I slowly crept up over time, got married had children and until the recent past I was relatively good at keeping the weight in check until I hit 40 and then it was as if no matter what I did, I gained weight.

Many people ask me if I'm on the Atkins diet, I'm not.  I count my carbs only.  I try to stay between 30 and 50 carbs a day when I'm actively trying to lose weight and allow myself between 50 and 75 when I want to maintain my weight, paired with exercise on a regular basis.   The Atkins diet has you do a lot of different tests, mainly on trying to find ketosis which was thought to be a way of getting rid of excess calories more easily.

Just this last week, one of my very good friends forwarded to me a link to a video about how low carb diets work and it's GREAT!  I recommend it if you want to know why the low carb diet works.  It's from a credible source and contains some historical information on Dr. Atkins and why he looked into doing the diet himself and why he started advocating it.  Dr. Atkins wasn't a diet doctor, he was a cardiologist. 

View from Pine Mountain - my daily hike

The video shares a lot of studies and other health information if you are concerned with other issues you may have before you embark on a low carb diet.    So if you are curious...watch this!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=epxp_Viq484

I loved watching this, because it validated my thought about counting carbs instead of calories. 

Exciting news!  I will have my first Low Carb Camper coming on Monday to Friday this week, staying at our Airbnb and enjoying low carb meals that we'll make together and go on excursions in my wonderful community and surrounding area.  More pictures to come!
If you want to come and Low Carb Camp with me...send me an email and I'll tell you how it works! - thecarbometer@gmail.com.


Check out the Mini Pepper and Spinach Open-Faced Omelette featured above  from my March 19th blog here


Happy Carb Counting!

Great Eats with Cauliflower

Oh! Cauliflower

I have re-discovered cauliflower through the low carb diet.  Many of the recipe substitutions for rice or pasta mention using vegetables like spinach, broccoli and cauliflower.  I really never was too keen on cauliflower so I tended to use a lot of broccoli and spinach.  One Saturday, while at the farmers market, I saw a purple cauliflower.  I was curious, I asked the farmer if it tasted different than white cauliflower, she said she thought it did and preferred it to the white.   So I bought one.  She told me to broil it, not steam it and put lemon pepper and olive oil on it.  I've done this with asparagus and it's my preferred way of eating asparagus so I decided that would be what I would do.

DELICIOUS!  The purple did taste better than the white, I had to do a taste test and I broiled both.  Purple cauliflower seems a bit rare here, but I started to use white more often because it wasn't as bland tasting as I had remembered.  Since I'm focusing a bit on soups to make, I found a nice recipe for a cauliflower soup.  Here are the ingredients and carb counts.

Cauliflower Soup

olive oil  - 0 carbs
1/4 cup chopped onion - 4 carbs
1 small carrot, grated - 6 carbs
1/2 cup chopped celery - 1.5 carbs
1/2 head of cauliflower - 15.2 carbs
4 cups chicken broth (I use bouillon cubes - less carbs than broth in a can) - 4 carbs
1/4 tsp pepper - 0 carbs
1/2 tsp tarragon - 0 carbs
1 small bay leaf - 0 carbs
5 tbsp butter - 0 carbs
3 tbsp cornstarch (recipe called for flour but cornstarch has fewer carbs) - 21 carbs
1 cup milk (I should have used Almond Milk, but I was out...) - 13 carbs
3/4 cup half and half (I know...sinful but few carbs and makes the soup delicious!!!) - 24 carbs

The soup serves 4 - 88.7 carbs for the batch - 22.17 carbs a serving.

If I were to substitute Almond milk for the milk and cut down on the cornstarch by 1 Tbsp.  I could trim more carbs without really effecting the taste.  You could also use a bit less half and half, maybe 1/2 cup instead and use a bit more almond milk.   That substituting would save 32 carbs....bringing it to 56 carbs for the batch and 14 carbs per serving. 

 I like to try to stay under 50 carbs a day so my version with 88.7 carbs is a bit high and could account for almost half my carbs for the day.   However, as I get closer to my goal weight - now only 1 lb away, I am closer to maintaining and I'm not too worried if I go over 50 a few days a week.  It's important to exercise and I credit exercise more than I credit the diet with helping me lose the last 10 lbs towards my goal weight.

The soup was delicious.  My kids were not too keen on trying it so it was lunch for 3 days for me.  I will make another batch next week and do the substitutions I mentioned and get back to you with a taste test.

Have a great rest of your week and happy carb counting!

Re-inventing a Life - Low Carb Camps and Other Cheap Retreats

Kayaking Lopez Lake

Recently, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the next journey in my life.  I'm asking myself how do I want to spend the next 15 years?  What do I love!?  What could I easily spend hours on hours doing without noticing a minute go by?

