Why Low-Carb, and Who is That Chick with the Cool Hair?

May 19, 4:56 PMLow Carb ExaminerJamie Van Eaton

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Short Answer: Jamie's my name, and Low-Carbing keeps me sane.

Long Answer: OK, so that doesn't rhyme, but there is rhyme and reason regarding low-and lower-carbohydrate lifestyles in this fast-paced crazy lifeapalooza we're all riding.

When my father first injured his back in 1984 in Germany, his army doctor poked him in his adipose folds (no, he wasn’t a proctologist) with a finger and told him that he knew of a plan for weight loss which didn't require exercise. The plan the doctor prescribes was simple: eat protein, fats and vegetables, and the weight will seemingly melt from your body like Leiderhosen off of a nudist.

While immobilized with a broken back in that foreign country and with a foreign diet, my adorable father lost 80 pounds in 6 months.

When he came home to America and introduced me, at the age of 14, to healthful eating and weight loss, my life was revolutionized, and so, too, were others around me changed. The plan was called the Atkins Diet, named for a U.S. cardiologist who fared well, not only personally while following his regimen, but helped millions of others to gain success while shedding pounds.

I was an avid follower of low-carbohydrate eating until the 90’s, when I eschewed that low-carb plan for everything, from Weight Watchers to TOPS (exchange system) to calorie counting. These all had one thing in common: I was always hungry, tired, cranky, and usually ended up gaining weight. Does this mean there is anything inherently wrong with high calorie, low-fat plans? That depends upon whom you ask.

I can tell you that for me and many others who thrive on a low-glycemic plan, the less processed starches I ingested, the healthier I was, less hungry and the more energetic. And the weight fell.

Fast forward to 2004, when, close enough to weight loss surgery that I decided to give Atkins another go. I dropped 100 pounds in 6 months following Atkins. The problem was, I lost the weight, but, I employed use of sugar alcohols, diet drinks, processed convenience foods and other unhealthy habits, didn’t exercise, and generally made a mess of things. I wanted a quick fix and ended up with a crash diet and having to unlearn every poor habit I had programmed into my lifestyle. On top of this, not only did I come crashing down off of the wagon, but I regained all of the weight I’d lost-- and more.

Is this to say that low-carb diets aren’t sustainable? Not at all. It is to say that as with any tool in the shed, you can use it the right way or utterly the wrong way. I was using my ax as a lawn mower. I ended up with ruts in my lawn, and a neighbor who thought I was extraordinarily mad at weeds.  

Putting my tools to good use, I’ve lost 50 pounds in 10 weeks since the beginning of 2008. I've lost nearly 20 more since April. Does that sound extraordinary? Unhealthy? Unreal? It isn’t, it doesn’t have to be, and it is very much the norm for so many who fail to lose weight following the conventional promises which the conventional low-calorie, high-carbohydrate plans attempt to deliver.

My purpose here at Examiner.com is to provide a resource, to inform, to help, and to support those of you out there looking for answers to dietary questions, to weight loss and to overall health, who are tired of being hungry and tired, and who would like to shed weight with less pain than previously imagined: all while eating deliciously. And with some observations, recipes, and laughs thrown in.

Whether you are curious, seeking, gluten-intolerant, a low-carb life styler, tall, shrinking, experiencing blue shift, a glycemic index fan, a vegetarian, breathing, or simply hungry and looking for answers,