I still remember the day I asked a friend who I hadn’t seen in a while, what she’d DONE to herself.
She’d clearly lost weight — 30 pounds or so if I had to guess — but beyond that her skin was glowing, and she seemed to have boundless energy coming out of her ears. I was turning a pretty rich shade of green as I took it all in.
She told me, “I just stopped eating the white stuff. No flour, no sugar, no white rice, and the weight just kinda fell off.”
I remember walking away thinking, “Well good for her, but I’ll have to find another way. I can’t do that. There’s no way. What would I eat?”
Those words, it turned out, are what I’d eventually be eating.
But all that took some time. I still had to be convinced.
HERE ARE 4 REASONS I FINALLY STARTED (AND STAYED WITH) A LOW-CARB DIET. IF ANY OF THESE SOUND FAMILIAR TO YOU, MAYBE YOU SHOULD START ONE TOO:
1. Hunger and Cravings Were Running My Life.
The joys of frequent high-carb indulgences are short lived. I’ve learned and relearned that lesson the hard way.
With my high-carb and processed food intake left unchecked, my hunger seemed insatiable. Cravings for cookies, cakes and candy (I’m talking to you Twix, Snickers and Kit Kat.) would literally get me out of bed in the middle of the night.
Starting a low-carb diet was my ticket out of that madness. It didn’t take too long to see that eating more spinach, fish, eggs, nuts and avocados (and less cookies, donuts, bread, fries and pasta) helped me gain much better control over keeping the not-so-good-for-me stuff off of my plate.
2. I Was Falling Asleep At Stop Lights.
If I had a dollar for every time my red light mini-nap got interrupted by a polite (and sometimes not so polite) hey-you-up-there beep over the years, I could probably cash in on at least a tank of gas. Ironically, back in those days I needed a fuel fix more than my car did.
Before choosing to embrace a low-carb diet, my life was often one big pool of lethargy.
I’ve taken naps in the car in my own driveway, naps in the car on my lunch break, in the bathroom stall at work, and so many impromptu ones on my couch that my bed’s probably gotten jealous.
Now I’m not gonna say that a low-carb diet lifestyle has turned me into a no-alarm-needed kinda morning person, or that I don’t love and require my Bulletproof coffee almost every day. That would be crazy talk. But I will totally say, that since committing to regulating the carbs and sugar I put into my body, I no longer need a caffeine drip affixed to my arm for the week and napping is now more of a choice than a requirement.
3. My Joints Were Killing Me.
So there’s been a little high in my impact over the years and my knees especially have taken a beating from it. Though I didn’t know much about their common label (inflammatory foods) when I first started a low-carb diet, I’d often heard that skipping out on certain treats would not only help with managing cravings, but also make a real difference in managing joint pain.
I wasn’t yet aware of all the unsuspecting inflammatory foods out there (more on those in a later post), but it didn’t take long to find out that refined carbs, sugar and processed junk food were at the top of the “please don’t” list for anyone suffering with arthritis or other types of joint pain.
That was definitely another incentive for me to check the YES box on starting a low-carb diet. I wanted to see for myself if staying away from said inflammatory foods would help to ease the pain in my “seasoned” knees that were now becoming a tell-all to my personal history of double dutch, basketball, step aerobics and carrying around too much weight. (That last one’s not really a sport.)
So did it work? Yes!
It wasn’t an overnight success, but keeping my carbs in check along with sensible exercise (and plenty of water) over the years has helped me to maintain a healthy weight and has made a ginormous difference in my day-to-day comfort. To this day, one of the “gotchas” of a cheat day for me is achy, creaky morning-after joints.
4. I’d Hit Plateau City. My Workouts Weren’t Working Anymore.
For years, my justification to regular high-carb-more-please moments was, “Oh it’ll be ok. I can exercise that off tomorrow.”
First of all, there are about 100 scenarios for me where that “tomorrow” never came. And secondly, the older I got, the harder it was to insane-cardio my way into losing a quick 10 pounds. And because my metabolism was gradually taking its foot off the gas pedal, I could look at a piece of cheesecake (ok, who am I kidding I didn’t just look) and gain 5 pounds.
I needed to find a way to consistently bring in better-quality calories so my body didn’t require a decathlon-week to burn them off. Wanting to find my way out of plateau-ville and reignite my body’s calorie burning ability was one more thing on the list that pulled me closer to my low-carb diet decision.
What happened after I finally said yes and committed to following a low-carb diet lifestyle was completely life-changing for me. Within nine months I’d lost over 75 pounds. And thankfully, I’ve been able to keep it off for over 14 years.
I definitely subscribe to the popular saying, “Good abs are cooked in the kitchen.” But abs certainly aren’t alone on the menu. Maintainable weight loss, more energy, healthier joints, better sleep and clearer skin are cooked in there too.
So what about you? Are you glad you chose low-carb or still on the fence about starting? I say, go for it!
Comment below with the symptom that made you start or inspires you to try low-carb!
Pam is a former plus-sized model turned freelance writer/blogger and recently remarried soccer mom. Right now her biggest loves are God, her family, matcha lattes and the miraculous powers of blanched almond flour.
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