I enjoy writing the blog and helping others help themselves through a low-carb lifestyle.  I'm a sharer by nature.   What I miss are the people, the community of doing something inspiring and productive.   I'm just 1 person behind a blog, spouting off ingredients and saying - go out there...walk, do something active and eat low carb....it worked for me!

A year and a half a ago, I did something which changed my life that wasn't the low carb diet.  I moved to someplace similar to a community in which I grew up.  Now, people who know where I grew up would scoff...HA! That's not true!  I grew up on a farm, 18 miles from the town where I graduated from high school. There were at least 14 miles of dirt road we had to travel in order to hit the blacktop.  I was isolated, I had my thoughts, I had my animals and I had time.

I didn't move to a farm, but I did move to a much more spacious environment.  My city is actually referred to as a colony and is in the central coast of California.  A planned community which is a haven to those who are more agriculturally and artistically minded.

My husband and I chose a property near the historic center of town and easy walking distance to everything....grocery, entertainment, restaurants, hiking trails, school, church, doctor, community center with meeting room space and still on a relatively large lot by city standards, almost an acre.   One of the benefits of the property is that we could keep and use our travel trailer.

View of city from Pine Mountain hiking trail

In August, I moved another RV to the property that I had kept in our old city and decided to try to sell it from here versus there.   However, before I did that, I put it up on Airbnb just to see if anyone would want to come stay in it.  I was pleasantly surprised, people do come and they loved the area and they love the RV.

More importantly, I love having them come.  I am filled with anticipation over each visitor.  I am intrigued with where they came from and where they are going or what they are doing.  How I can help them, what I can recommend them to do.   It's been easy!!  In just a month We've had visitors from the Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, UK, Belgium, India and of course,  California.  I have now thought, I could do something unique and affordable for many!  I could offer cheap retreats.

I could offer a low carb camp - where people could come spend a few or several days with me.  We could hike, kayak, golf, tour sites like historic lighthouses, Hearst Castle, Elephant Seals, hike along Highway 1 parks, go zip lining, farmers market like the world famous San Luis Obispo market not to mention the wineries... and make plans to help them kick start a low carb lifestyle.  For others, I could offer them the ability to host their own retreat from an affordable "camping" approach but still be near to so many amenities.

Morro Rock - from kayaking trip in Morro Bay

What do you think?  Would you come?  I would love to know if I have something here, if I could make this happen.  Let me know by sending me an email with your interest to thecarbometer@gmail.com.

If you want to check out our Airbnb offerings, go to www.airbnb.com and search to visit Atascadero, CA and look for Urban Camping and Urban Camping 2.

Low Carb update - 3 lbs from goal.  Made an awesome cauliflower soup that I'll share in my next blog.  I've got to get out and hit the trail now...happy carb counting.

A Year In....and a 41 lb. Weight Loss

On Sept. 9, 2013, I began to change my eating habits for the good based on a recommendation from my doctor.  I have been sporadically keeping this blog to illustrate my path and share what works for me.

After several weeks of trying to determine how many carbs I was able to eat that would continually have me lose weight, I found for myself that between 30 - 50 carbs was the way I had to go.  That is not a lot of carbs!  The average person consumes 370 carbs a day.  Both my parents have adult onset diabetes and I do believe that is where I was heading if I did not get my weight and my health under control.

On Sept. 11, 2014, I visited the same doctor and pleasantly surprised her with my 41 lb. weight loss.  She was thrilled for me.   I thought...this deserves a bit of before and after right.....

Before I started the low carb diet  May 2013

On the low carb diet - August 2014

My upper body is almost unrecognizable.   From the waist down, I'm certainly slimmer but I am still wearing the same pants, they are just pretty big but my hips hold them up so I'm not really out looking for a new wardrobe.  

I'm still not at my goal weight, I'm very close at 3 - 5 lbs away on any given day now for a week.   I'm starting to get back into my walking regime and making every effort to make my own food which I think is so important to losing weight.  It's almost impossible to lose weight while having 1 - 2 meals out a day.....even a week.   My method of counting the carbs helped me to reduce the processed foods and sugars because....they are all high in carbs.  When you count carbs you eat less naturally, so I did not count calories. 

Today, I ventured away from tried and true salads and omelettes to soup!  I have lined up several low carb soups I'll be trying.  

Today was a spinach broccoli soup!

Ingredients and carb counts:

Green onions - scant

Butter - 0 carbs

Spinach - 2 carbs

Broccoli spears - 2 carbs

Chicken Broth - 1 carb

Cornstarch - 2 carbs

Half and Half -  2 carbs

Carbometer: 9 carbs

Hope you enjoy reading about my low carb journey....here's to happy carb counting.

