by Denise Strother

Created on: April 28, 2008   Last Updated: April 29, 2008

I would leave home 45 minutes earlier than I had to so I could go to 711 for breakfast. I'd get a French Vanilla Cappuccino and two glazed donuts. I'd also buy fruit juice and potato chips for lunch. My weight skyrocketed to 286lbs. My knees hurt, my back ached, I was always tired. I decided to try living the low carb way. It allows me to eat as much meat as I want, no calorie counting, no looking for fat content. I eat meat with every meal, so I thought this would be a snap. I didn't know that I was a carb junkie.

Experts say we should eat 2500 calories a day including 300 grams of carbs. My cappuccino and donuts were 95 grams of carbs. By breakfast I was 1/3 through my allotment. I don't remember everything else I put in my mouth before lunch. A hand full of chips here,candy from a dish there,and more coffee with lots of sugar. All loaded with carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are a food category. They make your muscles run. Bread, rice and cereal are examples. They break down into sugar which your body uses for fuel like a car uses gas. Significantly cut carbs and your body has to look elsewhere. It has to burn fat to survive, no middleman, no exercise. The first few days of decreasing carbs to 40 grams left me irritable,dizzy,and hungry.
I began thinking about what I ate in a day and planning meals ahead. This was not easy. If I was full from lunch I didn't care about dinner. I began reading food labels and drinking more water. I started to care about what went in my body. I wasn't a big eater. It was more what I ate and when. This was my food day.
Breakfast
Cappuccino 57 grams.
2 glazed donuts 40 grams
Lunch
McDonald's w cheese 37 grams
Small French Fries 30 grams
Small Hi C fruit punch 26 carbs
Milky Way candy bar 36 carbs
Dinner
6 fried chicken wing 18 grams
celery sticks 1.5
loaded baked potato 21.5
small coke 36grams
key lime pie 52 grams
Snacks
Cashews 1oz. - 10 grams
Small bag Potato chips(BBQ) 47 grams
6 Oreo cookies 60 grams
Grand total of carbs 472
This self destructive path hurt my body. I began low carbs in July 2007, I've lost 46lbs. and haven't exercised one day. I do cheat, but that's OK because I never consume more than 150 carbs a day. I did the jump start plan of the KimKins diet for two weeks and went through carb withdrawals before my body began to readjust. By the end of two weeks I was fine. If you do low carbs correctly you wont ever be hungry.
This is an sample menu of a low carbohydrate meal day.
Breakfast
cup high fiber-low carb cereal
1/3 cup milk
1/8 medium

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