lowcarblosers

Monday Morning Re-Induction

Sometimes it just seems impossible to resist temptation. You work so hard all week to eat clean, drink your water, and lose weight. Then the weekend comes and many find themselves planning a Monday Morning Re-Induction before the cheats even touch their lips.

Falling off the Low Carb wagon is a bad idea, but it’s a human experience. Stop beating yourself up. It happens to most of us now and then. The trick to limiting the damages cause by indulgence is to limit the time you spend off the wagon (seriously) and become a master at induction.

Mastering Induction

Most people have a difficult time with the concept of a Low Carb Lifestyle. For that reason, many still think about Low Carb as a diet rather than a Way of Life or Way of Eating. Unfortunately, the short-term thinking associated with a Low Carb Diet approach traps many in an endless cycle of sacrifice and reward that does nothing but ADD POUNDS.

But what if you changed your idea of a Low Carb Lifestyle?

Clear your mind of any thoughts that a ‘Lifestyle’ means lifetime of eating perfection. That sounds a lot like a prison sentence. Instead, think of your Low Carb Lifestyle as a healthy path you follow. Like any path, you can step off from time to time. The key to reaching your destination is always getting back on the path.

You know yourself better than anyone. If your experience leads you to believe that strict adherence to a Low Carb Diet for the rest of your life just won’t work, throw the whole idea away. Prepare yourself for the inevitable slips by becoming a master at induction.

Use the guidelines provided in your Low Carb program’s reference book along with the Induction Survival Tips on this site. Keep your Low Carb diet journal and refer to it often for personalized tips on how to get yourself back on track. Be reasonable in your expectations of yourself and prepare for your own human flaws.

That said, it is important, particularly for weight loss, that you don’t make a career of jumping on and off the low carb path. Induction can take time before it leads to weight loss. You won’t lose much week if you’re endlessly switching your metabolism from carb burning to fat burning, and back again.

Also, when you do step off the path, don’t stray for too long. It’s easy to get lost in the high-carb jungle. It’s often difficult to find the path again when you’ve completely lost sight of it.

Kim Diaz and Why You Should Question the Forum Gods

When the low carb road gets rocky, many of us turn to our online peers for help and answers. It’s habit that helps us stay on track and get answers to tricky questions that aren’t addressed in our low carb bible of choice. Online weight loss friends can be a great resource, but it’s always important to take their advice with a grain of salt.

Common sense is not always common.

The Priceless Low Carb Journal

No matter what major life change you are working towards, a journal is a great tool to help you along your journey. Weight loss is no exception. In the curious, and often confusing, world of low carbohydrate eating, your personal weight loss journal serves as a personalized road map to weight loss success.

A detailed journal will teach you things you won’t find in any book or on any website. No other Low Carb Loser can offer you this valuable insight. You will find you are able to draw connections between emotions, people, physical health, and food you are eating. You may find that every time you talk to a certain person, you feel bad and want to cheat. Or, you may find that every time you eat a certain food, legal or not, you feel tired or depressed.

Your journal should be a daily record of food, water, and other aspects of your low carb lifestyle. You can make it as detailed or narrow as you wish. At a minimum, include the foods you ate that day, the quantity, the amount of water you drank, and any exercise. Women may also find it helpful to make a note of menstrual cycles. Also include your weight.

When you’re struggling to make the scale move, refer to your journal. Revisit your most successful low carb days. What were you doing? What were you eating? How were you feeling? These details can help you identify changes that may be stalling your weight loss.

To make your journal even more useful, make a note each day of how you feel. What are you experiencing emotionally and physically? Record major and minor events in your life. Also, include who you visited with and any conversations of importance.

Give a journal a chance. It can be the most valuable weight loss tool you ever didn’t buy.

Get the Water Your Low Carb Lifestyle NEEDS!!!

Drinking water is more than an important part of weight loss. It’s essential to maintaining general health for all individuals. However, in a low carb weight loss lifestyle, it can also help prevent the misery of kidney stones.