The LAST 10

Apologies, I haven't updated the blog.  I do have a progress report though.  I've kept with the low carb diet.  It has taken two full months to lose 10 lbs.  I think any doctor would argue that is healthy weight loss, nothing gimmicking or quick about it.  The good news is....here it is...I'm in the final stretch, I'm down to the last 10.  Maybe by July?  Maybe August?

Did the supplements work from my last posting? I don't think so.  Don't waste your money.

For those out there who have been reading...and I just looked there are a lot who read the first post, don't give up if you are trying to lose weight.

The Wildflower Hike

Wildflowers in the distance

Lately it has been a challenge to keep my exercise schedule. I'm now trying to squeeze as much time as there is to make sure I'm getting in at least 10,000 steps on my pedometer.   One of my favorite hikes is the one near my house.  The area in nice and steep and makes for a great natural stair climber like workout.

Yellow trumpet flowers

Wild daisy

I haven't been able to do the hike for over a week so yesterday, I left for the hike at first light!  It was foggy and amazing.  While I was away, the wildflowers bloomed.   I've seen wildflowers before but usually only one or two kinds, not the varied mixture I saw on this hike.  Good thing, I had my phone so I snapped  few shots.

Ronnoculus like flower

I'm not a photographer, nor a botanist, but seriously, I think people with that background should seriously document what is up there on that hike.  Hopefully my pictures will inspire some of my friends who are one or both of those professions to come and do justice for these blooms.   I also saw a lot of poison oak...it's thriving as well.

Cone like purple flowers on bush

As for my early results with the supplement garcinia cambogia extract, it's too early to tell. I've taken the supplement now for two days and there is no additional weight loss.  I actually don't like it, if there isn't any progress after a week, I'll likely stop taking it.   Some of the side effects are likely it actually working.  You take it 30 minutes before eating with an 8 oz glass of water.  This leaves you with a bit of a bloated feeling (or fullness feeling) likely to keep you from overeating or eating at all.

Beautiful pink flower!

My largest meals are breakfast and lunch.  So I thought I would take the supplement at those times.  I have moved to breakfast and dinner because the lunch time weird feeling was too distracting and I found myself putting off lunch, which isn't what I want to do.  Eating less at dinner is a lot easier for me and helps me not want to have something sweet as the evening wears on.

Dark purple trumpet like flowers

I'm going to the happiest place on earth with my kids today...getting ready to leave.  I likely won't be near a scale for some time, so hopefully after some days away and A LOT of walking ahead of me, I'll see some significant changes.

Have a happy carb counting day!

To Supplement or Not

Actually effective or not?  We'll see.

Welcome back to me!  I've been out of the office working a lot and haven't had time to work on the blog and magically, I haven't had the chance to exercise either!  I've been thinking of giving myself a little boost.   It is hard to look at the scale each morning and see the slow progress.   I know these last pounds were not going to fly off and I even joked it may take till Thanksgiving this year to be rid of them...if ever.

It's a Tuesday and it's progress report update. It's been a whole week since I have written a blog posting and I missed the progress report update for this last Saturday which would have been a broken record or a slight loss.   Regardless, my week was not as dreary as I'm projecting, I saw some of my very favorite folks and even was able to reconnect with one of my childhood best friends so all in all a fantastic week.

I must pat myself on the back, I did well on the diet and keeping the carbs low, only splurging on Friday night for an amazing few bites of a flourless chocolate cake.   What I have now before me is a shiny bottle of Garcinia Cambogia Extract.   Yes!  I have fallen into the pit of gimmick.  Will it help or not...well, let's give it a month and see.

From the reports I've read about some famous faces is that it works.  The other advice I found is that you need to make sure you are using the right dosage and that there is a tremendous amount of supplements that are just peppering you with a sprinkle of the stuff and then fillers which actually counteract the effects.  What do I know...literally nothing but I tried to be careful in my selection and chose Research Verified's mixture.  I'm to take 2 pills a day 1600 mg of this supposed slimming snake oil.

It has the hydroxycitric acid in it, which makes me think of those diet supplements I see in the grocery stores - hydroxycut is what I think it's called.   So let's embark on another adventure and see if this will matter in my quest to be my ideal weight.   I'm staying with the low carb diet and the exercise plan of walking a lot.

Progress report:  I have lost 1 more pound since the last report. 12 pounds to go.  If this little bottle lives up to it's reputation I should be able to see up to 7 lbs a week drop...I don't think that would be possible for me so I'd be happy if it were 2 lbs a week. If that were the case, in six weeks, I may be at my target weight.

Go ahead...flog me, don't worry if I feel bad at all, I'll stop.

Have a happy carb counting day!