Read this and weep with desire – we have found a suitable replacement for pizza! I am not kidding. Read on!
Low Carb Portobello Pizza
My wife made this for dinner tonight and it was incredible. Based on the recipe here, she loaded ours up with sausage, pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, and a low-sugar jarred tomato sauce. Next time we’ll make our own tomato sauce fresh, from stewed tomatoes and tomato paste, but let’s not be picky here.
I have to admit, I was quite skeptical when, as I was eating some salad, my wife takes the first bite of her pizza and just starts raving about how it “totally tastes like real pizza!” I then took a bite of mine and was quite surprised at how good it was. It was downright awesome.
Even Apple’s undoubtedly smart engineers appear to have been duped into believing the ‘dietary fat is bad for you’ lie. Check the video below out. When CBS’s John Blackstone asks “Siri”, the name for the voice recognition feature in the new iPhone 4S, “Have you figured out the meaning of life yet?”, the phone responded with, “Try and be nice to people. Avoid eating fat. Read a good book now and then.”
Unfortunately you’ll have to wait until the end of the clip to hear it.
As much as I hate to admit it, my initial success with low carb eating was through The South Beach Diet. I stuck with it through the induction phase, guided by my wife who had read the book. On my way out the door to work one morning she surprised me with, “I’m starting The South Beach Diet today. You in?” What was I supposed to say? “No, I’ll continue to eat McDonalds and Wendy’s every day in front of you.” Of course not. That’s not how I roll. So I gave it a shot, even though I wasn’t very motivated at first. Boy did that motivation level change quickly.
After the first day, I dropped 2 pounds. I couldn’t believe it.
I’m not exactly a prototypical ‘low-carber’ – my way of eating falls somewhere between the Paleo world and the Low Carb world. More of a mix. I’ve grown to avoid the overt chemicals: I would never waste my money on ‘Atkins Bars’, for example. Nor do I continually look for low carb baking recipes that feature Splenda and other crap. Just not how I roll. At the same time, the typical Paleo guidelines are a little too loose on fruit intake, and a little too heavy on promoting exercise, which is more than questionable for those of us who have to watch our weight. While I still consider myself a newbie when it comes to nutrition, I’ve learned an awful lot over the past 10 months on this journey. One of the key things I’ve learned is how controversial some subjects are. Kinda like the Splenda I just mentioned : ) So, I thought it would be fun to write about those controversial topics that I’ve noticed mentioned repeatedly:
Dairy
The Paleo folks often eschew dairy. While the low carbers eschew whole milk, they’ll think nothing of throwing a heaping dose of heavy cream on their make-shift deserts. Strawberries and heavy cream makes for a delicious desert, by the way. It’s my ‘go to’ desert for curbing my sweet tooth 🙂
Sweeteners
Articifical and non-artificial sweeteners are controversial in the context of losing weight.
What should be perhaps the most highly controversial topic when it comes to losing weight is the role that exercise plays in it…or doesn’t. Here is the simple question:
Does exercise contribute to weight loss or maintenance?
The answer, based on the associated research so far, shows no link. Isn’t that amazing? Not that there is no link, but that we’ve been lied to all our lives about it? Everyone, including many low carb experts who should know better than to simply accept things at face value, seem to believe that working out is a contributor to weight loss. Or, at least, can be a contributor so long as calories are not increased along with the physical activity. But any knowledgeable low-carber should already know that it isn’t about the caloric intake – it’s what you eat, not how much. Eat bad foods (carbs) and you gain. Don’t eat them and you lose (or maintain, if you are in the enviable position of already being at your natural weight).
The Experts’ Take
So what do the credible experts say about this topic?
UPDATE 10/14/2011: noticed a typo and just changed it. I had originally stated, later in this article, “eople seem to think that dietary fat does not go directly to your hips/belly.” It should have read “People seem to think that dietary fat GOES directly to your hips/belly.” A crucial typo. It’s been changed.
