Early on in my low-carb adventure, I ran across the advice to stop drinking coffee. That nearly ended my low-carb adventure right then. There are some things you can't give up. Coffee's at the top of my list. Repeat after me, friends: "Coffee is life, life is coffee." That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. Coffee is low-carb -- right? There are carbs in black coffee -- about a tenth of a gram in a cup. S0 coffee is low-carb, though not quite as low-carb as plain water. In fact, black coffee has very little in terms of macro-nutrients of any kind. So why would low-carb dieters be told to avoid the wonder brew? I'm not sure where I first encountered the out-dated "don't drink coffee" advice; it may have been in the 1992 edition of Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution. In … [Read more ...]
Weight gain, weight loss in two short periods
Last weekend, Anita and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary with a short trip and a stay in an historic bed-and-breakfast. I did my best to be true to both my wife and my diet. The B & B provided me with eggs, meat, and coffee in the morning. I ignored the platter of chocolate-chip cookies available 24 hours a day. (Anita did not.) We picked restaurants where I could put together tasty low-carb meals. All in all, things went fine, until I weighed myself the morning after our return. Did I discover that romance was an aid to weight loss? … [Read more ...]
Sardines: low-carb, high-fat lunch in a tin
A tin of sardines makes a quick, easy, nutritious and portable low-carb lunch or snack. It's another food item that I seldom, or never, ate before going low-carb, a hard-to-explain list that includes salmon, almonds, macadamia nuts, and fresh avocado. Lately, I've been buying Season Brand Sardines in five-tin packs at Costco. (For the record, I receive no consideration from either of those companies, but may from Amazon.com, which sells several brands of sardines, including the Season Skinless and Boneless Sardines in Olive Oil, 3.75-Ounce Tins.) Aside from reliable quality and a decent price … [Read more ...]
Super simple low-carb pancakes
The need for super simple low-carb pancakes People new to the LCHF diet and life-style often miss their customary carb-laden comfort food. Personally, I think the best approach is to move on, embrace your new way of eating, and not try to recreate in low-carb form all the breads, pastas, and baked goods you used to enjoy. But a few exceptions may be good for your morale, and not hurt your carb count much or at all. … [Read more ...]
The mystery of weight loss (LCN 64)
Looking for patterns in weight loss and consumption Low Carb Nugget 64 The main lesson of my diet so far is that weight loss is a complex and perplexing topic. It's one of the great mysteries of life. But if a method is working for you, stick with it. … [Read more ...]
A classic low-carb breakfast for burning fat
The classic low-carb breakfast starts with eggs, in one form or another, and often ends there. Scrambled eggs and fried eggs are my mainstays. Sometimes, for the sake of variety, I might have hard-boiled or poached eggs, but the problem with those is too little fat. Remember, I'm eating a HIGH fat, low carb diet. I want a great fat-busting ratio of fat to carbs plus protein to start my day. (See my post on calculating the Skaldeman fat-burning quotient.) So eggs pan-cooked in butter or coconut oil are typically the core of my classic low-carb breakfast. And as I've written before, the best … [Read more ...]
Baked, broiled or deep-fried: how do you like your variables?
Study: Baked, Broiled — But Not Fried — Fish Is Good for the Heart – TIME Healthland, May 26, 2011. Want a healthier heart? Try adding fish to your diet. But be careful how it's cooked, a new study warns: baked or broiled fish will boost heart health, but fried fish is probably better left uneaten. Heart failure risk lower in women who often eat baked/broiled fish--American Heart Association, Press Release, May 24, 2011. This study showed that the type of fish and cooking method may affect heart failure risk. The researchers found that dark fish (salmon, mackerel and bluefish) were … [Read more ...]
Eating ancient wheat
I fell off the wagon one night, landing mouth-first in a small serving of pasta with meat sauce. Actually, I didn't fall off so much as hop off briefly. It was a calculated act, not a moment of weakness. My wife and I decided to try some fusilli (corkscrew pasta) made with einkorn wheat (a variety now considered a relic, first having been cultivated 12,000 years ago). I had read about this ancient wheat in reviews of Wheat Belly, a new book by Dr. William Davis. (For instance, see the reviews by Dana Carpender, Joe Lindley and Tom Naughton.) According to the reviews, Davis draws a … [Read more ...]
Low carb lunch: a lettuce-wrapped burger
I tried a lettuce-wrapped burger for lunch today. Nothing fancy -- just a pan-broiled patty of ground chuck with mustard and pickle enclosed in large leaves of ice-berg. Who needs bread or buns? Well, a lot of people think they do. I used to be one of them. Before I reduced my carb-intake, I ate bread nearly every day, and often twice a day. The main purpose of bread in my life was to make sandwiches. Yes, I occasionally toasted a slice or two for breakfast, usually coating it with jam but not that demon butter, and every few weeks I might dip a few slices in egg to make French Toast. … [Read more ...]
What is a low carb diet?
When I say that I follow a low carbohydrate way of eating, what do I mean? When you say it, what do you mean? I suspect we might all mean something a little different -- or even a lot different -- if we were to get down to specific foods we include or avoid, or to the number of grams of carbs we consume per day. The title of my blog -- "Life After Carbs" -- implies that I don't eat any carbs at all, but of course that's not true. The title ought to be interpreted as meaning, "Life after over-coming my craving for carbohydrates and eliminating most carbs from my diet." However, that's a … [Read more ...]
Perfect low-carb blueberry pancake recipe
For months, I've been working to perfect my low-carb blueberry pancake recipe. I'm finally there. What makes these the perfect pancakes? Well, they're easy to make -- just five ingredients. And they're high in fat, low in net carbohydrates, and the recipe makes just enough for one person to eat on a weekend morning when he or she is hungry for a treat. Oh, and the blueberries add a lot to the experience! I suppose a person could share the pancakes with another person if that other person would get out of bed at a reasonable time of the morning. But she never does, unless we are traveling, in … [Read more ...]