So, today is my first day of what I hope to be my new life. Continuing to watch my calorie intake, but as of today I'm cutting carbs. I was excited to start, and now I feel confused. I've got no plan, just, watching my intake for 1200 daily and, don't eat carbs. Ha. Oh what a mess. We'll see how it goes though. 30 days is my goal, then I'm doing a juice fast to detox my poor body. Any advice or tips would be wonderful. I've never cut carbs out before. Oi vey..

*~Love and Light~*

Cutting carbs out is difficult at first. Make sure you eat your low carb veggies though i.e. lettuce, green beans, celery, cauliflower. You don't want to cut out everything. The first time I tried Atkins I failed because I didn't plan and shop first. You need to make sure you go shopping so you always have something you can grab that's low carb to eat. Otherwise it's really frustrating. I did low carb for over a year and just switched to Weight Watchers a week ago. But I lost almost 75 pounds with Atkins. Low carb really does work.

My best advice is to be flexible with yourself as you learn what works, and doesn't work, for you.

1200 calories MAY be too low for you, it works well for some people, not so well for others. Low carb, again, great for some, not so great for others. Detoxes, IMO, are fairly useless. Your liver and kidney's jobs are to detox your body, they don't need any help unless you have some sort of medical issue. Some people really love a juice fast, I would not! But that's just me. It may be something that really rejuvinates you mentally. It would just make me cranky.

Advice is as varied as the people it comes from. You will find what works for you, just be kind to yourself and roll with the punches (there WILL be punches).

Oh and one of the quickest and yummiest "crackers" for low carb that I found was to take a piece of sliced american cheese. Not the kind in the individual plastic wrap but the deluxe kind that's stacked up together. The off brands work fine...just make sure it's the deluxe style sliced cheese. Anyway you cut a slice in little squares (16 per slice I think). You put them on a piece of parchment paper (space them out so they don't all run together) and put it in the microwave on high until they start turning brown. It will pop like crazy and sound like it's making a mess in the microwave. You can put another piece of parchment on top I suppose, but it really doesn't make a big mess. Anyway. I found this "recipe" online while I was on Atkins and it was wonderful. My kids and family and even my co-workers LOVED it. They all ran out and bought cheese and parchment paper lol. If you want something crunchy and low carb these are great.

I'd like to echo these words of LockItUp. Success with getting and shape and most importantly STAYING in shape comes down finding a plan that works for YOU - not the girls in the magazines or the girls on TV and maybe not even the girls on the forums here. What works for one might not be very useful at all for the next.

Every woman has a unique body and will respond differently to different diets and exercise programs.
So it's important that you keep and open mind and be patient with whatever plan you are trying. Stick with it for a month or so before changing and monitor your progress.

That way if and when you make any changes down the line you know what your body is responding well to and what isnt.


With regard to cutting carbs, this is no easy task and may not be helpful at all in the scheme of things.

The most important thing is to ensure you are eating less energy than you are burning. (quantity)
The foods you choose to eat in order to eat that quantity come in a distant second.

Hope it goes well and good luck to you!

G
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