“Dieting can suck, but that’s up to you.” This is the mentality S and I adopted when we began our low-carb journey almost two years ago.  We had both played the yo-yoing-weight-fluctuating game over the years, and we decided that counting calories was not enough. Working out was part of our regular routine, so what was the deal? A diet that shocked our system was our sole goal to battle the repetitious plateaus that would taunt us from the scale’s view. Plateaus happen, but something wasn’t quite clicking with the workout and eating schedule we were keeping.  What about the factors beyond calories and exercise? What about the food and how it affects our bodies in the long run? My husband, S, mentioned the success he had doing the Atkins diet some years back, and that is how the low-carb curiosity was sparked.

“No bread? No beer?” Sandwiches are still my favorite food – I can turn anything into a sandwich, and didn’t mind doing so in the past – and beer is currently the only thing I miss if I have any cravings.  The first year was up and down, but we saw a great deal of success; only keeping our carbohydrate consumption around twenty grams a day.  The hardest part of any diet, or lifestyle change, is controlling your cravings and staying mentally persistent with your intended goal always on the mind. When we started our journey, the only goal we had was to lose weight and look good. After year one and deciding that we wanted to continue on a low-carb diet, we got more into the health aspects and benefits of the lifestyle. We still stay around twenty grams of carbohydrates a day, but we’re also focusing on the consumption of good, fatty foods.

Eating like our ancestors, the cavemen – with heavy emphasis on low carbohydrates and good high fats – has changed the way we function and the way our health is maintained.  The adjustment from a low-fat/high carbohydrate diet was not an easy one, but focusing on the specifics of our diet – we’ll get into the details of low carbohydrates and high fat on a separate post – and eating REAL, non-processed foods, has us feeling great, and learning more and more about human health in the process.  We’re not so strict that we don’t enjoy a good cheat meal every once in a while, and encourage a good burger and beer here and there. You can’t forget to live. Discipline is the key to any diet, but you have to have fun with what you’re doing. We don’t ever feel like we’re on a diet. Do you?