Lean and Hard

The key to weight loss is not as simple as eating less. If it were that simple, no one would ever be overweight.

Yes, it's true that IF you eat fewer calories than you are burning, you WILL lose weight. The problem is with the IF. It's not easy, and virtually impossible for many people to eat fewer calories that they're burning. It was for me. I knew I was ruining my life by becoming morbidly obese, but even the threat of death couldn't help me to eat less. Quite simply, I was as addicted to fast carbs as someone else might be to alcohol or cocaine.

The problem was I didn't know it.

The good news was, it wasn't that hard to break my addiction.

All I had to do was replace fast carbs with slow carbs. A complete substitution.

What are fast carbs? While there is no absolute line between fast and slow, some are clearly fast and some are clearly slow. Fast carbs are simple carbs, carbs that break down into sugar very rapidly when eaten. Things like white potatoes, refined flour products like bread and pasta, sugary drinks like soda or even orange juice, cakes and pies, candy, ice cream, white rice, are all fast carbs. And almost all low calorie recipes still include them. Just try looking for a so-called lo-cal frozen meal at the supermarket that doesn't have these ingredients. It's not possible.

So you have to simply stop eating those things. No more donuts or bagels. No more pizza. No more linguini. No more white bread sandwiches.

But lets talk about what you can replace these things with.

All kinds of beans, vegetables, whole grain breads like Ezekiel bread, corn flour products like tacos or tortillas, yucca and yams, sweet potatoes and fruits, other whole grains like quinoa and flax. There's a pretty long list and thousands of great recipes.

What are some typical meals for me? (Keep in mind that I'm only eating 1200 to 1500 calories a day in order to get my weight to an ideal level, while at the same time getting exercise 6 days a week in order to build muscle, so the amount you eat may need to be different.)

Breakfast is usually a scoop of cooked beans and half a cup of liquid eggs. I make a big crock pot of beans and mushrooms, cooked in chicken broth and with my favorite seasonings, and just get a scoop of them in a frying pan with some cooking spray (I like to add some jerk seasoning too because I am Jamaican after all), then I add the liquid eggs and stir. Delicious.

My mid-morning snack is usually a cup of soup, which I cook on weekends and take to work in a Tupperware container. I like to cook boneless/skinless chicken thighs, which I pull apart when they've been boiling long enough to be tender, then add vegetables like squash, carrots, etc., and some split peas or lentils that I've pre-soaked. Sometimes I'll include chicken broth, chopped spinach, onions, celery and the like. It makes a very healthy, thick, delicious soup that keeps me going till the afternoon.

My mid-afternoon meal is typically a piece of chicken with a slice of Ezekiel bread, or sometimes a salad.

Dinner might be 3 tacos, made with seasoned ground beef in whole grain corn taco shells, diced tomatoes, a bit of shredded cheese and some chopped jalapenos. For dessert I might have a few apple slices.

Of course these are only a few ideas. You can find thousands more online, but you only have to avoid the fast carbs listed above and replace them with slow ones.

I hope this helps!

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Believe it or not, there are still people who think the Atkins diet (and its numerous imitators) are worth trying. The no-carb fad is over, my friends. Consider these insights from Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, writing for Shape:

Many of my clients send me their food diaries every day, in which they record not just what and how much they eat, but also their hunger and fullness ratings and how they feel before, during, and after meals. Over the years I’ve noticed a trend. Drastic carb cutting (despite my recommendation to include specific portions of “good” carbs), results in some not so pleasant side effects. I see journal notes like, cranky, irritable, shaky, lethargic, moody, and reports of intense cravings for forbidden foods. Now, a new study also indicates that low carb diets aren’t optimal health wise.

I will admit to trying it myself way back when. After a few days on the no-carb regimen I recall feeling like I would be willing to kill my best friend for a piece of bread. Those intense cravings for so-called forbidden foods can lead you to only one place... binge eating.

What about low carb diets? Keeping in mind that any fat loss plan must necessarily involve cutting calories, and that a healthy diet should have a good balance of proteins, carbs and fats, low carb diets may have the same effect. You may find yourself fantasizing about eating your way through a mountain of muffins, or a sea of ice cream. And you'll eventually attempt, albeit unsuccessfully, to accomplish one of these feats.

So what's the optimal plan? It's about quality as well as quantity. Instead of treating carbs as all the same, try slow carbs.

Slow carbs are also known as good carbs, complex carbs or low-glycemic carbs. Here's a helpful definition:

...any carbohydrate that is broken down and absorbed by the body slowly.

Simple carbs, by contrast, are usually highly processed and so are broken down and absorbed very quickly. This rapid absorption causes spikes in blood sugar, which in turn causes more insulin to be pumped into the bloodstream, which causes an increase in fat storage.

Simple carbs can do other strange things. Since they cause a kind of chemical high, they are somewhat addictive, meaning they cause intense cravings for more of the same. Your body tells you you must have that slice of cake or you'll die, that large pizza or you'll writhe in agony forever. It's irresistible.

Another awful side effect of simple carbs is fatigue. With every sugar high comes the inevitable crash. And although this may not be proven science, it's possible that an overgrowth of candida and other bad micro-organisms can poison the system with toxins that mimic the feeling of having the flu.

The way to break the addiction is to substitute slow carbs for fast carbs. Whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts, sweet potatoes instead of white, etc.

Thoughts and comments are welcome!

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As I've alluded to earlier, I suffered from several health challenges, starting with chronic fatigue that was sporadic but eventually became constant, and ending with morbid obesity and it's attendant complications. My life expectancy was not known to me (I didn't want to know!), but was surely not very long.

It's important to me to explain to you here that I was always receptive to and even looking for answers, even though I didn't think there was anything new under the sun that might prove helpful. The fad diets and miracle cures had become an annoyance years ago. But I understood my predicament and never ever accepted it. So when my oldest mentioned a diet he had been trying called "slow carb," I asked him to explain.

What it boiled down to was this: substitute complex carbohydrates for simple ones. This means getting rid of highly processed carbs like pasta, white bread, potatoes and white rice, as well as sweets obviously, and replacing them with foods that are more "whole," like beans, yams, sweet potatoes and whole grains.