BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb How Long have you been Low Carbing?

*new to forums* I've been low carbing for a year or two by now.....haven't really kept track....I'm a college student so it has been really hard to always stay on track, plus I live w/ my boyfriend and he's all about fast food. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> But I have been eating a loootttt better since I started low-carbing and I'm very aware of what I eat now.

Snuggie - welcome! It really is all about paying attention to what you eat. It is easy as a college student to just live on junk food because "everybody does". However, it really is yourself that you end up harming. They've had college kids in CA end up with **scurvy** because they ate junk food all the time and never got enough Vitamin C in them. That is really scary. Your body needs those vitamins, and if you don't give your body the vitamins, it's not like it can find them elsewhere. You are going to end up with diseases that we thought were eliminated back in the 1800s. College kids think they're invincible sometimes <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> But their bodies are only human, and if they feed them junk, their bodies will only last so long before they start to have issues. You really don't want to deal with those sorts of things <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Maybe it's time to get your boyfriend to pay a bit more attention to his health! Not in a mommy sort of way, but in a "Hey, are you sure you can keep up with me while eating that stuff?" sort of way <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I just joined the forum, but I have been low carbing for a long time (5-6 years or more).

The strange thing is that I didn't start it until after I lost weight! I lost 70 lbs. and have kept it off for almost 10 years! I attribute my success to healthy eating the low carb way. If someone asks me I tell them I don't eat sugar and starch rather than get the raised eye brows when they hear low carb!

After losing the weight,I was starving all the time and realized I couldn't keep the weight off if I was hungry all the time. By cutting out the sugar and starch, my insulin stays in check, and that keeps my cravings in check! I can always tell when I eat something I shouldn't! The old me raises her ugly fat head and the cravings return!

I eat a lot of good veggies and some low glycemic fruit as well as low fat meats and cheeses. For me it makes the difference between thinking and eating like the fat person I was where food was always on my mind to thinking like a thin person where I eat because I should not because I can't stop thinking about food!

Because I am only trying to maintain and not lose more weight, I allow myself sugar free treats on a daily basis. They help keep me from really cheating.

I have to admit when I first started the program, I had a problem keeping from losing more weight which I didn't want to do.

Yup it is really scary how much eating junk food leads to cravings - which has you eating more junk food - and it feeds itself in a viscious cycle. It's no surprise that people feel trapped by it! We really had to do a purge of our entire cupboards to save ourselves. We went through and gave all the junk food away. If it wasn't in the house, we wouldn't eat it. That was very simple. When we filled the house with veggies and bottled water and flavored waters and such, we drank them. And when your blood sugar is nice and stable, you don't get cravings, meaning you don't go eating junk food, and it all helps SO much.

Plus, as you lose the weight, you get more energy, which means you're more active, which means you lose more weight. So it's a snowball effect <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

It's so great that it's working for you! It is such a shame that people out there still think Low Carb means eating fatty steak with tons of butter on it and nothing else. That's the opposite of low carb. It's confusing to me why people would trash a diet that simply says "do not eat sugar" ...

I've been low carbing for two and a half years. After successfully and painlessly losing 70 lbs. I know I'd have gained it all back again if I had done it any other way. Twice before I lost the weight and almost immediately gained it back. Let's face it... If you're eating low fat, you're eating high carb and all that does is raise your triglycerides and keep the cravings going. Now I eat higher fat, am never hungry, have extremely low cholesterol and never have cravings. Life is GREAT! If only I had learned all this earlier in life.

That is such wonderful news, janisko!! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> It really is a way of life that you can be happy with forever <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />