Living Low Carb (72 page)

Don’t Let Yourself Get Too Tired, Angry, Hungry, Lonely, or Bored

Emotional eating is a huge factor in weight gain, as most people reading this book know. In many ways, it is virtually impossible to separate the emotional component from the physiological components. All these states of being—anger, sleep deprivation, hunger, loneliness, and boredom, not to mention anxiety, fear, nervousness, and stress—have been known to trigger overeating, nervous eating, comfort eating, or binge eating. The best cure in this case is a healthy dose of prevention.

Give Yourself a Nonfood Treat

Remember that changing your lifestyle is about breaking some old habits and replacing them with more empowering ones. One of the mental habits most in need of overhaul is telling yourself that food is your only reward and comfort. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a place in your life for comfort food or recreational eating, but you definitely need to increase your repertoire of things that make you feel good.

Start looking for things that make you feel good besides food, and start finding time to do them! Give them to yourself as a reward, either for reaching a weight-loss goal or just for the hell of it. (I had one client who cut out a picture of the Armani suit he was going to buy when his waist got down to a 34 and put it on his refrigerator.) It might be a trip to a day spa, a manicure, some time on the golf course, reading a beach novel, or going to a museum. Better yet, take a tip from Julia Cameron’s
The Artist’s Way
and make a “play date” with yourself: just you, doing whatever you want, no agenda, no greater purpose than to have fun. It doesn’t have to be an allday deal. It would be really great if you could come up with a number of
little
things you could do that don’t take a lot of time and that can be incorporated into your daily life—take a bath, or spend some time meditating or even listening to one absolutely great song from the disco era (“To Be Real” brightens almost every day). When you feel the need to compulsively dig into the cookie jar, start to train yourself to substitute one of these nonfood treats. You’ll be conditioning a new repertoire of behaviors that has nothing to do with food.

Focus on the Weight You Have Lost and Kept Off—and Remember “the Bowden Equation”

Focusing on the weight you have lost is a gem of a tip from Internet guru and low-carb chef Karen Barnaby. I can’t tell you the number of times I have seen a weight-loss effort bite the dust because the person continued to focus on how far she still had to go rather than how far she’d come. Many studies have shown that weight-loss expectations tend to be greatly out of sync with what can realistically be attained. For example, most obesity programs consider the loss of 10% of original body weight a success; but when clients who are entering the program are asked what
they
think would be a successful outcome, they typically say that anything less than 25% would be a failure. This does not mean you should set your sights low—not at all. Go to some of the “real people” sites listed in Resources and look at some of those pictures. They are amazing! You can do this, too. But if you’re expecting to lose 7 pounds a week consistently, you are going to be very, very disappointed; and if you are disappointed, you are going to feel like you failed—and if you feel like you’re failing, you’re much more likely to give up.

Remember my famous “Bowden Equation”:
disappointment
equals the difference between
expectation
and
reality.
If you focus on the weight you have lost so far—even if it’s just a pound or two—you will be way better off in the long run and much more likely to keep going. Even better, focus on nonscale-related benefits, such as how you feel, lack of bloat, increased energy and well-being, lack of headaches, no more brain fog, or, best of all, lost inches and a changing shape. Remember that you lose weight exactly the same way you put it on—one pound at a time.

If You Get Stuck, Do Something Different

While stalls and plateaus are to be expected, they can be very frustrating. You may need to do something counterintuitive to start weight loss back up again. Some people have found that, strangely enough, adding
more
carbs gets things going again. Or try the Fat Fast outlined in Atkins or an “all-meat” day. Alternatively, go the other route and try a fruit-and-vegetable fast for a few days. None of these techniques will hurt—the fruit-and-vegetable one will probably do a lot of good—and any one of them may push you off a stall.

Take the Word “Cheating” Out of Your Vocabulary

Cheating implies lying or dishonesty. It’s much more empowering to think about the low-carb lifestyle in terms of being “strict” or “not so strict.” You may have some days when you are “not so strict.” More than one very successful low-carber told me that he would occasionally have days when he just had to have pizza, so he did. Then he’d get back on the “strict” track at the next meal. Usually, he didn’t lose much momentum, and over time, the occasional lapse became meaningless. These people still lost a ton of weight over time by being strict more often than they were “not so strict.”

Look in the Mirror and Talk to Yourself

Here’s another one from Dr. Jack Goldberg, who is clearly of the tough-love school of weight loss. He says that you shouldn’t be angry with yourself if you lapse from your diet. Just look at yourself in the mirror and say the following to your image, in a loud voice so you can really hear yourself: “
Are you serious about losing weight? Then I don’t want this to happen again. You are not a child. Grow up and take responsibility for yourself. There was no reason to eat that unhealthful junk
.”

General Tips

Read a Book

Actually, that’s good advice for life in general, but it’s essential for lowcarbing. I’ve had dozens of people tell me they were “on Atkins,” yet they had absolutely no idea what Atkins really said and had heard only diluted information thirdhand from their hairdresser. Obviously you’re not averse to the act of reading, or you wouldn’t have bought this book, so in a sense I’m preaching to the choir. But let
this
book whet your appetite for more info. Although you can clearly do the basic low-carb approach outlined in
chapter 7
and get great results, one (or more) of the structured programs discussed in this book may have spoken to you in some way or piqued your interest. Consider my discussions of the diet programs in
chapter 7
like Cliff’s Notes. Find a plan that appeals to you and invest in the book itself—it will give you far more detail, you’ll know how to do the program correctly, and you’ll probably learn a lot in the bargain. Even if you don’t wind up sticking with that exact program, it’ll give you a great jumping-off point.