This blog seems to be gaining traction. I’ve had a number of requests (through email and Facebook) from old friends, relatives, and acquaintances asking me if this way of eating really works or if I’m just posting this stuff to make money through Google’s AdSense program. I assure you, the pennies a day that this blog currently generate from the ads (because let’s face it, the vast majority of site visitors do not click on ads). I started this blog more so to chart my progress and extol the benefits of this way of eating, and I am hoping to get into the LCHF ‘blogosphere’ so that other low-carbers will comment on the many questions I’ll undoubtedly have in the future, and will post here.
To my surprise, this week, after watching my weight loss success and listening to me incessantly go on and on (and on and on) about how great I feel now that I kicked the sugars and starches via LCHF, my wife decided to join me in this way of eating. I love her the way she is, but she’s unhappy with her weight. She’s fine with me posting her progress on this blog, so I will provide updates from time to time.
Advice for Beginners
The following advice is for overweight and obese people. If you are one of the lucky people whose body is not suffering from hyperinsulinism and can process carbohydrates properly, then you likely are also one of those folks that has been in decent shape most of their lives and just need to shed a handful of pounds, likely due to age. If that’s the case, then you don’t need such a radical change of diet. Just skip dessert for a few weeks. This advice is for people like me who have been fat most of their lives. Lucky people like you can actually lose weight on a low-fat diet.
I’m a realist. Although when I read wonderful websites like Mark Sisson’s site and others, I do so very aware of the 80/20 rule, knowing that I’ll break it. And although I espouse carbs, truthfully I take a 90/10 rule towards carb intake. Why? Because it’s basically impossible to not eat carbohydrates. They’re everywhere, and will remain to be so. What I do is avoid the high-carb stuff.
Ideally, I would cook every meal/snack that I eat. But with a wife and two young kids, who do not eat like I do (though I’m hoping this will eventually change), this just isn’t realistic. For a number of reasons, including:
Quality food costs more
Meats, cheeses, etc. Heck, even beef jerky is freakin expensive for the amount you get!
I can’t afford to buy food for everyone else and then for me
I’m too lazy to cook myself
I can eat the same things most days
Eggs and bacon for breakfast
a big ass salad for lunch, if I’m not on the go for work
My wonderful wife almost always keeps me in mind when cooking dinner, so I can usually eat what the family eats for dinner, I just don’t eat the sides like potatoes, rice, pasta, french fries, french bread, corn, etc. etc. etc.
But what about lunch when I’m on the go and can’t make my own Big Ass Salad?
Disclaimer: this post is strictly opinion/observations. There are plenty of fat people (their drink of choice is typically the Grande Salted Caramel Mocha) drinking Starbucks coffee. I hope the info helps.
Back last winter when I started this new life of LCHF eating and working out, it just so happened to coincide with a radical change in my job responsibilities. I didn’t change employers, nor did I change job titles, but my actual responsibilities changed greatly and the stress level increased exponentially. But more importantly to my diet/WOL (‘WOL’ is ‘Way of Life’) – my new job role allowed me to work from home 95% of the time. Prior to last winter, I worked in a cubicle most days, working from home maybe one or two days per week but usually not even a full day). I had more people reporting to me back then (if you want to call it that – we have a pretty autonomous work environment), and since the products/services we were focused on had been in the market for years, everyone was pretty much on auto-pilot in terms of day-to-day work.
As my wife, friends, and acquaintances will probably tell you – I can’t shut up regarding how much I appreciate the work of those who have started to put an end to the misinformation out there regarding what a proper diet for the typical person is, and more specifically, how a fat person becomes fat and how to reverse it.
Over the past year I’ve been reading constantly – research studies. theories, opinions, and lots of bullshit (unfortunately most of which has come from people who should know better – doctors, nutritionists, and most sadly – our government).
During my weight loss journey, when people ask me what I’m doing to lose weight, I tell them one of the following, depending on my mood:
I used to subscribe to blogs and keep up on things but my Google Reader lists got to taking up so much of my time each morning that I gave it up cold turkey : ) After discovering this blog I am going to have to change that.
