Like Finding Money in Your Pocket!

Found Money! Isn't that the best most exciting thing? You are going through some of your old stuff, maybe an old suitcoat or pants or a jacket you haven't worn in a long, long time - and there it is! A wad of money long forgotten. HUZZAH! WONDER OF WONDERS! It is like winning the lottery on a much smaller scale (of course). This hasn't happened to me often in my entire life, but found money is a wonderful thing!

So, ...I didn't actually find money. What I did find (still in it's original unopened plastic wrapper) a box called "The Essential Atkins for Life Kit", that my wife had purchased long ago and stuck on a counter next to alot of our cookbooks and similar books. I just noticed it for the first time! I could hardly wait to open it and thumb through all the secrets and hidden treasures that lay inside.

It contained an Audio CD called "Atkins - Staying Motivated for Life", some handy references ("Choosing the Right Carbs for Life" and "Staying on Track for Life - Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Lifetime Maintenance"), a bunch of LC recipes, and alot of good advice on living the low carb life. I will probably be going through this for the next month or more pouring over things and maybe trying a recipe or two or three.

Kindof a very nice surprise! My wife got it on sale at "Books a Million" ages ago, she said. I had no idea!!! "Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Maintaining a Low Carb Lifestyle, Permament Weight Loss, and Optimal Health", it reads on the front cover. For some reason I had never ever seen this before! Opening the wrapper was a little like Christmas!

I have already listened to the first few tracks on the CD and it was kinda nice to hear the voice of Doctor Robert C. Atkins himself as well as some others talking about the Atkins program, the results seen, and about the program itself and how it works.

Now this is really a kit for ongoing maintenance as the carb counts indicated are for 45, 60, 80, and 100 Net Carbs - something WAAAAAY Waaaaay beyond what I need to be doing right now. I am needing to be alot closer to induction levels to continue to lose. Recently my carbs creeped up to the levels mentioned in this program and my losses slowed and probably even stopped. Ketosis was extinguished or at the very least slowed down. Now I think I am getting back on track and am watching closely as my weight is once again moving downwards. It has taken a bit for me to tweak my menu hard enough to put the breaks on the excessive carbs and get things back in swing again. It probably took a week to get rockin again - and the juries still out. I will be convinced when I break past my last low to new territory and start seeing my losses at the old familiar level.

Someone else indicated that a phrase had already been coined for this phenomena - carb creep. Well, that's just what I let happen around the magins (no donuts, just cheese, nuts, and other things a little too much, too often). And so I am now doing something that is proving to undue carb creep - some personalized course correction and mental adjustment, and increased metrics on what I am doing. Holding myself accountable. Bad decisions lead to bad outcomes. God's absolute law in effect, You reap what you sow! Sowing higher carbs reaps a stall. ARGH!

Anyhow, even though this Kit is meant probably for Ongoing Maintenance, and is not for the phase of Atkins where I am at right now (at least not by my own tracking and measurement) it is still appreciated and a neat find! I can still learn how to eat low carb for life, and to maintain whatever I manage to lose (hopefully a great deal more than I have lost already)!

And it is motivational! One thing I have noticed that many low carb heros (I admire) do, is to constantly read and learn about this way of eating/living. They read the science and studies going on. Books by experts. Information about related diet plans. Books about the psychology of changing how we think and act.

Some are nearly amatuer nutritional experts, and a few actually are recognized experts. Others mearly learn a little more info, techniques, tips, etc, as they continue eating low carb to ensure that they make better choices, they stay motivated and on-track, and so that they avoid pitfalls. There is nothing like thinking you have arrived to derail you in whatever you are doing! You always have to continually work to improve at everything!! I have found that true in many areas of my life. You are either going forwards or backwards. Making progress or losing ground.