Take Your Measurements

You want to know where you’re starting from so you can monitor your progress. Keeping your head in the sand accomplishes nothing. Many people lose inches before they lose pounds (or they lose both, which is even better). If you measure your waist, at the very least you’ll be able to track changes that may be happening independently of the scale, and that can be a big motivator during those times when your actual weight doesn’t move (and there
will
be those times—see “Plateaus,” page 338). Measuring your chest, waist, hip, upper thigh(s), and upper arm(s) is best. Don’t look for a significant change in measurement every week, but check in every now and again to see how far you’ve come. You won’t be able to do that if you don’t measure first!

Use the Scale

Yup. This suggestion meets with a lot of protest, so let’s first deal with the objections. Many people, especially those who have suffered eating disorders in the past, have experienced the tyranny of the scale and have been obsessive about using it, driving themselves crazy in the bargain. For these people, throwing the scale out—and relying on how they feel and how they look—has been nothing short of a psychic liberation. I get that.

But here’s the thing: there’s a way to use the scale as an ally, as a means to an end, as a tool for empowerment. First of all, you have to get that the readout is just a number and not make it “mean” anything other than what it is. That number is not a statement about your self-worth, who you are, or anything else—
it’s just the number of pounds you weigh at the moment
.

Second, you have to realize that, imperfect as it may be, the scale is your reality check. I’ve seen clients assume that they
must
have lost weight because they jogged that day or, conversely, that they gained all kinds of tonnage because they over-ate at the family barbecue. Don’t kid yourself. Check in with the scale. Sure, you may gain some muscle while you’re losing fat, and that won’t be reflected on the scale, but eventually fat loss
will
be reflected in that digital readout! Using the scale also keeps you accountable and honest: if you see your weight go up the morning after you did some midnight pigging out, it’s a good lesson in associating cause and effect. And don’t think for a minute that you won’t feel great when you finally see the scale move toward your goal, even if it is a pound at a time.

Speaking of the Scale, Use It the Right Way

Don’t compare your weight on different scales at different times of day (like how much you weighed at the doctor’s office versus how much you weighed at the gym). Scales are like clocks: no two agree perfectly; but if you keep checking the same one, it will accurately tell you how much time is passing. I recommend daily weigh-ins. There are two rules to using the scale correctly. One, always do it in the morning, wearing no clothes, before eating. Let that number be your reference. Two, average the results of the week. There are simply too many variables that can be responsible for a halfpound to pound variation, day to day, and it can make you crazy to see these minor variations (especially when they’re in the wrong direction). Use the average for the week to compute where you’re going. (With all that said, some people may find daily weigh-ins emotionally just too tough. If that’s you, at the very least do a weekly weigh-in, which will help you stay on track and prevent you from obsessing too much about the numbers.) Incidentally, I have seen clients of mine completely transform their weight-loss results simply by making everyday weigh-ins a part of their program.

Eat Before You Shop for Food

Ever go shopping when you’re hungry? Then you know why people buy things like chocolate-covered artichokes.
Anything
sounds good when you’re starving. When you’re hungry is
not
the time to hit the supermarket. You won’t make any kind of rational decision about food. Much better: go after you’ve eaten, when your choices won’t be dictated by a growling stomach and a craving brain.

Get a Calorie/Carb Counter

This is just part of the overall mandate for conscious eating.
You need to know what’s going into your body
. It will keep you honest. If you’re counting carbs, a carb counter is a must. It’s nice to know the calorie, protein, and fat content as well. My own
Living the Low Carb Life Pocket Carb Counter
gives you net carbs, calories, protein, fat, fiber, glycemic load rating (where applicable), and my assessment of how a particular food fits into the low-carb lifestyle. Both Atkins and Protein Power also have very good pocket carb guides.

Get Enough Sleep

There is no way to overstate the effect sleep can have on your weight-loss efforts. Sleep, and lack of it, affects the body in several ways. One, lack of sleep is a stressor. Stress raises cortisol, which in turn sends a message to the body to store fat around the middle. (Chronically high levels of cortisol also produce a counterresponse from the body in the form of insulin release.) Two, the absence of deep, restful, restorative sleep prevents the body from building up a reserve of serotonin. Low serotonin states are associated with cravings and overeating (not to mention good old garden-variety depression). Three, without deep, restful sleep, your pituitary will not produce any significant amount of growth hormone, which assists in the building of muscle and the loss of fat. Fourth, lack of sleep causes people to be hungry and to overeat during the day.

Some experts feel so strongly about the role of a full night of uninterrupted sleep in successful weight loss that they will even prescribe medications (typically trazodone, brand name Desyrel) to regulate sleep patterns. They feel that you are much better off taking a fairly innocuous medication than you would be with not getting enough sleep.

Volunteer

Nothing contributes to your own life more than contributing to the lives of others. Too many of us have made weight our sole focus for too long. Try putting the focus on others. Choose an activity in which your weight is of no significance, like putting in some volunteer time in a hospital or an animal shelter, moderating an Internet group, mentoring a kid, or even helping out a friend or family member with a yard sale. Get out of the house and get out of your head. It’ll help keep things in perspective.

Buy or Rent an Exercise Video (Then Use It!)

One great thing about living in a city is that there’s always at least one video rental place, and virtually all of them carry exercise videos. There’s a million of them, for every possible taste and style, from
Dancing to the Oldies
to the latest, hippest body-shaping video by the Firm. You’ll find everything from hardcore boot-camp stuff to the gentlest stretching. Try them on for size. If you’re a beginner, just do one for a few minutes and watch yourself progress until you can do the whole thing. The best part of videos is that you don’t have to be intimidated by anyone else in the class. (And if you’re
not
intimidated—and why in the world should you be, anyway?—there’s always an exercise class at the local gym, YMCA/YWCA, or studio. Try one.)