I recently saw a headline about yet another celebrity using a low-carb diet. While I normally wouldn’t give a rats rear end about what celebrities are doing, if they are representing low-carb living, I tend to sit up and take notice.  I wrote my thoughts about this in today’s examiner column:

Kim Kardashian starts low carb diet

Another article I saw today really caught my attention was by Dr. Briffa regarding natural strategies for improving sleep. As someone who tends to have sleep issues more often than not, I was glad to read his recommendations.

Jimmy Moore announced his upcoming podcast schedule yesterday. I’m proud to be among those you’ll be hearing from in the next few months. We are actually doing the interview tomorrow, but you won’t be hearing it until June 23rd. Should be fun! Anything you all want me to talk about? Any questions? Feel free to send me your thoughts in the comments section or in an email.

I’ll be back later with some more info on all the great prizes in our giveaway!

All weekend this question kept bombarding my cranium – how important are our thoughts and attitude in regards to weight loss? A positive attitude obviously never hurt anyone, but does negative thinking really hinder us that much?

Negative thinking undermines every positive thing you set out to do, if you let it. We all suffer at times from doubts and fears, but we can not let those feelings and attitudes lord over our efforts to do something good for ourselves. The Little Engine That Could is a great children’s story that we all should take a lesson from. If we continually say we can’t, then we won’t. Why? Because we already feel defeated and will not give it our best effort. If we convince ourselves to do our best, regardless of the outcome, we are rarely disappointed. Not everyone loses 10 lbs on induction ( I sure didn’t!). Not everyone looks like a supermodel at their goal weight (again… not happening here). Not everyone even keeps the weight off the first time they lose it (ahem… again me), because there is a learning process involved. But with each day, we learn a little more about what does and does not work for us. With each positive step we gain momentum to keep going. Yes we have set backs. I’ve had more than my fair share, let me tell you. But despite that, I know I can’t give up. This is too important to throw in the towel and let negative thinking overtake my actions. If I do, I head straight for the pizza and feel even worse afterwards. So what if I’m in a stall? So what if I’m struggling with eating right for a day or two? What matters is that I keep going and remind myself of a few positive things. I’ve come a long way weight and health wise. While I’m not where I want to be, I’m sure as heck not where I used to be. Is it because it was easy when I first started? No. It was because I kept pushing on, even when the going got tough.

I may just be talking to myself here, but I have struggled the last several days with negative thinking. I’ve struggled with physical responses to that negative thinking. Once I let the doubt creep in, I found myself craving foods that normally don’t tempt me. I found myself slightly depressed about the effort I have to put into losing this excess weight, which in turn causes me to want to respond with comfort food. It’s a vicious cycle that we have to break and keep a harness on.  The more you indulge in negative thinking, the more damage it can do.

As an experiment, today I woke up determined NOT to crave unhealthy foods. I’ve spend the day thinking positive thoughts about my choices and my weight loss efforts. The results: so far so good. No cravings and I’ve stuck to plan perfectly. Tomorrow may be tough, but for now I’m only dealing with one day at a time – and today is gonna be great because I choose to make it so.

So remind yourself that despite how tough it seems, you are worth fighting this battle. And like the Little Engine, keep chanting that mantra to yourself, only change the word “think” to “know”. I KNOW I CAN… I KNOW I CAN… I KNOW I CAN…

Elevated blood pressure takes a licking from a low-carb diet.

So once again we have study validating statements we low-carbers have been making for years.

In a Duke study funded by the Department of Veteran Affairs, research author William S. Yancy, Jr., MD studied 146 overweight participants for a year, comparing the results of two different weight loss therapies. Pitted against each other were the drug Orlistat with a low-fat diet and a low carbohydrate diet. Unlike typical study participants, these subjects had a health problems that are generally associated with obesity, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

The average weight loss in both groups were 10% of their body weight. But weight loss wasn’t the only thing they were looking at in this study. Researchers were surprised to see that 47% of the low-carb dieters were able to decrease or discontinue their blood pressure medications, while the low-fat/Orlistat group only saw an improvement of 21% in the same area.

In reality this is no surprise at all. At least it isn’t to those who have been living the low-carb lifestyle. Dr. Atkins told us about this wonderful benefit years ago. Page 110 of the 2002 version of Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution states the following:

“What happens to blood pressure on Atkins? It goes down. Nothing is more consistently or more rapidly observed than normalization of blood pressure.”

He then goes on to give a case study showing just how quickly a low-carb diet can work on lowering elevated blood pressure.

Low-carb doctors all over the world have been trying to spread the word that low-carb living can do more than just help you lose weight. Keeping your blood pressure at a healthy level is just one of many benefits this lifestyle has to offer.  We all have to choices to make and hopefully we’ve educated ourselves to the fullest before we make them.

Drugs and a low-fat, less-than-effective, I’m-starving-death diet? No thanks. Lets stick with whole, real, healthy low-carb foods and avoid unnecessary drugs. Unlike Orlistat, the only side-effects with low-carb are renewed health and amazing weight-loss.

I’ve made my decision. What about you? I’d love to hear your success stories with lowering or dumping medications thanks to your healthy low-carb lifestyle. Drop a comment in the box below and share!