If you need help getting more water into your life, here are some tips and tricks that can increase your water consumption. Drink water. Lose weight. Live happy and healthy!

THE JUG

Consider it your personal challenge. Fill a container with the quantity of water you wish to consume over the course of the day. If you’re not currently drinking ANY water, you may wish to start small. Rather than setting a goal of 64 oz of water right off the bat, try starting with 32 oz and work your way up. Any increase is an improvement.

ICE

Let your compulsion to chew work for you. Whenever you can, make sure whatever you’re drinking is filled with lots of ice. Chew the ice as you watch TV or read a book. Chewing ice is addictive and you’ll be surprised how quickly those cubes add up to big water consumption increases.

ASK FOR WATER WITH YOUR DRINK

You may be dying for a diet soda at your favorite restaurant. If that’s legal on your food plan, go for it, but ASK FOR A GLASS OF WATER TOO!!! Water will come in handy when you’re thirsty and waiting for a refill on your soft drink.

BAN SOFT DRINKS

If you’re consuming a large quantity of sugar-free drinks over the course of your day, those drinks are likely getting in the way of water consumption. Consider limiting soft drinks or banning them from your food plan all-together. This may initially be a shock to your taste buds, but you’ll quickly adapt. In no time, you’ll find yourself wishing more people offered water at parties.

If you’re not ready to give up diet drinks completely, try limiting them in number or by the time of day you allow yourself to drink them.

FREEZE A SMALL JUG

If you find water just tastes better cold, make sure you have cold water on hand all the time. You can do this by freezing one or several small plastic jugs or bottles of water. Take a bottle of frozen water with you wherever your day takes you. As it thaws, you’ll have a constant source of cool, clean water inviting you to take a drink.

WATER ROUTINE

From hygiene to exercise, most of us find building a routine helps us accomplish the less glamourous essentials of daily living. Water is no different. Make a habit of drinking one 8 oz glass of water first thing in the morning. Drink another one last thing before bedtime. That’s 16oz of water you’ve just made a part of your daily routine. Build your routine up to include an 8 oz glass of water with pills, before each meal, or before a walk. Your routine will help you achieve your water intake goals.

The One-Shot Myth

It happens. Low Carb Losers often stray from the path even when they’ve experienced tremendous weight loss success. Whatever led them away from their low carb journey, what brings them back is always the desire to recapture the amazing benefits they experienced on the road to success. When they return, many as the same question: can it work as well the second time?

It’s easy to understand why someone would ask the question. Their first experience with low carb weight loss was so profound, they often fear the magic won’t happen again. That’s human. What is more difficult to understand are the bizarre and inaccurate answers provided by fellow low carb loser.

The answer, simply, is YES! Low carb eating can absolutely work as well, often better, the second time around. Your first experience was about learning. You learned the rules of the low carb lifestyle. You learned how your body reacted to low carb eating. You learned the tricks that make a low carb lifestyle both more convenient and more pleasant. So why do so many Low Carb Losers give just the opposite answer?

They’re not lying. Some people have a lot more difficulty losing weight the second time around. They don’t achieve the same results as quickly or easily as before. That’s the truth. The UN-truth comes when the blame for those disappointing results is misplaced.

Just as we learn to low carb better, we learn to low carb worse as well. When we first start a low carb weight loss plan, we stick to the rules. We don’t even know a lot of the risky cheats and modifications until we’ve had some time to network with long-time low carbers. These lessons in bad low carb eating are waiting for us, right next to the best of what we’ve learned, when we decide it’s time to continue our journey.

Many long-time or return Low Carb Losers are unaware or dishonest with themselves about their failure to recapture the magic. We make up theories about the body adjusting to low carb eating, or the metabolism refusing to cooperate the second time around. In fact, we are often simply unwilling or clueless about the low carb practices that sabotage our success.

The low carb lifestyle is not magic. It’s not a one-shot deal. You get the chance to try over and over. You can always climb back on the wagon and continue down the path to success. We simply must be honest with ourselves about our best and worst habits