Weight Loss, Diet and Fitness Program

Getting through these situations with your diet intact may take a little planning and some willpower, but it can be done!

What If You Don’t Like to Cook?
This attitude could end up sabotaging your success at low-carbing. These are two solutions here: make cooking much more of a pleasure, share the work with friends or other members of your household; or become a minimalist cook who basically assembles food from takeout sources, leftovers, and the easiest possible recipes.

You can turn the time you spend in the kitchen into a pleasant interlude. Consider it a break from the daily whirl-wind. Play your favorite music, keep fresh flowers in the kitchen, and think about something while you’re cooking that you don’t have time to think about the rest of the day.

For the minimalist cook, there’s lots of help available, some of it in the form of appliances such as the food processor (instant coleslaw and zucchini shreds for sautéing), grills (George Foreman’s tabletop grill from Salton is a winner), and a heavy-duty blender.

The two main components of low-carbing are, of course, protein and vegetables. You must keep protein on hand – cans of tuna and salmon and sardines are excellent, as are eggs (especially hard-cooked eggs, which anyone can cook in her sleep). Have a takeout roast chicken hot one night, then make chicken salad sandwiches on low-carb bread from the leftovers. Any scraps can go into soup.

If you can manage to roast a turkey breast, you’ll have an excellent protein supply for days. Add a little ham, cheese, scallions, avocado, hard-cooked egg and romaine lettuce; dress it, and you’ve got chef’s salad. Deli roast beef and ham offer similar options, as does take-out poached or grilled salmon. (Buy twice the amount you need for one meal and make a salad with the leftovers.)

You can broil or roast almost any protein and almost any vegetables. Even with only a minimalist pantry on hand – olive oil, vinegar, cumin, paprika, oregano, thyme, chilies (if you like heat), garlic, hot pepper sauce, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, mustard, mayonnaise – you have the ingredients to knife, some intelligent shopping, and an awareness that you’re actually creating something when you make a meal cam empower you to cook successfully an actually start to enjoy it.

The Snack Problem
Snacks are probably the most burning questions on the minds of the majority of low-carbers. The approved ones can often get boring, but what’s the alternative? While you don’t always feel the need for them, it’s great to have them on hand when you do. Here are some things that have passed my lips in the middle of the afternoon:
• The old Welsh miner’s lunch: cheese wrapped in a cabbage leaf
• Peanut butter or almond butter on a celery rib
• Nuts, but not more than ¼ cup – roasted, toasted, raw, or fried
• Leftover meat, poultry, or fish with mustard or Dijonnaise
• Grated cheese, broiled or skillet-fried – eat with a fork
• Prosciutto and melon
• Deviled egg or hard-cooked egg sprinkled with seasonings
• Egg or tuna salad on Fiber-Rich cracker or romaine leaf
• String cheese
• Jerky
• Half a low-carb protein bar
• Shrimp with seasoned mayonnaise or guacamole
• Leftover grilled shiitakes filled with grated cheese and broiled
• Wasa cracker with cream cheese, toasted sesame seeds, and paprika
• Cheese wafers
• Energy Burst Protein Snack Mix
• Baked seasoned tofu
• Cottage cheese with drizzle of sugar-free maple syrup or berries
• Soy nuts
• Seasoned Pumpkin Seeds
• Corn Crisps

Sweet Treats
Treats aren’t a very a good idea, of course, because by their nature they tend to leave you wanting more. If it’s a question of enabling you to stay on the diet, however, a little indulgence every now and then is a smart strategy. Here are a few that won’t break the bank. If you find they trigger cravings, however, skip them.
• Chocolate-covered coffee beans
• Life Savers Sugar-Free Flavor Pops (2g. carb)
• Square of bittersweet chocolate
• Chocolate Coconut Bites
• Macadamia nuts
• Peanut M&Ms
• Almonds or pecans fried in butter
• Swiss Miss Fat-Free Cocoa
• Irish coffee
• Sugar-Free Eskimo Pie

Eating Out
Unlike many diets, the low-carb regimen is actually easy to follow when you’re eating in a restaurant, assuming you’re not at a pizzeria. (And if you are, eat just the topping.) Persuade your dining companions to keep the bread basket to them selves on their side of the table, politely refuse all rolls and muffins put on your plate (or just break a piece of bread and leave it alone), and order the simplest possible food: grilled, roasted, or broiled meat, fish, or poultry; a salad (hold the croutons or pick them out); and maybe some raspberries for dessert. Have a glass of wine and a bite of a sympathetic companion’s dessert, just so you’ll know what it tastes like.

Restaurants where you may have problems include vegetarian or “healthy” restaurants (which usually have high-carb, low-fat menus), and those featuring Indian, Thai, Chinese, and other low-protein cuisines. But again, there are solutions. In Indian restaurants you can usually order tandoori dishes, which will be prepared with skinless chicken or meat or seafood. Ignore the rice, the bread, and the lentils; a cucumber raita should be fine, and the spinach paneer is borderline fine. If there are salads, order them, but try to be sure beforehand that they don’t include sugar as well as bits of potato or bread. Don’t order the lassi drinks, especially mango lassi, which is very sweet. Have tea instead. Probably everyone else at your table will be reveling in the breads; have one bite if you need to, but otherwise ignore them. Indian desserts are incredibly sweet, and you probably won’t be offered fruit – but if you are, melon would be a good choice.

Thai restaurants are a nightmare from the low-carb point of view. Everything is both sweet and starchy, even the pure protein, such as the Chinese sausage, which is quite sweet. Your best bet is to order a whole fish; if it comes with a sweet sauce, just scrape it off. The wonderful shrimp crackers that are sometimes brought to the table in big pastel puffs are of course carby, but one won’t kill you. Keep away from the noodles, and ask if any salads can be made without sugar in the dressing.

Mexican restaurants offer a number of good low-carb options, along with a huge number of fatal temptations. They usually serve a ceviche, some grilled fish or meat, as well as some excellent vegetable possibilities. If it’s a Southwest restaurant, fajitas are a sensible choice. Guacamole is perfect (but no chips), and most salads will be fine, as is salsa. Enchiladas are hopeless, but tacos will work as long as you don’t actually eat the taco shell.

Continue to 6 Dieting Minefields and How Avoid Them (part 2)